We lucked out with weather as the whole weekend was sunny and warm. It was just the kind of trip we were in need of: slow paced, low stress travelling, lots of fresh air and comfy accommodation where we could sleep in, make our own food and chill out. It was very appropriate for Easter too as the leaves were coming out, flowers were in bloom, bunnies were running around and sheep with their lambs scattered the fields.
The farm we stayed on was just north of a city called Cheltenham, it was
a sheep farm and they had some race horses. Most importantly, it had a big, open, unused field which we used to set up Frickets (a backyard Frisbee game for two or four people, usually involving beer). Every night before dinner we would spend a good hour playing as the sun was going down.Post dinner activities involved cards. A&J taught us diminishing whist a while ago and we are slowly getting better at it. They kindly surprised us with a cribbage board as a present thus enabling us to teach them how to play crib (our fave). Andrew had been studying up on line and holds the record for the most strategic beginner crib player we have ever come across. (The crib board’s next trip will be to Spain for a week in May. Sarah and Kev better have their game ready.)
Over the weekend, we managed to cross three of England’s cities off our “places to visit” list.
The first one was Oxford; we stopped there on our drive out to the Cotswolds on Friday. Oxford is a beautiful university town, straight out of the past, with grand old stone buildings. Unfortunately, we don’t have photos that do it justice. We had fun exploring the heart of the city and wishing we could have gone to school there. Oxford, we recommend.
Next up for cities was Bath on Saturday. We didn’t make it there until late afternoon, and the traffic (pedestrian and vehicle) was heavy. We had a nice lunch on a patio and then hit the main sights on foot but didn’t partake in any of the Roman baths (natural hot springs). My personal favourite was the Royal Crescent, a huge, grand, half moon shaped building opening onto a park with beautiful flowers. Later on as we ate ice cream overlooking the river, we saw crowds start to stream out of a rugby match. We decided that was time to make our move. Bath was a neat spot but crowded, so we would recommend going there in the off season (whatever that might be).
Our third city was Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. If you have read past blogs you will know we have a bit of an aversion to cities that cash in on famous people that used to live there. Stratford was one of those places. If you really like Shakespeare then it’s a place for you, if not, just go explore the Cotswolds, which is what we did.
Our city visits were quick and efficient, because what we really wanted to do was see more of the Cotswolds (meaning cottage in the wolds – open country). Cotswolds – we highly recommend. The area is beautiful farm land with lots of tiny villages with buildings only made of stone and all of the fields are surrounded by stone walls. The work that went into building all those walls astounds me! Exploring the Cotswolds is like going back in time.
Back in the 80s, John’s grandparents did a house exchange for a year and lived in a cottage in the Cotswolds. On Friday night, John called his grandma and got the approximate location of Post Cottage where they lived, near Oakridge and Water Lane. So, on Saturday before going to Bath, we went on the hunt for Post Cottage.
The search first took us through a stone village built onto a hill with a very skinny main road that the car barely fit through. We got directions to Oakridge from an adorable old man out for a walk. The single lane route took us through a fairy tale forest and then into more quaint rolling farm land. We decided to park the car and explore on foot because the public footpaths were beckoning. (You can walk on private land here and there are signs every where showing you where the public footpaths are.) We walked into the village of Oakridge and went into the local pub to get directions. It was about noon and there were two sweet couples in having a beer. What a classic scene! As we left we were met with another classic scene; a seniors walking group headed to the local pub after their morning walk.
We managed to find our way to the little village of Water Lane and Post Cottage appeared right before us, just as one of the couples in the pub had described. What a beautiful spot! An adorable cottage with a large garden in bloom with spring flowers. John and I want to do a house exchange there!
We knocked on the door and met the owner, Joy. Despite surprising her (and
likely scaring her as John was not clean shaven), Joy was very welcoming and figured out that John must be Pat’s grandson from Vancouver. Pretty impressive. She told us how Pat and Ron did so much work around the cottage and the community during their stay. They were very popular. Ron made the Post Cottage sign that still hangs on the gate. We caught a glimpse of the inside of the cottage and it looked just like Pat’s photos from 20 years ago.On Sunday after Stratford, we went to the cute little town of Broadway. We did a walk through the sheep fields around the town and then had a great pub lunch. We drove back to our farm on the little side roads so that we could get our fill of the villages and countryside (the village of Snowshill is one to go back to), and we checked out a tiny place called Deerhurst. It had a chapel built in 1056. On our way home on Monday we stopped in Winchcombe for a walk and to check out its castle.
The highlight of the weekend was finding Post Cottage and realising this beautiful country with great walking trails is only a couple of hours away. We’ll have to fit some walking day trips into the schedule. Hopefully we get similar weather.
Thank you to A&J for joining us, cooking up such great food, feeding us with lots of Easter chocolate, and helping make the trip so much fun. I think we are going to have to plan a Canada Day Frickets tournament in London.
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