Stratford-upon-Avon-William Shakespeare birthplace (26/05/2012)

A hot summer Saturday at 22C , we were driving off to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Stratford-upon-Avon, what a unique town name in Warwickshire, 67 miles away from Nottingham with about an hour driving journey. It was the birthplace of the greatest playwight and poet-William Shakespeare.

We parked our car at a nearby town center carpark at £6 for upto 6 hours. However, our £5 note was being forfeited by theticket  machine when we pressed the "Reject " button on the faulty working machine. To get the refund, we would have to write in to the Stratford-upon-avon council as the machine is not able to dispense our inserted note. Well, this was a trivial matter, and we should just let go and enjoy our sunny day. We first took a slow walk to the beautiful city center which crowded with people who were all out welcoming the amazing sunshine.

Immediately welcoming us was the memorial statues of William Shakespeare and its 4 shakespearean characters-Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Falstaff and Prince Hal and symbolise philosophy, tragedy, comedy and history., which were just beside the Clopton Bridge.



Statute of Wiliam Shakespeare



Along the River Avon, there are many boats visit during the River Festival which takes place each Summer. River Avon is river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the midlands of England. The river has a total length of 154 km (96 miles).  There are rich varieties of activities along river Avon, you can choose to stroll along the footpaths and tracks, or enjoy rowing, or board the cruise boat.

 Walking towards the city center brings you to Shakepeares's houses, and of course variety of shops, al fresco cafe.

Having turned into Church Street, we passed by the King Edward VI Grammar School, also known as Shakespeare's School, where he attended the school between ages of 7-14.

On the left of High Street , there was one old fascinating townhouse which captured our eyes. It was in fact known as the "Harvard House" which was built in 1596. The link with Harvard dates from 1605 with the marriage of Katherine, daughter of Thomas Rogers (The builder of Harvard House) and Robert Harvard. It was their son John, born in 1607 and who emigrated to America in 1637, who on his death left half his estate and his library to help found a college at Cambridge, renamed Harvard College after him. It is now the property of Harvard University.

Walking further down from Church Street, we stopped at the place which believed to be last home of Shakespeare. Archaeological experts were brought in to carry out excavations at the site of New Place, Shakespeare’s final home. Visitor to  Nash’s House and New Place can also play a hands-on role in helping the archaeologists to sieve through tons of spoil from the excavations. The dig is a chance to learn and understand more on Shakespeare's social status, how he lived ....

As we walked up further to Old Town, on our left hand side was the Hall's Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna. We did not pay the entrance fee to discover the house of the then affluent family.

At the Junction of Waterside and Old Town, we saw the oldest building, the Holy Trinity Church, famed as place of baptism and burial of Wiliam Shakespeare.



2 pound to view the grave and as part of donation to restore the church


We had our lunch at "Henley Street Tea Rooms" . We ordered a set of All Day English breakfast, fish and chips, and cooling ice coffee. The food quality was just ok but we found the price were quite reasonable. After a good rest and lunch, we went diagonally to William Shakespeare's birthplace, the house of Shakespeare. The entrance fee costs £13.50 per pax, and we both decided not worth to go in. So we just took a few pics of the House's exterior, and there was a role play -"Romeo and Juliet" outside the House.

After exploring the town for almost 5 hours, we were to return to Nottingham. My last stop was the "Moo Moo" shop. A shop which sells varieties of special blended milkshake. at £2.70 for a small cup, i ordered halzenut choc chip milk shake. It was just the right drink to quench thrist on a hot summer day.

Stratford-Upon-Avon - A perfect town for short half day Outing.

Barcelona (06Apr-09 Apr 2012)

Coincidentally the Good friday and Easter holidays fell on Friday and the following Monday, this makes a long weekends of 4 days off for dear. Suggested by Julian, our ex DHL Express colleague, 3 of us decided to visit Barcelona, Spain together.

We booked our air tickets via Ryannair at £143 for two return tickets, and accomodation at Sant Antoni for 3 nights at £300.

Day 1-06 April 2012 (Friday)

Upon arriving at the airport, we looked out for the "Black yellow colour " taxi which claimed to be the legal one,but it turned out to be a bad experience. The short petite taxi female driver really annoyed us. First she did not know the road, and didnt bother to turn on the sat nav for direction, instead she called for help. But the most furious thing she did is to charge us €40 for the journey to our hotel. The meter was showing €26, and we expect €30 was well enough with the airport surchage of €3. But she insisted €40, and due to communication barrier and we totallly did not understand what she uttered about. She kept hurried us off by saying " bye bye" , so we paid and went off. We came to know we were being overcharged €10, as our friend-Julian had only paid €25.

