The itinerary included the following stops:
Our first stop was in Bibury. The houses at Arlington Row are cottages from the 16th century. They're currently privately owned and are rather expensive, despite being one of the most popular photo stops in the Cotswalds, and hence full of tourists at your front door. They're also very close to the river, which has a lot of trout. But that's because there is a trout farm, which is connected to the river, and is about a 3 minute walk away from the cottages.
But the cottages are so cute! They seem quite my size, having been built when people were a lot closer to my height. LOL. They look quite charming with the slate roofs and beautiful greenery all around.
See what I mean by "greenery"? There are several homes in this one structure (see the bluish doors peaking out). I just love the little stone wall with the gate and the flowers everywhere. To me, this is very "English Countryside".
After a brief stop in Bibury, we were on our way to Bourton on the Water. This little town was just "perfect". The kind of perfect you see on a postcard or in a Hallmark movie or in a sweet dream. I saw folks out and about for a stroll along the river, or having lunch at a cafe, or a father spending time with his daughter as you can see in the picture. Just a little jewel set carefully into the enchantment.
I can totally understand if you’d be scared to visit a city that has “slaughter” as part of the name. But worry not my fellow traveler. As Bob explained, Slaughter actually means marsh. So, in this case, the village is “Lower Marsh”. That is certainly less gruesome than “slaughter”.
There is a charming old mill that has been turned into a shop and tea shop. On the other other side of the mill, on the lawn, there are sheep peacefully grazing. This too is another postcard-perfect town. I can clearly picture an old-fashioned postcard with snow and a Santa Clause and a sleigh. I know you can picture it too. In a place like this, where time stands still, it's hard to remember it's 2010. Until you see a car. Or a camera-wielding tourist. ;)
This is one of the quietest places I've ever been to. I almost felt like I had to whisper it was so quiet. A perfect place to decompress. One of the things I had a hard time finding were house numbers and sometimes street signs. But Bob assured me that the post delivery person would know this place simply as "Vine House", because it has a vine and that's what the black sign with gold lettering on the front gate says. Check out the boxes right by the gate, the ones shattering the illusion of perfection. It's proof that people really do live there. I'm not making it up. :)
Our route took us to Mill Dene garden next. It's a private garden, as in someone lives in the house on the grounds and it's their private garden. I can only imagine how much effort has gone into it. One of the things that surprised me was that it completely defied my expectations of an "English Garden". It was built into a hill so it's tiered and the tiers are wide and have mini-gardens themselves. The tower you see in the background of the photo is the tower of a church an other building is a pavilion with chairs and a table. Just a perfect spot to see the day give way to night while sipping some hot tea. Just magical. I half expected to see some woodland spirit to jump out and chastise the visitors for disturbing the peace.
As you can see, I like an active vacation. And in that spirit we were off to Chipping Campden. This ancient town is still active, and not a ghost town, as you might expect of a town that originated in the 1300's. The house in this photo was built in the late 1300s. And yes, it's still being used today. I have a hard time imagining the building I live in being here in another 50 years, let alone more than 600 years.
Here, we also saw some Alms Houses. These were houses owned by the church and given to the poor to live in, hence, Alms House. Today, people still live in them but I don't know if they're private homes as in other places I've seen or if they're still owned by the church and used as Alms Houses. Notice how narrow the door for each unit is. The door, which appears to be of standard size, is actually split into two, as an entry for both units.
There is also an ancient market in Chipping Campden. I'm not sure why, but I'm completely fascinated with this. It's a stone structure for a rather small market and isn't in use today. The structure doesn't have permanent stalls or doors or a stone floor. I think the roof was just all they wanted, so it's more like a permanent tent.
The next stop on my Cotswalds tour was Broadway. This is a larger town with many shops and tea shops and such. One shop had the most charming little tea cups and saucers and other tea necessities. But this was my second day in the country and I didn't want to start buying thing so soon. I didn't want to schlep it across England and Scotland for the next week.
By the time we got here I was pretty tired and decided to try the typical English Tea experience. I chose this particular shop because I spied my tour guide here while I was off exploring on m own. As you can see, I got a teapot which was full of Earl Grey tea, cream, a scone, jam, and clotted cream.
SOOOO GOOD!
The village of Stanton was our next stop. The houses are made of such a warm and glowing honey-colored stone. Since the day was getting as long as the shadows, the sun did impart that golden glow on everything, bathing everything in the evening glow.
Winchcombe was the last village on my tour today. This village also has the typically-charming houses with beautiful flowers decorating the front of the house, where the road and cars seem anachronistic.
But then, I walk down the street and see an ancient building turned into a restaurant, right next to a more modern building, which in turns is right next door to a yet more modern building that's home to a gift shop.
Take a look at this building, snugly nestled in it's history, letting the world swirl about but not touching it.
All these villages are very charming and very different from each other. I’m really glad I was able to see some areas where a coach couldn’t get to, such as Lower Slaughter and Stanton. It was so peaceful and quiet and charming and pleasant. Absolutely delightful.
As we were driving, I saw very many sheep and quite a few cows. I asked Bob if there is a large wool industry still, since that’s what contributed to the growth of most of these villages and towns. But no, the sheep are just for meat. Seems a little wasteful.
Bob also pointed out a few things that I had never seen before, namely a thatched roof. When I think of a thatched roof, I think of the Shire in J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. And maybe Cotswolds and thatched roofs, especially the rounded ones, are what inspired the particular look and feel of the shire.Each little village was unique and picturesque.
Each little village was postcard perfect and I would certainly want to come back here.
Well, after Winchcombe, the tour was over and Bob dropped me off at a train station so I could catch the next train to London. But seeing as it was well past 5 P.M. when we set off to the train station and I'd only gotten about 5 hours of sleep in the previous two days or so, I was falling asleep on the way to the train. Sorry Bob.
I would have to say that this was a really wonderful day despite my sleep deprivation. The weather was great, the tour guide was knowledgeable, courteous, and considerate, the car was comfortable and clean, and I got to see exactly what I wanted to see. Perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment