John - September 23-27.

Bidford on Avon. Sounds like a bloke going on about his new facial cream. Let me assure you, it’s nothing of the sort. For starters it’s our home, for this week anyways. The thing about living in a 350 year old house is it feels wrong to live modern. So you eat healthy, slow down and even steer clear of the television. But mostly you just marvel at the stone slab floor, 5 foot doorways (after hitting my head for the 22nd time my marveling has begun to decrease), and ancient smell. I could just stay here all day but there are sights to see, like Bidford for instance, Stratford on Avon, Warwick (second w is silent so don’t say it illiterate Canadian) the Cotswolds and even a place called London. Today we got out of The Cottage and I’m still trying to pick up my dropped jaw. The buildings, oh the buildings.

I haven’t seen buildings with this much character anywhere, ever. The reason is obvious enough; each one is older than Canada and the US together. Still, it’s difficult to believe that our modern architects actually believe they are moving forward in their designs- especially when it comes to churches. Oh. My. God. Trust me, I’m not speaking in vain here, I’m confident he’s just as impressed. As Angie said, our Cottage is a stone’s throw away from an 800 year old Church. As we walked through its graveyard I wondered many times if we’d get the opportunity to see inside. I inquired with the lady at the Bidford Bakery as I was picking up bread and she was like “oh, the church? Yeah, its pretty old, ain’t it, that’s 2 pounds please.” That’s one thing we’ve found, the residents of Bidford aren’t nearly as impressed with Bidford as we are. Some teenagers I met said “you’ll find many places much nicer then this place, all you’ll find here are people wearing track suits.” Even the cabbie said to us “are you sure it’s Bidford you’re after?” I imagine it’s the same as when people come to Alberta and are all googly eyed over Banff, yawn. Familiarity breeds apathy if you’re not careful.

We went grocery shopping today at Budgens, the local grocery store. It was quaint and had most everything including inexpensive wine, a trademark of Europe/Britain. We bought two bottles for like 7 pounds. After shopping we walked along the 600 year old bridge built by monks. There’s no walking path for pedestrians on this one lane bridge so you pretty much have to walk on the outer edge of your foot clinging to the walls as the cars whiz by. Cars don’t yield for pedestrians here, not even if you’re six with freckles. Once across you find a big meadow, riverside, where dogs run, kids play and people stroll. It’s quite beautiful actually, especially the canopy style trees with enough shade for the members of The Calgary Church of Christ. Angie says you can rent boats on the river for a day or week so we might do that and take the 7 mile journey to Stratford On Avon. As we were discussing such things church bells began to ring, the kind portrayed in movies. Maddie immediately demanded that we head towards, so we did. By the time we arrived it was dark and 8pm so Angie and the girls decided to keep moving and get the stir fry on, told you, we’re healthy now, while Ethan and I decided to high tail it to the church where not only bells were ringing but lights could be seen.

When we reached the big medieval doors I pushed without thinking, they opened so that was good thought me, and we continued to another set of doors that pushed open like the first. Once inside we saw 7 people standing to our right. I thought fast and said “hello.” Pretty slick eh. The people turned out to be very friendly and welcomed us in. Phew. They were the official bell ringers and gathered every Tuesday night to –no word of a lie- practice, for 2 hours. The practice was for Sunday of course, when the bells would call people to Church. Sadly, very few answer these days.

The people were excited that Ethan and I were so ecstatic so they gave us a first rate tour including, a walk up the ancient spiraling stone staircase leading to the bell tower. The tower is 800 years old and completely original. It was magnificent.
Walking up the tower was a cross between Indian Jones and my dreams. I silently cursed for wearing my spider web loving fleece sweater but I got to see the actual bell and stand there as they rang it just for me and my son and I didn’t even cover my ears when they told me too –as if I could, I’m in an 800 year old bell tower. I asked the guy if we could go higher and he said, “yeah allright, never been up that high though.” We walked to the roof where sadly we were met by a locked door. Still, it was amazing just to be in the tower and although Ethan nearly freaked from all the spiders and incredibly steep stairs going down, we’ll both remember it forever – and not just because we didn’t have to fill out liability forms.

We sprinted back and got the girls and tore them away from the cooking (they actually were, I’m not being chauvinistic here) to take them back to the church. Once inside, they had the same bell ringing experience and VIP tower tour. We also toured the Altar area at the front of the church which was also completely original including the stain glass gothic windows, floor tiles and 350 year old tombs buried beneath the floor. We were there for over an hour and to be honest I think our gracious hosts were thrilled. They explained the demise of their church as one might explain a family member dying of cancer. The truth is, the Church of England is nearly dead and all that will be left is its beautiful buildings. A tragedy for many reasons.

Well, that’s day one of 100. If all the rest are the same, we just might die of joy.
Next stop, Stratford On Avon. William Shakespeare’s birthplace, school, grave etc.

John

September 25, 2008

Stratford on Avon is famous for one reason, William Shakespeare. There’s really not much else to it and the whole town knows it which is why the name of Shakespeare is used to sell everything from stationary to Italian cuisine. You’d think the descendants of the Skakester (my affectionate name for Willy, which is my nickname for Will) would take the businesses to task or demand a cut on every clickety pen that is sold in his name. Maybe they do come to think of it and that’s why it’s allowed to go on. Anyways, we steered clear of it all save a fabulous kid friendly book on some of his plays, namely A Mid Summer Night’s Dream, the play we are seeing performed live at the Globe Theatre in London Friday afternoon. We bought groundling tickets for $5 a piece yet they’re supposed to be the best of the lot.

Anyways, back to Big Willy, haha, Big Willy. We toured the house he was born in, the very room in fact. The house was neat and it felt cool when the guide said “the floor you’re walking on is the same floor Sir William walked on growing up.” We also toured The Holy Trinity Church where we saw his grave as well as the actual stone baptismal that he was christened in. They also had his actual baptism and death certificates there. Across from the Willy stash was an original King James Bible from the same year it was first printed. 1616. It was under a glass case and opened to the Psalms. Case bibles are always opened to the Psalms. I think just for kicks someone should open it to the Song of Songs, why not, I doubt anyone would notice but those who did, it would make their day. Absolutely.

Stratford was Wednesday. Yesterday we went to a town called Warwick. It’s also famous for one thing, the Warwick Castle. I’ve never been to a castle before save those that disappear when the tide comes in, but this Castle was eye popping. It’s dubbed by Rick Steves (our travel guru) “the biggest and best Castle in Britain.” I believe him. It had everything , even free access to all its parts including the parts you shouldn’t give stupid tourists free access to. Still, I’m grateful because when you’re standing in a 14th century dungeon with actual writing from a prisoner still visible on the wall, its more than surreal. Its surreal times 10. Another highlight was watching a treboulet (similar to a catapult) shoot an actual 30pound steel fireball into the air. When it landed it was still burning and the medieval host dude was like “yeah, perhaps we should go and put that out.” Haha. Perhaps you should.

This trip continues to amaze me. Each morning I wake up, make the family breakfast and then we discuss our plans for the day. I always have to pinch myself just to make sure I’m still not back in Calgary dreaming. We’re seriously doing that? Today? The Closes? Yes, yes we are. What a gift.

John

P.S. We did the London thing today which is why I was able to finally post all this. We’ll be returning Monday so we’ll post more then. Sorry for the blog backup, for the 4 of you that managed to read through all 8 or 9 pages, congrats. Oh yeah, pics will debut Monday too, some good ones there.