The Cotswolds

In talking to Kerry, our B&B hostess, one of the things we discovered was that while we thought we had driven through the Cotswolds after we left Stroud, we had really only skirted the edges of it.  She recommended a drive that would take us through more of the picturesque villages there, so off we went.

The first village we stopped at was Blockley which had many old houses made out of the local yellow stone (oolitic limestone).

Our course to get to these little towns, we had to take the English equivalent of a super highway..

But tucked away down these roads were these very quaint cottages with the required English garden.

And we finally came across a house with a thatched hut where there was a space to pull out so Susan could take a picture.

Then it was off to the next little town, Chippen Campden.

It's still amazing to me that there will be this 500 year old structure, and rather than a museum, it's just somebody's house.  Look at the roof and you can see how it's wavy.  They said that when they built these they cut the wood for the timbers, and then built without letting them dry.  So after a time they dried and created the waves.

While we were walking around in the town, I was talking to Susan about looking for a place to eat and this local woman overhears us and chats us up (she had lived in Hollywood Hills for several years) and recommended a local restaurant, Eight Bells (she said the rest were "rubbish").  So off we went and tracked it down.

I was worried about whether they were going to let me stay after seeing this sign.

But since they didn't know me, and Susan didn't rat me out, they let us stay.  Lunch was great and then it was back on the road and another thatched hut.

Then it was off to Stow-on-the-Wold (and don't ask me what that means!).  They were having a flea market in the city hall, so we went it.  And on all the walls in the rooms where they were selling the usual junk you find at a flea market, were all these wonderful old portraits.  It was quite incongruous to see all this fine art surrounded by the equivalent of beanie babies!

As we were leaving we ran across this guy.  Quite a character, no doubt hanging out waiting for the live music (you can just tell he's a party animal).

With that we left the Cotswolds behind and headed to Oxford.