Cotswolds, Bath & Stonehenge

Dan and I were both awake for several hours last night, but unfortunately at different times! 

(When we were in Norway, we both woke up about the same time, 

which was kind of fun to surf our phones at 3:00 a.m. together. 

Last night I resorted to hanging out in the bathroom and doing my Duolingo on silent.)

Our gorgeous hotel is an old manor house aptly named, "Lords of the Manor" with gorgeous rooms,

narrow halls, beautiful woodwork and a few steps here and there to various "salons" (spaces to "rest and retire" or have a drink while reading the results of the polo match in the newspaper ).

We got moving early so we could fit in the rest of the Cotswolds, go to Stonehenge and Bath,

and make it back to London in time to see Les Miserables, courtesy of our friends who were here last week and had to leave early!

Our first plan was to walk over to Lower Slaughter.

The "path" was across large fields and through several small gates.

The only way it could be more picturesque is if we had walking sticks, galoshes

 and English accents.

Lower Slaughter has a row of limestone cottages, similar to what we've seen, lining a small river

from waterwheel at the old flour mill ending in town at an large estate inn 

and even larger estate manor. 

I'd love to see these towns brought to life as they were originally built.

The Lords in the big house. Their children in the "smaller" next door and small cottages for the help to live in? 

After our walk and breakfast, we drove to Bourton-on-the-Water,

a bustling town on... the water... with many cafes, shops and even a car museum and mini village.

We bought sandwiches to eat on the road and journeyed on to Castle Combe, one street of homes built below a hill on a slope. The manor at the top, an inn next to it, a monument in the townsquare, and private connected homes running down the hill to the river. One home had sandwich offerings with their front door open, another home that sold baked goods. 

There's a view from a bridge that's the most common picture of The Cotswolds 

I came across while researching online, but, you can't get to the bridge view unless you trespassed beyond a private gate, so we didn't. Because I'm a rule follower, mostly.

With that we said goodbye to the narrow, yet charming lanes of Cotswolds and 

debated if we should stop at Bath on our way to Stonehenge.

In the end we decided, yes, we'd rather miss the first half of Les Mis since we'd seen it many many times before, and see Bath instead.

The Roman ruins and history of Bath were very interesting and the compound is large so you get plenty of time to learn and enjoy. Bath was built around a natural hot spring that still flows.

The green water was off-putting, but I didn't have to bathe in it,

so I'm not sure why.

We enjoyed the audio tours and learned a lot.

Most of which I prompty forgot.

And all of which Dan remembers.

Dan's friends took a tour of the town which we'll do next time if we go back, because maybe we missed some great parts of town. Otherwise, while interesting, weren't a "go back" place.

On to Stonehenge.

Which was magical. And beautiful. And windy.

Shoutout to Dan who indulged me in photos at every 

silly photo spot (indicated by a sign, which I thought was very modern for a space over thousands of years old.)

We made the drive back to London, Heathrow, to return the rental car in ninety minutes.

Then an uber to the city to drop our bags at the hotel and make it to Les Mis just before intermission.

Les Mis was amazing, of course. A perfect end to this dreamy day!

 

The Cotswolds Day 1

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!