English countryside in the Cotswolds12 Aug 2008
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Great Tew, in the northern Cotswalds
Bath -near the old bath houses
The pigs of Bath
The stones of Avebury
| We headed off by car with Dana to visit the Cotswold area, a couple of hours west of London. First stop was Oxford town, nice place with narrow streets, pedestrian free areas, old sandstone and brick buildings, some with uneven walls and roofs - looked great! Wandered thru town, past the big Christ Church then down a back alley to a quaint little pub with low ceilings, dark timbers and atmosphere to the max! called Turf Tavern, very old. Had lunch there then off down narrow roads and found the village of Great Tew. Buildings with thatched roofs, small windows and great gardens and lawns. A step back in time! Came to Chipping Camden after being thru a few other villages. this town has a old cobblestone undercover market place in the centre of town - about 1600 AD! Town had a nice feel, had a few beers in pubs - Red Lion, Noels Arms and Lygon Arms, had dinner here and found a b&b for the night. Next day it was off to Broadway town, rows of brick houses with nice gardens. Were expecting Big Ears and Noddy to drive along anytime! Flowers everywhere - geraniums, foxgloves, fuschias and impatiens. Onto some country roads, very narrow with only one lane wide, no grass verge to drive onto if a car comes along. Managed to avoid the odd landrover that took up all the road, some layby areas helped. Great countryside, fields of barley, paddocks with sheep, hay bales, hedges and grass - very scenic. Other towns we visited - upper and lower Slaughter, Northleach and Tetbury all had their own character and style of buildings. Some were half tudor, some sandstone, some brick. Got to Bath and found a bed at YMCA hostel in town. Walked up to the Circle Circus and Royal Crescent buildings - buildings built in a half circle - quite impressive. Found the baths in town, saw one very old one still in its natural state - wasnt very inviting!The town was full of ornamental pigs, about 1.5m long that had been decorated by artists and now for sale on ebay - done to commemorate the founder of Bath who was originally a pig farmer. Bath has a great river with terraced steps in it, and a bridge over it which has shops built on it. Next day, after being attacked by bed bugs overnight, we headed for Avebury which is the largest stone circle in the world dating back to 2500BC. Better than Stonehenge (so they say)and could walk amongst the stones... impressive. On way back to London we stopped at Windsor Castle, its the bigest inhabited castle in the world and takes up a huge area, built right in town! Then Dana drove us thru Richmond Park 3k from where she lives, a huge wilderness area with live deer right up on the roadside, good place for cycle and running training. Back for a BBQ and beers at Dana and Robs |
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