Chipping Campden, United Kingdom

It was bliss to be in a big bed again with room around us and a semi rural outlook out of the window. The double spa bath was great last night except it is so big you keep slipping as you sit with your back at one end, your feet do not touch the other. Having bubbles in there adds to the slip factor. The shower this morning was very refreshing as the spouts up and down the shower device have such great pressure that its like little needles – I had to keep turning around or it hurt LOL.

The large modern home is a contrast to the Victorian one in York – and not quite as charming and comfortable but close enough to feel very relaxed and homely. Angela is a fantastic host allowing us to use a washing machine which happens to be in our ‘hall” way and no worries about hanging it up around the place. Breakfast was at a communal table downstairs which I actually didn’t like, not being the most talkative person in the morning till I have had my second coffee (or morning tea time at work). Having other tables in the same room is fine as if you want to engage you can, and if you don’t its easier to disengage! Mr social Vern does not mind either way so I left him to it. Offerings were the usual fresh fruit, of which Angela had separate bowls of – cherries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, organic yoghurts, homemade muesli, toasts and jams and a Nespresso machine for you to make your own coffee. I had fun on that as I have never used one before. We had a waffle breakfast and a pastry breakfast (danishes, croissants, pain chocolat) for a change and both were delicious, fresh, warm and crunchy.

Today is our only full day in the Cotswolds so the plan was to car hike around and see a few choice towns. The Cotswolds has the reputation of being one of the most scenic pockets of Britain for quaint villages with thatched houses and stone houses many dating to the 1600’s. Distances between the villages is small and many come to holiday and hike between them for fun. I had an impression the country side was more open with stone fenced fields and villages within an easy hours walk. My impressions were wrong – there are lots of hedges, and distances are about 15-20 minute drives on average, which is a bit of a decent hike in my book.

The first town we visited is called Stanton. It is only a few streets big, has no shops except for a club/pub. It was the tidiest of all the towns, almost unbelievable that it dated back nearly 1,000 years, it looked as though it had been built a hundred years ago as a show village. The church there was really lovely, simple and very holy/spiritual. I loved the stained glass window with delicate detail. The church was built on top of a pagan site which had two intersecting ley lines (relates to prehistoric or ancient sites – associated with paranormal and energy lines). Originally it dated back to the 9th century, but the current building is more 13th-15th. It had some faint medieval frescoes inside on one wall. The whole town was just beautiful and you could feel the sense of pride. There certainly was no grotty area or any associated parts!

Next was Stow-on-the-Wold, which means “meeting place on the uplands”. It is the highest point of the Cotswolds and has good transport connections, an old inn dating back to 947AD, some old stocks in the square and a very slanty house – which is a listed building called the ‘wonky house’. In the town square they used to bring and sell up to 20,000 sheep in a day! Hard to imagine now with all the cars parked, ruining the imagery. Whilst we werent inspired by any particular beauty or history there, we did have a lovely lunch in town in a little cafe called ‘Treebus’. An amazing shepherds pie which had a layer of cheese custard on top of the mash layer, and I had a goats cheese and courgette quiche with salad and home made coleslaw garnish with a big pot of tea in nice china. It was 5 star dinning for a very reasonable £20 inclusive of drinks.

Not too far away is probably the most popular town called Bourton-on-the-Water. It is also known as little Venice as it has a tiny canal running through it, but its more a duck lane than ‘canal’ like Venice water transport ways. Having said that it was very picturesque even full of tourists. We had a nice wander there admiring the buildings, water, gardens – including seeing a cafe called ‘Vern’s’ and a cute doggie sitting there expectantly waiting for its owner to return. I have added a photo of a water ‘ford’ that had a sign not to cross, which Vern thought was funny as it was 12 inches deep if you were lucky at its deepest, most of it ducks could stand up in. He thought a kiwi wouldn’t even need a 4×4 to cross it.

We finished our loop coming back home to Chipping Camden which was a successful 17th century market town once home of rich wool tycoons. It has an historic Market Hall built in 1672 with original timbers inside and stone topped roof and stone pavers. The ‘High Street’ claims the title of being the most beautiful in England and its hard to imagine the wide streets being a bustling market place full of sheep and other activities. The town has beautiful thatched homes, English gardens and clean golden buildings made from Cotswold stone. The buildings and town plans date from the 12th century onwards and even today only Cotswold stone is allowed to be used to build new houses in the town. I have loaded a fair few photos to give an impression of how pretty (and wealthy) the town is, its really like a jigsaw picture at every corner. I am pleased we chose to stay here when I was deciding where to make our base – not just for the nice accommodation but the very pretty town and location to the other places.

Things were pretty quiet being Sunday night and as we had such a delightfully satisfying lunch we just got an economical Chinese takeaway that we ate in our spacious room. Its a pity we don’t have another day here in the area as I would have enjoyed a bit more exploring. The Cotswolds is pretty with a couple of gorgeous towns but didn’t quite live up to the very high expectations I had of the area, when I compare it to other pockets of beauty I have seen on holiday. It is no less, it just doesn’t supersede the other areas in my opinion.