-
Nostalgia Trip #1: Barnt Green & Brownsover
Before we turn the metaphorical corner into memory lane, we spend good times visiting some of Michaela’s family in the West Midlands. The combination of our curtailed world trip and the effects of lockdown means we haven’t seen them in almost 18 months, so there is a great deal of feelgood in meeting up with her Dad, brothers and our nieces and nephews. Our base for this is the leafy village of Barnt Green, south of Birmingham and home to Michaela’s brother Andy and his lovely wife Claire. Barnt Green sits on the edge of the Lickey Hills which hold heaps of childhood memories for Michaela, so we take time…
-
Michaela on tour – week two continued- Stratford upon Avon
The town of Stratford-upon-Avon is known across much of the World as William Shakespeare’s birthplace, and remains a major destination for tourism, with good reason. Of course, the town milks the Shakespeare theme to the limit, but in its own right it is one of the best preserved old towns in all of England, with many stunning ancient properties and a wonderfully quaint character. It simply oozes charm. The town dates from a charter granted in 1196, but it was of course Shakespeare who changed the course of history here, culminating now in a town which has less than 30,000 inhabitants yet welcomes 2.5 million visitors per year. It loses…