Travel In Our Own Country: The Cotswolds

First, I need to thank a friend for pointing out a horrible error I made in my last post (in several places).  I like grammar and I like proper spelling and when it's wrong I would rather know than a) be oblivious, or b) be annoyed when told I'm in the wrong.  So thank you, Mrs P!

The Cotswolds were lovely.  I had images in my head of what to expect: posh houses, greenery, Kate Moss hanging around.  Two out of three isn't bad, right?!

Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter.

I mentioned in my previous entry that Brighton was our original destination.  We changed direction to the Cotswolds after we realised that Brighton was having some sort of technology conference, and Bridport (where Broadchurch was partially filmed) was too far away and likely to be a hard sell to people who had not heard of, let alone watched, Broadchurch.  Cottage hires were plentiful but finding one in the right area for the right price was interesting.  A few places I contacted wanted well over £1000 for 2 nights!  I know it's a posh area and all, but seriously?  A 3 bed house behind a hotel for £1000?  No thanks.

We found Maisons de Meecham through a holiday lettings site.  Fantastic price, beautiful house...could anything be wrong with it?  Nope!  4 bedrooms, 2 with en-suites (perfect for the 2 adult couples), massive kitchen, dining room and lounge. Throw in the beautiful garden, with a big play-sturcture for the kids and BBQ (and outside dining)...it was perfect.  The adults wound up at the pub across the street on the Friday night, only to find new management sorting our their new menu and the woman who managed the property happy to make conversation as we waited to be seated.  I would go back in a heartbeat, and would book their house in France if in the area as well.

On the Saturday, my dad, step-mom, Josh, the baby and I head off on a self-guided tour.  Lonely Planet England had a Cotswolds tour to follow so we figured it was worth it.  It wasn't until our 3rd or 4th stop that I noticed it was a walking tour over two days.  Oh well, we still followed it.  Our first stop was Stanton.  Tiny village with a couple of beautiful houses and a war memorial.  We then drove past Upper and Lower Swell as we made our way Upper Slaughter.  We parked our car in Upper Slaughter at Lords of the Manor, which was full for lunch and far more posh than any of us were dressed for.  We chose to walk to Lower Slaughter, about 3/4 of a mile.  The scenery was gorgeous.  So worth the walk!

Between Upper and Lower Slaughter.

After lunch at the Slaughters Country Inn, we continued our drive (Josh had to run in the rain to get the car, thank you sweetie!!).  In Stow-On-Wold my step-mom and I grabbed some breakfast items for Father's Day breakfast.  We didn't stray too far from the town centre.  Next was Moreton-On-Marsh, where we got a fantastic parking spot and picked up cheese, crackers, bread and wine for dinner.  From there we drove past Bourton-On-The-Hill and found ourselves on the road toward Broadway and not Chipping Campden.  Possibly a good choice?  Broadway was beautiful.  Picturesque and lovely.

Stow-On-Wold.

We then turned toward Snowshill and hoped to see the home of Bridget Jones' parents, which is in Snowshill, but we didn't find it.  I will admit, we didn't look hard. (I should mention here that Josh and I have walked past Bridget Jones' London flat many a time!)  At that point, the baby needed to not be in a car seat and we needed to get back to the kids.  Lonely Planet said that the tiny village of Stanton was not to be missed so we decided it was worth it to go and see.  Worth it?  Oh yes.  If you have a picture of the Cotswolds in your mind, Stanton should be it.

After Stanton we headed back to Haresfield and returned to 2 happy kids and a happy teenager.  Dinner and dessert followed.  We made plans for the next day...Oxford.

Travel In Our Own Country: Bath

My dad, step-mom and sister visited last weekend.  The last time they were in the UK to see us, my daughter was about 8 weeks old and had recently been let out of the hospital following a 10-day stint with the chickenpox (yes, seriously) that included 3 times daily IV drugs.  We weren't up for much that visit!  The visit before, we had driven to Belgium to stop in Leuven and Bastogne en route to Luxembourg City for the night and then back home through Bruges.  Not wanting to do that much this time, my dad suggested we stay in the UK.

Planning was...interesting.  Brighton was the lead contender as a place to visit.  When my husband and I sat down to try and book hotels we were shocked to see 2 rooms for 2 nights going for upwards of £1000 total, until we discovered some sort of technology trade show going on.  So change of plans!  We suggested the Cotswolds and that seemed to go over well.

I'll get to the Cotswolds in my next entry.

On the Friday we drove from Folkestone to Bath, taking a bit longer than the 2 hours 56 minutes our GPS's said it would take given road works on the m25, plus a lorry caught fire after the Gatwick exit.  We own a 7 seater car, but this time had 8 people to fit so my dad rented a second car.  He drove my sister, one of my boys, himself and I, while my husband drove our car with the baby, our other boy and my step-mom.  They reached Bath first and managed to easily find the parking garage we had both inputed on our GPS's.  Us...not so much.  At one point we were about to turn onto a taxi and bus only road but were waved over by a white van, and a police officer who calmly told us that if we made that right turn we would receive "a lovely traffic offence ticket."  The van let us into the other lane and found our way to the nearest parking garage at the Hilton hotel.

Because Josh et al were already in Bath, I had texted and asked them to find a restaurant for lunch.  My dad, sister and I are, sadly, BIG Nando's fans so when we heard that was option we all jumped.  I plugged Nando's into Google maps and we set off.  Yeah, Nando's moved.  We got to where Google said it was, called Josh and he told us how far off we were.  We kept on walking and wound up meeting everyone outside of Giraffe and decided that that was the better option for everyone.

Roman Baths

After lunch, we walked to the Roman Baths.  We were met at the door by an employee who told that the Baths were closing in 60min and they recommend 90min for the visit so we'd have to move quickly.  We were headed to the Cotswold right after and not returning to Bath so it was now or never. We went through the site faster than we'd like but it was still beautiful.  The boys listened to their audio guides, I admired the floor mosaics and column bases, we drank the water, took some photos and were ushered out right at 6pm.  Actually, Josh and I went to the gift shop before everyone else to get a new mug and a magnet for the boys.  

Bath Abbey

We walked around the outside of Bath Abbey, and then walked back in the direction of our car.  My dad and I had no clue where we were so we used the small map from Lonely Map England seeing as my mobile had died earlier.  Somehow we found our way back, stopping at Waitrose to grab some essentials for our cottage rental, and made our way to the Cotswolds.

Travel In Our Own Country: The White Cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover is possibly my favourite 'tourist' site in Kent.  Sure, there's Canterbury and Dover Castle and the military canal in Hythe, but the White Cliffs has something for all of us.  I think it's the only place I've taken every single guest who has visited us over the past 2 1/2 years!

First off, it's cheap!  £3.50 to park the car and that's it.  The cafe and souvenir shop aren't exactly cheap but at least those are optional.  The first time we went to the White Cliffs, my sons were far more interested in the movements of Dover port: the ferries coming and going.  This past weekend they wanted to walk along the footpath so we did a small walk (my husband was carrying the baby in his arms; the paths are not exactly pram friendly).

They took turns with that backpack, which really only held a couple snacks, a juice and their baby sister's water cup.  We did a small loop and wandered back to the cafe/shop where we sat with coffees and juice and watched several ferries (we turned that into a game - which gate will the ferry arrive into?).  It was also a clear enough day that we could see France.

As much as our family likes driving across various countries and seeing new things, it's also nice to be home 15 minutes after leaving somewhere!