Where Shakespeare was born

Stratford-upon-Avon, which is knows locally as Stratford, has a population of about 25,000 but has close to 5 million visitors a year. Although it is very close to our favourite places in Cotswolds we have never been so last time we visited we decided to stop by. The town is absolutely lovely, and thanks to its history it has been kept fairly intact, which makes it quite different.

We saw most of the sites in the town but decided to leave Anne Hathaway's Cottage, which is located out of town, to our next visit. We loved it, so we will absolutely be back!

Shakespeare's birthplace:

High Street is a bit different from what we are used to:

Outside Nash's House, the house next door to the ruins and gardens of Shakespeare's final residence, New Place.

Hall's Croft, where Shakespeare's daughter Susanna Hall and her husband Dr John Hall lived. 

His grave

Stratford by night

St Ives is a Cornwall gem

Second only to Cotswolds, Cornwall is the most amazing place in England, and one of my favourites in Cornwall is St Ives. It's a very small town and it's difficult to find parking but it really is one of the most charming places I've visited and of course it has a little beach where children are playing. If it's lunchtime you can have a Cornish pasty, bring it with you and have it by the beach looking out over the water. If not there is plenty of chances to buy ice cream. I warmly recommend a visit!

Musician on the main street

On the way out of St Ives

First day in Cornwall

It's getting colder in England. And when it does, what is better than to go back to your pictures from this summer, which is the best summer so far in the five years I have spend in England. We made two trips this summer - one where we went north and one where we went south. The ones from below is from Cornwall. First off is from Restormel Castle (Kastel Rostormel in Cornish) - a stronghold of the Black Prince. The castle is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall (together with Launceston, Tintangel and Trematon).

Then we went on to Looe (Logh or 'deep water inlet' in Cornish) where we spent our first night. Below is Nelson, who watches over the fishing boats coming in to the harbour.

Not that vicious... ;-)

Low tide. Always amazes me.

Fish festival in beautiful Weymouth

We ended up in Weymouth by mistake. The other weekend, when Maria's and my mom were visiting London at the same time we wanted to go to Bournemouth but there were no hotels so we ended up in Weymouth. A really nice place! The weekend after they had a fish festival so we decided to go back. It was a beautiful day!

Scallops

Mmmm, lobster...

MMM, LOBSTER!! 

Octopus

I wouldn't mind being sponsored by Chablis

Weymouth taxi

Yay, another horse to our collection: Osmington.

Corfe Castle

Canterbury tales

When waking up on Saturday morning Maria suggested a road trip. We haven't been in a while and she thought we could go to Bath. We discussed a bit and decided to go east. We started with Charles Darwin's house outside of London and then continued east to Kent and Canterbury. Despite its size (43,000 people live there), Canterbury is one of the most visited places in England.

As in many places in England it is very green and nice in the area

We ran into some cows

Once in Canterbury, which really is a lovely little town (we had dinner at Trapiste, a Belgian restaurant that we really recommend) we started out with the cathedral.

Very beautiful...

...and peaceful

Once done we took a short stroll in the town. We ran into a somewhat crooked house... Over the door was a quote from Charles Dickens...

After Canterbury we drove on in search of other sights. We found a cross and a viking ship...

Finally we had dinner in lovely little Margate. We drove by a sign advertising for a Soviet restaurant in and decided to check it out. Lovely food and very good service. Overall, the service in this part of the country really surprised us and we really enjoyed the people - so friendly!