We were offered a double bed room , but it was pretty small with a small double bed next to toilet, and the window faced another room room window, so there was no view at all. The room was quite dark, especially the wardrobe area. But with the price we paid for the excellent location (near to Sagrada Familia and metro station), and of 2 star rating, i think I shouldnt complain much. Further, the room came with buffet breakfast, so it saves our time , hassle to look out for a good breakfast place the next day.

While waiting for Julian as his flight would only touch down at 8pm, we decided to walk around, exploring nearby places. The nearest tourist attraction- Sagrada Familia was just about 10 mins walk. I was amazed by its magnificent facade view. It is really a stunning masterpiece.

Prior to Barcelona, my dear has told me about Spanish speciality dish- "Spain fried rice"-Seafood paella, and it was so easily found in most cafes/restaurants in BCN.  I was so eager to try out. We simply chose one cafe "Sagrada Familia Cafe" to fill up our empty stomach. We ordered a plate of Seafood paella for sharing, tortilla de patatas (omelette with potatoes). Umm, my first taste on "Seafood paella" was not too bad. Taste of little bit of spices, sour..It was a rice dish topped with mussels, prawns. I love the coffee too.

After lunch, we took a slow walk along the Avinguda Diagonal avenue to explore the nearby areas and to look out for any good restaurant for first night dinner. The weather was quite cloudy with about 14 C. A bit windy but felt ok with the jacket on. It took about 30-40 mins walk to Passeig De Gracia-An important avenues where most business, shopping located and contained several masterpiece of Spain greatest architect-Antoni Gaudi architecture work, example the Casa Mila.

After a long walk, we took the metro back to Sagrada Familia and had a quick evening fix at the KFC, while admiring the view of Sagrada Familia. Just walked up the Gaudi street, you found many pubs/bars and restaurants. Great place for our dinner. Most restaurants in BCN start business at 8 or even 8:30pm. They are having late supper. I wonder if they are having dinner at 9:00pm-10:00pm, what time they go to bed?

Julian reached the hotel about 9pm , shortly after he settled down, we walked up to Gaudi street again and settled down in one restaurant "Tapes Gaudi". Prior to this, I didnt check any tripadvisor review on this restaurant, we just popped in based on the menu, restaurant's setting and ambience. It did not disappoint us in terms of food or service, in fact. I ordered my set menu which came with Seafood Paella. It was delicious, and then followed by yummy dessert-Creme Brulee. Whereas my dear ordered a plate of seafood pasta. It was delicious too and with generous fresh ingredients.

 

After a good first night catch up, we headed back to our hotel for an early night rest. Be ready for next two days excursion :)

Day 2-07 April 2012 (Saturday)

Rise and shine. We woke up at 6:30am and went for the hotel buffet breakfast at 7:30ma. We were greeted by the breakfast bar lady with a very friendly and warm smile. In fact , the breakfast was to my satisfaction. It included baked bean, sausage, scrambled eggs, potatoes, cereals, milk, toasties, cakes, pastries, and a coffee machine which you can choose any type of coffee you want.

It was a sunny day with 14-18c. Fantastic day for our sightseeing. We first made our way to Sagrada Familia again as it was one of the bus stop of Bus Touristic. We had bought a two days hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus ticket online at €27.90 per pax. It covers major sightseeing sites, and most importantly you can hop on or hop off at any point you like. It has 3 main routes-Red, Blue, Green. Red covers the city area, Blue cover some part of the cities and the northen city, and Green-being the beach line.

We hopped on to the Blue route bus turistic, and hopped off at "Tramvia Blau-Tibidabo". Our first destination was "Tibidabo"-Its the mountain overlooking Barcelona, it will give us an aerial view of Barcelona city. To reach Tibidabo, we took the tram car-"Tramvia Blau" to first leg of the mountain, where the funicular de tibidabo (railway station) was. There was only a short queue for tickets to get on to funicular.

There is an  amusement park, a telecommunications tower, and a Catholic church-the Temple de Sagrat Cor at the top of the mountains, all of which are visible from most of the city. We were excited with the panaroma view of the city and also the ocean, and we took a few pictures.

 

The amusement park or fun fair was being the oldest, but we did not take a ride on it. After a few shots , we moved on to the church. There was large statute of Jesus Christ, opened up his arm to the entire city of Barcelona.

