This morning I saw the first sunrise of our entire trip so far. What I mean is this: in the past two weeks the sun either never really set at all (Iceland) or it has been raining or so cloudy that it just got light out. This morning there is a lot of wind, but the sky is broken with puffy clouds and some color is actually showing as the wild pigeons coo. It didn't last long, and I still don't actually see the sun, but at this point I'll take what I can get. This current room we are in is pretty nice, about twice the size of our bedroom at home, and nicely furnished but not crowded, so we have a lot of open space. The bathroom has a tub and a shower. The cost is less than the rooms in Iceland or London, and the same as the rooms in Salisbury and Penzance. Crazy.
We decided to spend the morning hiking, so after a good tasting, hearty breakfast, we set out on a walk. They have public footpaths through the countryside, and they are public access right of ways even across farm fields and, at times, right down someone's driveway or across their backyard. So the public footpath we chose led from our town Stow, down hill through the farms and fields to Lower Slaughter, then Upper Slaughter and finally on to Bourton-On-The-Water. The hike was easy, through pretty, but not spectacular countryside. There was no mud on the trail which surprised me given the rain and overcast skies. The grass was really green, at times we hiked across fields with cows, or sheep, or horses; always a hedgerow or fence to pass through, with little metal trail markets pointing the way. As far as hikes go, this was really mild, somewhere just north of "shopping mall" but south of just about any trail hike in any national park in the US.
Anyway, after two miles it was fun to walk into the Slaughters. The church bell was ringing as we entered town and walked along the mill creek, following it up to the famous old water wheel and mill. We continued upstream, then headed back and followed the path across a field, then along a road and into Bourton-On-The-Water. Bourton advertises itself as the "Venice of the Cotswolds." Well, it does have one river with like five bridges. Venice? No. But a cute tourist town? You bet. Really nice big trees along the river, plus the old stone buildings make this a very pretty little place. After a cup of tea, we called Jane, our innkeeper, and she drove over and gave us a ride back to Stow.
After being dropped back at Mole End, we fetched up Buddy and set out to explore. The first stop was Chipping Campden, streets lined with brown and yellow stone houses and shops, standing shoulder to shoulder. There were some nice homes with thatch roofs, decorated somehow with metal trim across the ridge, and amazing trimmed hedges out front.
Next we went up to Broadway Hill, highest point in the Cotswolds, to see the Broadway Tower. After dropping down off the "mountain" we were in the town of Broadway, with its wide, broad way and yellowish stone buildings. We stopped into the Swan, definitely a nice pub, with comfortable chairs and deep leather couches around rough pine tables, and little tile-topped bistro sets in a warm room with huge bay windows, gentle lighting, and those Currier and Ives type horse and hunting prints on the wall. It was already 17:00 so we decided to eat well, have a glass of wine, then stop by a pub tonight for snacks. There were a lot of tempting things on the menu, but we finally decided on summer green salad with minted yoghurt dressing (just OK) for Gail; and lemongrass tempura prawns (crispy and hot, too much batter crust) and gnocchi with cheddar sauce, Cropwell Bishop Stilton, Braeburn apple, toasted walnuts and pea shoots (great flavor combination) for me. Once again, not great food, but good solid pub food, a nice selection of different things.
Next we turned Buddy towards Snowshill. We drove up a hill, then turned off onto a single lane road that disappeared, twisting into the woods. It opened up to lavender fields, almost ready to bloom, then we dropped onto a narrow valley and there was a narrow, cute brownstone town centered around a little church. There is one pub in town, and that's it. We walked around, then headed out with Buddy. We cruised through a few more small towns before returning to our room, just as the rains hit. So we read a little, waited till the rains stopped, then walked into town to have a drink and read at the pub. I finished my second book of the trip.
Tomorrow we leave South England and turn into Wales. We are heading across the south, over to Cardiff and further to a beach town: Tenby.