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Warwick Castle -August 27th

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Our last day of sightseeing in England was divided between Warwick Castle, the ancestral estate of the Earl of Warwick, and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the childhood home of Shakespeare’s wife. Warwick Castle today is sumptuously decorated throughout and the Great Hall, which originally served as an ornate hall where visitors were formally greeted, now contains an impressive collection of armor and various other weapons of war. Still impressive, one could argue, yet in a different way. Originally built as a formidable medieval defensive fortress it has been transformed over the years into a genteel manor home. As stunning as the castle itself is, the entire complex has the feel of an amusement park, with a Zog playground (for those not familiar with the English children’s author Julia Davidson, her books about the dragon Zog and his friends are a pleasure to read), a Horrible Histories maze, jousting tournaments and archery competitions. The majority of visitors today were families with y...
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Stratford-upon-Avon - August 26th

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We had booked an 11:00 am Stratford City Walking Tour for today and decided to make one last laundry run before the tour. Once laundry was done and packed away, we headed toward our tour meeting point, wandering through a local craft market on the way. There was a bit of rain forecast for later today, so we took our rain jackets to be on the safe side. The rain held off during our walk, but absolutely poured as we walked back to our hotel. Even though we only had a few blocks to our hotel, by the time we arrived our pants and shoes were soaked through. We stayed inside for the remainder of the afternoon while we waited for the rain to stop and for our clothes and shoes to dry out. The tour itself was very entertaining and informative. We saw a number of 15th and 16th century buildings and homes still in use today, walked through Stratford's old town and then to Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried. The tour ended at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre where we had been the nig...
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Travel Day to Stratford-upon-Avon - August 25th

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We were scheduled to travel via taxi from Stow-on-the-Wold to Stratford-upon-Avon this morning. I had booked a taxi a couple of days ago to pick us up at our lodging at 10:30 am. We weren’t in a big hurry as we couldn’t check in to our hotel in Stratford until 3:00 pm, but I had booked a 1:00 pm tour of Shakespeare’s birthplace so we wanted to get to Stratford by 12:30 pm. After waiting outside our hotel for a good 15 minutes past the agreed upon pick up time, it was obvious our driver was a no show. The hotel had given me a list of @ 8 local taxi drivers, plus 2 others that provided more long distance/airport transportation. I called all the local drivers with no one even answering their phone before I finally resorted to calling one of the long distance services. At last! This particular driver answered his phone, and, although he was unable to help us, he did refer me to a friend of his named Mark. I contacted Mark and he was available.  This must have been early on in our wait ...
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Chipping Campden Walk - August 24th

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Today we decided to visit the Cotswold villages of Chipping Campden, Broad Campden and Blockley by bussing it to Chipping Campden (@ 10 miles from Stow) and then walking to the other two villages. This is a very rural area of England and bus service here is limited, to say the least. Our bus trip had to be carefully planned out or we could have ended up stranded in one of the towns. We first took a bus to the train station at Moreton-in-Marsh (via one bus company), waited @ 30 minutes and then caught a bus to Chipping Campden (via a very circuitous route with another bus company). This 10 mile trip took 1.5 hours! Chipping Campden is one of the larger villages in the Cotswolds, but not any less charming or picturesque than others we have visited. We spent a good hour and a half walking through the town, seeing the historic sites: the market hall and nearby WWI monument, an old silk mill, a 14th century wool merchant’s mansion, the estate of an influential silk merchant whose manor hous...
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Stow-on-the-Wold to Bourton-on-the-Water - August 23rd

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This morning after breakfast we set out for the villages of Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water. The Cotswold are made for walking and there are numerous, well-marked trails throughout the region. I had bought an ordinance map of the area yesterday (most of the Brits we met who were walking the C2C had these maps) and we used it, along with trail signage, to guide us through fields and pastures. We walked through numerous kissing gates and even had to hurdle a couple of electric fence wires (not my favorite thing to do). The first village we came to was Lower Slaughter, a sleepy, picturesque place where we encountered less than a dozen people. Bourton-on-the-Water was @ a mile and a half further on, but what a difference that mile made! The British refer to this village as “the Venice of the Cotswolds” because of its quaint canals running through town. One could also argue it’s called this due to the crowds packing the streets. Before we even reached the town center we passed at l...
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Travel Day - August 22nd

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Today was another travel day, this time from Bath to Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds. I thought it would be fairly easy traveling to the rural Cotswolds but the terminus of our first train out of Bath was London Paddington and it seems any time one's on a train bound for London, the train is packed to overflowing. Thank goodness we had reserved seats. We had to change trains in the town of Reading with @ 8 minutes to do so. Again, I thought this would be easy, as Reading must be a small train station. Little did I know it's much bigger than I thought, being a major transfer point serving the Oxford University area. Again, the train was packed to overflowing, but soon emptied at the Oxford stop. The rest of the journey was uneventful, and we arrived at Stow-on-the-Wold in the early afternoon, where we’ll stay until Friday. From what we've seen of the Cotswolds towns so far, they're quintessential rural English villages and very picturesque. Hope to do some walking to s...
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Bath - August 21st

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We spent the day immersed in Bath’s history, starting with its 1st century Roman Baths moving on to the 15th century Bath Abbey and concluding with Bath’s 17th and 18th century Georgian architecture and society. Our tour of the Roman Baths and adjacent museum was enhanced not only by the excellent audio guide provided, but also by the depiction of ancient Romans as they went about their daily life, including their use of the baths, how they worshipped and their societal structure. We were able to walk through the ruins of the temple courtyard, smelling the sulfur of the mineral water as we approached the great bath itself. We came away awestruck by the scale and grandeur of these ancient baths. Bird's eye view of the ancient Roman baths Pediment fragments from the temple Walking through the temple courtyard outside the baths We then visited Bath Abbey, an important medieval church and monastery, looted by Henry VIII during his dissolution of the monasteries when he sold off its val...
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