Same Shirt, Different day-2012 Adventures of the "Devonport Wonder Babes"

Monday 16^th July 2012 Stratford upon Avon to Cholderton, Wiltshire.

Miserable raining  morning in Stratford but headed into centre of town early before tour buses arrived. Just did a bit of a wonder around but didn’t go into Shakespeare’s birth place etc. as very high admission prices e.g. £17.

Lyndsay, Helen and Emily, rainy morning outside Shakespeare's birthplace

Left there by 12.30 pm and headed south to Chedworth Roman villa, our ( free) National Trust site for the day.  Mrs TomTom gave up on us halfway there and refused to go any further (cos she thought she was already there !!) so bit of UK hard copy maps and Google maps sent us deeper into the Gloucestershire countryside down very small lanes, with speculation from the passengers in the Zafira (our car) that we would be the only people there. Wrong again, at least 50 cars plus one bus at the blind end of this odyssey, the English (and the Germans and Japanese) are such dedicated history buffs.

Had a fantastic afternoon because arrived just in time for guided tour with one of those wonderful Englishmen with a passion for a rather obscure subject, i.e this Roman villa inhabited by Romans until about 400 AD, and prepared to walk around in the rain telling a motley crew of tourists about it. It had a spring in the hillside which fed water down to baths and the latrines. Lyndsay was most impressed by the archaeologists working within the covered area of the site uncovering the mosaic floors of the baths area.

Chedworth Roman Villa site

Artist Impression of site in Roman times

Spring that never runs dry

New Building covering west wing baths

Mosaic Floor being excavated

Floor showing heating system underfloor

More underfloor heating infrastructure

Archaeologist at work

Archaeologists at work, man in foreground measuring and putting on to plan

Great afternoon there in this very isolated valley  and then headed further down into Wiltshire and arrived at YHA Cholderton  by dinner time.
Have another 4 bedded room with slightly squeaky bunks though not as bad as Stratford, where you woke the whole room when you turned over in bed. It is located next to a Rare Breeds place which has rare sheep, cattle, pigs and chooks. Lots of families with kids here.   

YHA Cholderton, our room big windows, 1st floor

YHA Cholderton Breakfast cafe

I have a cold/bronchitis/laryngitis, nothing really specific just a bit of “General Malaise” so have been a bit miserable today.