Cotswolds / England
21 January - 22 January 2017
Day 1
The Cotswolds was another trip to explore more of England. They are an area in the UK designated AONB (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty). And it also ended the dry patch of not being behind a wheel! A whole 7 months of not driving. It was so nice to have the freedom to go wherever we wanted too. As I write this I have planned an epic week long road trip to tick off a few more must-dos.
We booked a car through Avis and planned to pick it up from Heathrow. Once we got there to finalise it and the get car, we failed the identity check and they wouldn’t let us rent a car at all. The admin/process in this country is a real pain in the ass - but identity fraud in a country of 53 million can’t be taken lightly. So we had to rent through Europcar, for three times the price - ouch!
We got on the road later than expected and headed west to Oxford. The city that famous for its University. Rightly so though, it is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Being a city university, it does not have a main campus; instead, all the buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city center. So by going into Oxford, you also visit the university. Some very famous minds have studied (not all exclusively) at Oxford - Stephen Hawking, Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, Einstein, Hugh Grant and Rowan Atkinson to name a few.
After grabbing a bite to eat we hit the road, Cotswolds bound. Our first village stop was The Great Tew. Slight of the main road, if you didn’t know it was there, you never would. With the daylight running out we made the last stop at a village called Stow-on-the-Wold, one of the bigger villages in the Cotswolds. We then headed to the Airbnb in Adlestrop, had a much needed nap then headed out to dinner at the local Pub. Best lemon meringue pie. Ever.
Day 2
We managed to pull ourselves out of bed relatively early to make the most of the Sunday. We de-iced the car, a bitter cold morning it was. Our first stop was a village called Lower Slaughter. It is so quintessential and so very British. It has been inhabited for over 1000 years. The River Eyes runs through the village and also north to Upper Slaughter. It was early and we had the village seemingly to ourselves.
Next we headed to to Bourton-on-the-Water. Had brunch and then carried on to Bibury. A very cool little village that attracts a lot of tourists. Defintely the busiest village after Stow-on-the-Wold. The last stop was Broadway Tower. It is considered a folly because it is a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose. We went via Daylesford Organic Farm. Basically Ponsonby in the middle of nowhere.
As the light began to fall we started heading back to Heathrow to drop of the car. Another part of England done.
