This is Stratford Courthouse, a magnifcent edifice that totally dominates the far end of the main drag, complete with a poster advertising this season's Stratford Festival and the ubiquitious hanging baskets full of flowers that grace every lamppost in town. How's that for getting it all into a single photograph?
Bao and I spent the morning wandering around the gardens, taking videos. There are lots and lots of gardens, one more enchanting then the next. Everything here is so beautifully, lushly green.
Alas! Even Stratford isn't perfect. This is a warts and all blog, so I'll tell it like it is. Or was.
When we arrived at the Tom Patterson Theatre yesterday afternoon for our final play -- The Duchess of Malfi -- we were summarily turned away by House Manager Eldon Gammon, on the grounds that he thought Bao might cause a disturbance. There was no appeal. Never mind that Bao is a Service Animal. Never mind that it was in the computer that I was attending with a Service Animal. In Canada, the House Manager is God. Another Festival official eventually agreed to refund the $93 I'd paid for the ticket, (Gammon wasn't even going to give me my money back!) but that's not really the point. People say Duchess of Malfi is depressing and I didn't miss much, but that's not the point, either. I really wanted to see the marvellous Lucy Peacock in the role of Duchess. It was embarrassing, and disappointing.
The six plays we did manage to see (including Henry IV at the Tom Patterson) were nonetheless excellent.
I'm finding Canada an odd sort of place. It's physically very beautiful, and slightly more expensive than the States. The restaurants are world class. They produce good wines here, and good theatre. But when all is said and done, there's a certain philosophical difference between America's committment to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and Canada's quest for "peace, order and good government".
Here in Canada, said Christopher Schmidt, we have a rule for everything, a fine for everything and a tax for everything.
That pretty much sums it up.
Today we're going to Niagara On the Lake.