Why Stratford-upon-Avon?
Whether you are a Shakespearean scholar or discovering his work for the first time, there is nowhere like Stratford to set the Elizabethan scene. Although Shakespeare wrote most - if not all - of his plays in London, Stratford was his home town and where he spent his childhood and adolescence. The town and its surrounding countryside is undoubtedly where he got much of his inspiration. Even if Shakespeare does not excite you (don't mention that to the residents), it's still a very pretty English town in which to relax for a few days and admire crooked cottages, fragrant public gardens and the graceful River Avon with its signature swans and weeping willow trees.
A comfortable bed
Stratford has been offering beds to weary travellers for more than 800 years. Today, thanks to its fame as William Shakespeare's birthplace, it welcomes more than three million visitors every year and has a clutch of luxury hotels and scores of B&Bs and guesthouses. To do Stratford in style, the best bet is the four-star Menzies Welcombe Hotel (www.welcombehotelstratford.co.uk or www.menzieshotels.co.uk; 00 44 178 929 5252; double rooms from £140 [Dh840] per night, including taxes but excluding breakfast). It is a five-minute drive or 30-minute walk out of town, surrounded by pastoral Warwickshire countryside and a championship golf course. There's a well-marked path across the Welcombe Hills to Stratford's Maidenhead Road that leads downhill straight to the Shakespeare Birthplace.
If you'd rather be at the centre of town, try the recently refurbished Falcon Hotel (www.legacy-hotels.co.uk; 00 44 844 411 9005; double rooms cost from £110 [Dh660] per night, including breakfast and taxes). The 16th-century timber-framed, black-and-white building sits opposite New Place, the site of Shakespeare's former house, and is a three-minute walk from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the river.
Melita is a good guesthouse option (www.melitahotel.co.uk; 00 44 178 929 2432). Standard double rooms cost from £88 (Dh530) per night, including breakfast and taxes.
Find your feet
Stratford is 35km south of Birmingham and 160km north-west of London. The town has preserved many of its old buildings, including several which would have been standing in Shakespeare's day. Most famous is the Shakespeare Birthplace in Henley Street, by far the best first port of call. Whether or not he was actually born here is in dispute but it was undoubtedly his family home and where he spent the first five years of married life with his wife, Anne Hathaway.
No trip is complete without a visit to one of the three Stratford theatres, to see a performance or just to take a tour. The main theatre has recently been rebuilt but the best experience is to be had at The Swan next door, a modern take on the traditional Shakespearean theatre of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a wooden-framed structure where most of the audience sits high up and stares down at the stage.
A good one- or two-hour stroll starts at The Swan, follows the Avon west through public gardens, past Holy Trinity Church, across a bridge and then back along the south bank to the Boat Club and the red-brick footbridge, offering photo-perfect views of the theatre. If you want to cut it short, there's a small hand-cranked ferry stationed about 200 metres beyond the theatre that will glide you over the river in a minute. Ask the ferryman nicely and he may let you do the cranking yourself.
Meet the locals
The most famous resident has been dead for nearly 400 years but don't let that stop you paying a visit to Holy Trinity Church where he is buried. As a fellow son of Stratford, I feel duty-bound on every trip home to drop by and say "hi" to the Bard. For livelier conversation, head to the Dirty Duck restaurant and pub, nicknamed the Actors' Pub. If you can tear yourself away from the autographed photographs on the walls, you may spot members of the current Royal Shakespeare Company rehearsing their lines.
Book a table
Most restaurants offer a pre-theatre meal from 5pm, handy if you have tickets for a play. Sorrento (www.sorrentorestaurant.co.uk), on Ely Street, has been a Stratford favourite for years and is still turning out excellent Italian cuisine. An average two-course evening meal costs £40 (Dh240) per person, £17.50 (Dh105) per person for a three-course lunch. Best for good coffee, cake and free Wi-Fi is the Box Brownie cafe on Henley Street near the Shakespeare Birthplace.
Shopper's paradise
Part of Stratford's charm is that it has resisted turning itself into a designer-label town; instead it favours high-street brands such as M&S and H&M. Shakespearean souvenirs are, as you might imagine, omnipresent.
What to avoid
Union Street and Greenhill Street on a Saturday night, which can get rowdy.
Don't miss
The Shakespeare Birthplace and the archaeological dig that is going on at New Place. It's expected to give us a few more clues to how the Bard lived. Drop by and see what they've found.
Business Insights
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
More on Quran memorisation:
Brief scores:
Manchester United 4
Young 13', Mata 28', Lukaku 42', Rashford 82'
Fulham 1
Kamara 67' (pen),
Red card: Anguissa (68')
Man of the match: Juan Mata (Man Utd)
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The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
Seven tips from Emirates NBD
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Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
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Dos
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Chelsea 2
Willian 13'
Ross Barkley 64'
Liverpool 0
Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Richard Jewell
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Brandon Stanley
Two-and-a-half out of five stars
