Firstly apologies, because I'm jumping ahead to this past week end and will return to the Irish Adventure shortly. Because an important event took place this week end - my birthday!!! Even at my age this causes much excitement. On Saturday morning we were up early to head down to Stratford upon Avon, which is about an hour away from home. Its always a place I love to visit, so once we arrived we headed to The Four teas (a 1940's themed café) for coffee and toast, and then we set off to explore the town. First stop was the market, which seemed to have a lot more stalls this time and some really interesting stuff for sale. There was an artist selling her work at one stall and it was so lovely. All very inspirational and just the sort of thing I love. So after browsing for quite a while we chose one that said 'Go get lost in the forest and find your soul' - I love it! After the market we had a look around the shops and bought a few bits and bobs (Christmas shopping has commenced!) and of course we called into the Nutcracker Christmas shop and bought a couple of decorations. 
We had lunch a the Food of Love, a lovely little restaurant we came across. Stratford was so busy, the town is always full of tourists. Lunch was lovely, once we'd eaten we carried on ambling about. Around 3pm we decided to head off to our hotel, I had splashed out on a room at the Salford Hall Hotel. Gorgeous place, part of the building dates back to the 1600's. Its all wooden beams and creaky floorboards. I loved it. Our room was called the hobby room and was adorable, with a lovely view out across the front of the hotel. In the evening we walked out the road to the Vineyard inn for lunch. Didn't look like much from outside, but the food was delicious. It was a lovely evening. 
On Sunday we had breakfast in their lovely dining room, the hot food was all freshly cooked and so delicious. We had a very leisurely meal, before heading back to our room to read for a while. Finally we had to drag ourselves away, as check out was at 11am. By this time we were ready to head to Coughton Court.
Oh my word, the place was incredibly busy even though we got there just after they opened. The origins of Coughton Court lie in pre-conquest times and there is evidence of a house on this site from the 14th Century. The present building was begun in the 15th Century and has since survived in a family who for much of that time were impoverished, persecuted or imprisoned for their adherence to the Catholic faith.We did the house tour and walked around the gardens. The property has connections with Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, so a very interesting history. By about 1.30pm it was very gloomy and starting to rain so we decided to head home. After all, someone had presents to open.
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