Colourful interior

Black virgin

After spending about 2 hours at Tibidabo, we took the funicular and tram back to the city center, continuing our bus touristic tour. Our next stop was the Barcelona football stadium-Camp Nou. There were stalls selling BCN team jersey, souveniers outside the stadium.

If we had ample time, my dear would not miss the chance to watch a live match. We shopped around the souvenier shop which crowded by BCN fans/tourists. We got ourselves a FCB beer glass as souvenier.

Continuing our sightseeing route, we changed to Red route and followed the bus line, we visited more number of places with fantastic views:

The city center view

The Sants-The main railway station

Parc de Industrial-Futuristic looking watch tower

Parc de Industrial Espanya-Sculptures -The dragon without Saint George

 



The Venetian Tower-heading to MNAC (Museum de Arte National) on Montjuic hill



 

 

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It was so relaxing having our cup of coffee, sitting on the staircase, and enjoying ourselves with the music by street performer.

 



Sitting on the staircase outside MNAC , another view of Barcelona city. From the opposite, you can see Tibidabo, and the church.





Enjoying my aromatic coffee from the coffee stall



Here give you the view of Sagrada Familia



Next stop: Olympic Stadium

 

Dear imitates the Olympic statute with flame

Olympic Ring

 

Montjuic communication tower-was built to transmit television coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics Games in BCN

  

Next stop : Port Vell

 Waterfront Harbour City. The new bridge, the Rambla de Mar connects the Rambla with the Maremàgnum, a complex with shops, cinemas, bars and restaurants. It resembles Singapore harbourfront city and vivo city, equally crowded with humans, and birds.



 

Columbus Monument-built in 1888 in honor of the renowned explorer and discoverer of America

Stop: Barri Gotic area (Gothic Quarters)

Next hop off destination was Barri Gotti. Barri Gotti is the center of the old city of Barcelona. The old city is uniquely characterized with  the old small, narrow cobbled streets with tall buildings and opening up into squares. It was the place the famous Picasso worked and lived from 1895 to 1904. On Sunday 3pm onwards, entry to Picasso museum is free.



 

Caixa Catalunya-The Catalan savings bank Headquarter





  





The small back alley



We took a slow stroll along the La Ramble, the streets packed with stalls selling handicrafts , souveniers, floweres, and it connected to Placa de Catalunya. Placa de Catalunya is Barcelona busiest's square, extremely crowded with people. There is a hard rock cafe just around the square.

We hopped off at "Passeig de gracia" as Julian was suggesting we should take a walk along the main avenue, as there were few Gaudi Houses. Passeig de gracia is a popular shopping road in Barcelona. Here, we dropped by the grand Nepresso Boutique as Julian was buying the new flavour Nepresso capsules.

Two very stunning creation of Gaudi along Passeig De Gracia:



Casa Batlo-Now opened as museum for public.





Casa Amatller-The building was commissioned by the chocolatier Antoni Amatller Josep Puig, who devised a form of urban Gothic palace, with a flat facade, a central courtyard and a staircase giving access to the main rooms.



After taking a few pics of these two Houses, we headed to our long waiting restaurant - Cerveceria Catalana which was highly rated in tripadvisor. This restaurant offers good quality and tasty spanish tapas. We were lucky to be seated after 20 mins wait. Some could wait for hours.  Although the food came with small quantity in a plate, but we felt full after wide selection of salads/tapas. The seafood were fresh, staff was friendly. We had a good time in this restaurant with wine and my favourite fruit beer. Price was reasonable, our total bill was €76. If we are making another trip back to Barcelona, we will definitely return to the same restaurant.

After dinner, we hailed a cab back to hotel with less than Euro 6. Get ready for next day excursion at Mount Monserrat.

Day 3-08 April 2012 (Sunday)

Rise and shine. Our destination for today is "Montserrat".

Montserrat is a jagged 4000-foot peak located about 30 miles northwest of Barcelona. Once we get there, we could easily got around the monastery by foot. It was not complex at all. We just have to obtain a copy of the local map from the tourist information counter.

It is truly beautiful which my no one should miss it if you are going Barcelona. To get there, you could take a metro to Placa d'Espanya, and buy a combined ticket (Train + Cable car) of €18.80 at the ticket machine to Montserrat Aeri. The train journey from Placa d'Espanya to Funicular de Montserrat was about an hour, and upon alighting, we queued about 15-20 mins to board the cable car. The scenery was beautiful, breath-taking, but it was kind of scary as was steep and on few occassion, the cable car seemed like going to hit the mountain rocks.

