Road Trip!

April 4-7 (yeah, I know its been a while) was the last group outing this spring. Things have been moving along at such a pace, that I am only now getting the picture here.




We loading into a bus in front of Madison House at 2:00 on Thursday and headed out for Stratford-on-Avon. Although we had to sit on the motorway for about 40 minutes while an accident was cleared, we made to the Stratford in plenty of time to get to the Royal Shakespeare Theater for a performance of Henry IV, part 1. This is the finest acting we've seen all semester. It was a long play, but unlike the Sam Wannamake Playhouse in London, the seats were not torture devices. The built-in trap door and rail system in the stage floor (not really visible from our seats) made set changes almost instantaneous. We easily slide from Church to pub to battlefield in the blink of an eye. Very powerful.

On Friday Morning, we visited Anne Hathaway's home. the photo above shows our students in the house listening to one of the guides in period costume tell us about life 450 years ago and Anne in particular.

It is possible to get to Will's grave and see the curse he had carved into his grave. The sign at the back (front) of this grave make what is hard to see in this photo clear: do mess with me when I'm dead. So no one has.

After lunch, we hit to road again, this time headed to Bath. On Saturday we had a guided walking tour of the city followed by a visit to the Roman Baths. Above you see the portion of the Avon river (not clear it is same river we saw in Stratford - there seems to be several of these darned things!) where Russell Crowe as Jauver leapt into what was supposed to the Seine.

The roman Baths were still amazing after 2,000 years even if the water in the pool was so filled with green and brown algae as to be unfit to even touch.

I also visited the home of William Hershel and saw his mirror grinding device that allowed him to produce mirrors of sufficient quality that we could find Uranus.

Sunday morning we were off again. At Stonehenge, we braved the cold wind and misty rain to see the ancient stones, one atop another.

An finally, we stopped at Windsor Castle on the way back to London for a quick look about. The interesting part of the castle was closed as the staff prepared for a visit by the Queen (She met with the PM of Ireland there a few days later), we did get to see the Queen Mary's doll house and some of her dolls. there was also a great collection of plates and dinnerware on display. the interesting part was outside. Above is a view of the grounds (where we mere mortals were not allowed). A beautiful spot.

We were home by about 6 or so. The bus driver also lived in East Finchley and his bus yard was near by, so we got a ride home without having to resort to the tube. A good weekend. I think everyone had a good time.