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On the hottest day of the year so far, 12 journalists from around the world, started their cycling trip of England, with a visit to Stratford Upon Avon. The trip, organised by Visit England in conjunction with The Carter Company, specialists walking and cycling holidays, will take in the Cotswolds, Oxford, Windsor and culminate in the journalists visiting the newly re-opened Olympic Velodrome.
By all means sit on an open top bus, but there is no better way on a beautiful sunny day to get around the Shakespeare houses of Stratford than on a bike. Bikes for the tours have been supplied by The Carter Company, however Todd, the journalist from the New York Times, decided that with such a hard winter on the East coast of America, he would dust off the cobwebs and bring his own road bike with him. Of course not all of the group were such seasoned cyclists as Todd, the journalist from the Sun was overheard joking; I think, that he had beer in his water bottle, he was sporting however his own BMX style cycle helmet.
With a tight schedule to keep, we paid a whistle stop tour out to Anne Hathaway’s House at Shottery, following part of the National Cycle Network, then onto a local cycle route, for a traffic free journey to the family home of Shakespeare’s wife. As the time came for us to leave for the final stop, a tour of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, half the group decide to spend more time at Anne Hathaway’s, whilst the other half dashed back into Stratford in time for their tour.
The Carter Company already run successful cycling tours of Oxford, London and the Cotswolds, and this Blue Badge Guide, looks forward to them doing more in the Midlands in the future, I loved every minute of the 2 hours I spent with the group. Thank you Visit England and The Carter Company for asking me to help out.
Michael Reddy