The monastery has alot attractions which could easily occupy you a day, and there were also cafeterias, restaurant, retail shop on top of the mountain. The virgin of Montserrat is another tourist attraction. The queue to has a glimpse of the statute of Black Madonna with Infant jesus could take you 3/4 hour for up close. We did not queue for it, but to compensate for that, I bought the statute magnet home.

We went straight to the Basilica of Montserrat as it offers the oldest choir in Europe at 12:00pm.

After energized with a good meal and coffee at the cafeteria, we took a slow walk along the walking trail to St Miguel. It is about 30-40 minutes walk.

"Montserrat Cross"-Sant Miquel-our destination



Beautiful rocky mountain as backdrop





Finally we reached.



We took the cable car downhill at around 4pm and by time we reached the Placa d'espanya metrol station was around 5:00pm. We then hopped on to the Bus turistic red line again to go back to the old town to visit the Picasso Museum. We came to realise it was free admission on Sunday , or else it would costs €11 entrance fee. The queue took a long waiting of about 30 minutes before we can get in.

Our 3rd night dinner was at " La Dalco Herminia", also serving spanish cuisine, recommended by Julian's friend. The restaurant opens at 8:30pm, you cant imagine how late Spanish people having their dinner. The food taste okay but the ambience was very good and it looks like a fine dining restaurant, despite the price was actually mid-range. I have again ordered my favourite Seafood Paella, and apple crumble for dessert.

Day 4-09 April 2012 (Mon)-Last Day

Today was our last day in Barcelona, we have one morning to spend before heading to airport. So after bidding farewell to the hotel lovely breakfast lady, we walked to the nearby Sagrada Familia and to queue for entry.

Sagrada Familia is the most charismatic symbol in Barcelona, no one should miss visitting this place. Even if you do not with to pay the admission fee, but you must take a picture in front of its building facade. It gives me the "wow" factor, and was an amazing architecture.

The project started 1882, designed by the greatest architect-Antoni Gaudi, and now still underconstruction. There were 3 facades, two -Passion, Navity facade were completed, but the main entrance facade-Glory facade still under construction.

Architect Francesc de Paula Villar was initally assigned to the project, however he was quickly replaced by a young architect called Antoni Gaudí who took over the project at the early age of 31. Gaudí completely changed the desing from the initial neo gothic style to a modernist style.

Gaudí died tragically in 1926, he was ran over by a tram, leaving the project uncompleted. His body was buried in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia.

When completed, the Sagrada Familia will have a total of 18 towers, 12 of them will represent the 12 apostles, 4 will represent the 4 evangelists, one dedicated to Jesus Christ and the last one dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

There are 3 facade.

The first facade -Nativity facade-Dedicated to birth of Christ. It was finished by Gaudi himself.

The 2nd facade-Passion facade-Dedicated to passion of Christ with sculptures depicting the crucified Jesus Christ.

Main facade-Glory Facade. Started in 2002, and it is still under construction.

Eucharist door at the yet to be completed principal Glory facade.The sculpture shows the Lord's Prayer in Catalan language

 Lucky for us who were the early birds, there were queue but not too bad, with around 30 mins we managed to go in. We bought the ticket + lift to the top tower at €15 each. The lift brought you up to one of the top of the tower and give you best view of Barcelona city. You may take the stairs down, which Julian did. But we did not. I have terrible height phobia, which even walking up or down the spiral staircase inside the towers make me heart beating and leg shivering too.

The Sagrada Familia is worth while visiting. The construction cost relies on sale of tickets and private donations. When you are inside the church, you will stay up to hours admiring the beautiful interior details, and also follow the itinerary boards as it gives you information on background of the building, the structure, sculpture etc. We have also visited the crypt where Gaudi was buried, and camera is prohibited

Inside the church, there was one room with brief description on Antoni Gaudi's childhood and how he transformed his insiration from the nature into the building architecture. It was worth reading.

There was also a museum at the basement of the church.

Our visit to Sagrada Familia ended around 11:00am and so we had to grab our lunch nearby as by 1pm we will have to set off to the airport. Julian's flight was at night. He had the whole afternoon to spend, and most probably he will pay Museum Casa Mila a visit.

I had my last Seafood paella at a nearby cafe restaurants, and after bidding goodbye Barcelona. We hailed a cab through the hotel receptionist and this round it costs only  €25 to the airport.

Barcelona is truly a beautiful places to visit for all ages, family , couples.