We've arrived in London and I didn't sleep a wink.
But I was stretched out in First Class so was as comfortable as I've ever been,
Before the trip I panicked about being tired on arrival with that horrible weariness--the heaviness in your chest fighting with the weight in your eyes. So Dan booked a night in the airport hotel so we could check in and sleep for a few hours.
But as soon as we landed I said maybe we should just get on the road. I was wired and ready to play.
He disagreed and by the time we got to our room I was so glad because I could hardly keep my eyes open. Oh the mindgames of exhaustion.
We hit the road around 1:00 with a funny complication getting out of the airport parking garage.
We didn't have a code to exit with our rental car. Dan had to back up and pull off to the side while I ran across the road back into the terminal, up two flights of stairs and to the rental desk for more info.
"Press the help button and tell them you're a rental car."
K. Would have been nice to know. Ha!
(One thing about being this tired is you're beyond the brain's capacity to be upset.
You take in information and are simply grateful for help. Should research be done on this phenomenon?)
Ninety minutes later we'd made it to our first stop in the Cotswolds--Burford.
The Cotswalds are every bit storybook villages and the quintessential visual of happy dreams
of simpler times.
We walked up and down High Street browsing in every shop.
An art gallery, candy store, bakery, clothes, bookstore, souvenirs, linens -- they have it all.
These brownies at Hunter Cakery were the best I've ever had and I wished we'd bought one of every flavor for the rest of the trip. The biscoff brownie was amazing.
(Also I haven't had sugar for two weeks or more... so...)
I spent the next two days googling to find another shop. But there's just one more in another Cotswalds town.
From Burford we drove through Chipping Norton to see Jeremy Clarkson's farm (Top Gear fame),
Diddly Squat Farm. But it was closed when we arrived.
Next, Chipping Campden: a bigger village, less touristy and more neighborhood-y
(school had just gotten out at a big private high school so the kids were in groups walking home),
more homes were stand-alone with bigger, more manicured yards. Many homes had thatched roofs--so charming--and on the hill was a huge grassy field full of sheep.
(We drove around the town twice, to get all the pictures we wanted, but didn't stop.)
The roads are verrry narrow meandering through the Cotswolds.
But Dan is doing an impressive drive driving on the opposite side than we're familiar with and finding places to pull over for cars to pass. We're glad to have navigation in the car with a bigger screen than just reading off our phones.
Fields and fields of yellow rapeseed in bloom!
And low stone walls along every road adding to the charm and beauty.
(And reinforcing my inspiration to use all the hills of river rock to build walls along the cliffs in Pagosa
with grandkid labor all disguised as "fun.")
It's always a kick to see how different countries phrase their sign expressions.
Next town: Broadway, to see the Broadway Tower (which was much smaller than appears here!)
(We only stopped to take a picture, but not to walk through town.)
Finally, a stop in Stow-in-the-Wold to see the door that may have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien.
It had a darling town square that would be fun to walk around,
but everything was closed when we arrived.
We arrived at our hotel in Upper Slaughter in time for dinner and wandered the back gardens at twilight.
We've had the most visually stunning day and so grateful for the time to "wander" through
this beautiful region!
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