Well...we are finally here. Arrived bright and early after a non-eventful yet sleepless flight. Got the car, drove out and Vinnie managed quite nicely with few nerves and only a bit of sweating. After getting lost several times and spending an hour of our time revisiting many streets we finally made it more than 15 minutes from the airport and bought a map. Amazingly the map helped and we finally figure out where we were and where the heck we had been. It took us 4 hours to reach "Bourton-on-the-water". It should have only been a 2 hour drive...but you know. Our B&B is quite nice. Nothing fancy but clean and roomy enough to sit in the evening and read our books. Two older ladies run it. Ann and Margaret. I think Ann does all the work and Margaret just sits around and looks old and cute.
Day one of touring. Yes, we did head straight out after arriving and saw the cute town of Bourton-on-the-water. It is quaint, lots of water ways with bridges and several touristy areas. We walked several miles in the country side trying to not get lost and managed to find our way back to the inn. Had dinner in a Pub recommended by Rick Steve's, it wasn't very good but we ate it anyway. We were back in the room by six and asleep by six-thirty. http://www.bourtoninfo.com/
Day two: A not so good beginning: checked the news and found out BO had won...very depressing and hopefully won't be as bad as I suspect it will. Secondly: had a horrid breakfast at the B&B. Vinnie kindly ate most of mine. We hit the road at about 10 am. Our plans are flexible and instead of walking we decided to take the car and not get too wet. We went to a Roman Villa - Chedworth. The mosaics were amazing. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chedworthromanvilla After Chedworth we headed to Stow on the Wold. http://www.cotswolds.info/places/stow-on-the-wold.shtml A small town with cute houses and a cool church. The hobbits are from here...or at least we think we found their house. I've attached a photo...check it out. We knocked but no one answered. After lunch, we headed down to the Roman well on the outskirts of town and then wandered back to the car. We have become inventive with our potty stops! I don't want to go into details but you would be impressed! On the way out of town I locked Vinnie in the stocks. He wasn't happy...but too bad!
Next stop: Winchcombe. http://www.winchcombe.co.uk This is a bit larger than the last town. A Saxon village. It was about 3 in the afternoon when we arrived, parked and started wandering. We decided to head up to the Castle and then saw a path that was marked "Cotswold Way". It mentioned in one of our tour books that this was a short cut to the castle (instead of walking up the road). Since it was getting dark already (rainy and drizzly) we did the smart thing and took the path. It was a bit muddy...but we had our hiking boots on :) After much walking and much light loss we came to the end of the trail. It pointed to the left...so up the hill we went..and up and up and up. It was dark. The road was busy...and did I mention...dark. It rained. I lightly mentioned that I didn't think this was smart...but we continued walking. Finally we found a road that looked like it headed in the correct direction. So we took it. Did I mention it was dark? While it continued to get darker we continued down the farm road to....the farm. The road ended. So...we turned around and headed back. We ran in to a very nice farmer who was delivering Pheasant to one of the few houses and asked for directions. He was so nice and pointed down the dark road we had climbed up and said "that's the only way down". SO...down we went. We finally made it back to the car around 5:30. I was happy :) The best part of the walk was at the very end where we saw a church with cool gargoyles. Well...I had read that it had gargoyles and you could kind of make them out...it was dark.
Dinner: The Plough in Ford. They had great mulled wine which I drank several of!
To be continued tomorrow. If we survive the walks.
From Vinnie: The photo is the back door of a church in Stow-on-the-wold, said to be the inspiration for Tolkien's description of the entrance door to the Mines of Moria.
