Our Grand Tour of Europe

Saturday, July 10

We left Gants Mill right at 10 am this morning—the packing-up seemed to take longer, perhaps because the house is bigger and we have spread out more… or because (horrors!) we have accumulated more stuff! We are trying to remember that in just four weeks we have to condense back down to the few bags we started with so our bags can be transported each day on our walking trip.

We said goodbye to Brian and Alison… they had family visiting overnight, on their way north from a chilly holiday in Cornwall…. a son and daughter and three little grandchildren. Alison let Kelly take Bramble for one final walk.

We hadn’t been to the Bruton Dovecote, so before we left Bruton, we drove up the hill and walked to the lonely dovecote… all that remains of an abbey once towered over the village. We also circled back to Wincanton so Kelly could return her library books. We got gas at the Wincanton Safeway and then headed back through Bruton towards the Cotswolds—one hour after we originally set out! Our trip from Bruton to Blockley was 83 miles, estimated to take two hours on my ViaMichelin internet directions.

Charley had called the caretaker, Dawn, to let her know we’d be there around 3:00 pm, so we had a couple of extra hours for our trip. We made two stops along the way… our route took us from Bruton to Frome and then on a bypass road where we could see Bath in the distance. Our first stop was Bradford-on-Avon which had looked interesting in my guidebook. We drove down the hill to the Avon river and parked in a little lot near the old bridge—there was a little lock-up house right out on the bridge. I wish we could have lingered a little longer—we only had time to use a public toilet (though a very special public toilet… a sign outside said it had been awarded four stars in the “Loo of the Year” awards), stop at Tourist Information, and visit a bakery. Charley and I shared a great chicken pastie and a sandwich for a carryout lunch. We had packed a lunch for Kelly, so she just got ice cream in Bradford-on-Avon.

I have always wanted to see Castle Combe… on the very edge of the Cotswolds near Bath. This village is considered one of the prettiest villages in England—the original Dr. Dolittle movie (Rex Harrison version) was filmed here and it’s extremely picturesque. We parked in the public lot, which (we found later) was at the top of a steep hill really quite far from the actual village. We must have walked a quarter mile down to the village (and then back up half an hour later). Castle Combe wasn’t crowded at all on this Saturday afternoon… it really was a sweet little village—down in a valley with a little river/stream. This was our first opportunity to see the honey-colored Cotswolds stone again. We spent a while in the old 12th century church, which had an interesting tomb of a knight. He was wearing chain-mail armor and his legs were crossed, which apparently means he died a violent death. Charley was interested in the mechanisms of the old church clock from the 15th century, which were now displayed (still working) in a glass case inside the church. There was never a face on the clock—it triggered the ringing of the bells on the hour, and the workers in the field only needed to know the time by the hour…. so no need for a clock face! We took a few photos and hiked back up the steep hill to head to the northern Cotswolds.

Our route through the Cotswolds took us into familiar territory—all three of us were excited coming back to a place that’s so special to us. Outside of Cirencester, at the Kemble Air Base, there was a big air show—two big jets and a couple hundred small airplanes. We never would have dreamed from the limited traffic on the road that this big show was going on.

We bypassed Bourton-on-the-Water and then drove by Stow-on-the-Wold. (The place names throughout England are very interesting—on the way to Castle Combe we passed through a village called Tiddlywinks!) We stayed in Stow for three days in 2002, during the Queen’s Jubilee Weekend. In 1997 we stayed for three days about a mile away in the tiny village of Lower Swell. So Stow is the place in the Cotswolds that we know the best… Charley especially likes it. From Stow we turned toward Moreton-in-Marsh, took a left in Moreton up the hill to Bourton-on-the-Hill and then a right down to Blockley. We had walked through Blockley on our 2002 walk and had lunch in the pub (the Crown). We remembered liking it, but really didn’t remember too much about it. Now it was to be our home for the next week. I thought it would be better to stay in a smaller village instead of one of the larger villages that attract lots of tour buses and day-tourists.

We arrived just a few minutes after 3 pm. Dawn was waiting for us in her car out on the street and showed us all through Michaelmas Cottage. The cottage is very inauspicious from the outside—a combination of two or three different structures. We really didn’t even recognize it as a cottage from the outside at first, though it does have an extremely impressive wooden door as well as a nice nameplate. There are no ground floor windows looking out on the street, which is good because the house directly across the street (fortunately a ways up a hill) isn’t very nicely kept.

Inside the cottage is beautifully restored and decorated… the nicest place we have stayed so far. There’s a little entrance hall of stone, with a tile floor very much like our new kitchen at home. The skylight in the ceiling makes the entry very bright. On the left is the kitchen, also very bright, with a u-shaped workspace and a wooden table with four chairs. The backsplash has shiny green and cream tiles and there are nice cream-colored wooden cabinets. There’s a big window in front of the sink, though the view looking out on the backyards of other cottages isn’t at all pretty—several clothes lines and a big pile of brush. Dawn had put out a tea set, including a packet of cookies that Kelly instantly pounced on. The kitchen is well equipped with nice crockery—and the silverware is exactly like ours at home! Straight ahead off the entry is the bathroom: bright yellow, nice and clean. We will have to see how this shower works!

On the right of the entry hall is a cozy living room—a fireplace with a wood-burning stove and two comfortable couches with terracotta-colored slipcovers. There are several nice wooden tables, a couple of good lamps, a television and VCR, and a CD player. We brought an assortment of CDs with us but haven’t had a player since London, though we do have one in the car. We’ve had a VCR at other places, but this is the first time we’ve also had several good videos to choose from. The owners have decent art on the walls (the kitchen has a great print called “Breakfast in Provence”) and the upholstery, drapes and sofa pillows are good quality and well coordinated. Doors lead out from the living room to a really nice sunroom with another dining table and chairs—very pretty. This room also helps brighten up the living room. There are french doors leading from the sunroom to a small enclosed garden—very simple, but nice. We could move the sunroom table and chairs out there to dine al fresco. The sunroom and little private garden really make the cottage something extra-special.

Steep stairs lead from the living room to the second floor. Charley and I have a good-sized double bedroom with a built-in closet, a chest of drawers and a window seat. All the fabrics coordinate. Then up another steep flight of steps, Kelly has a room up under the eaves with two twin beds, also nicely done. She seems very happy with her room. I like her view out over the village to the hills beyond with fields of sheep—you can even see the spire of the Blockley church.

Dawn was very enthusiastic and friendly and gave us a lot of information about Blockley. She used to live in the village and now lives in Mickelton, near Chipping Campden. The owners (who I have dealt with through e-mail) bought the cottage about three years ago and use it several times a year—they live in Berkshire.

Charley carried everything in and I unpacked the kitchen and then my stuff. I like feeling that we’ve moved into each place, even if it’s just for a week. I try to take everything out of my duffel bag that I know I’ll use for the week. About an hour after we arrived, we decided to go ahead and get groceries in Stow. We got turned around in our directions heading out of Blockley, so we had an unexpected mini-tour of Broad Campden on the way there! We stopped in the center of Stow at the Tourist Office, just as it was closing at 5:00 pm… but we did have time to pick up some information. Kelly has asked to go horseback riding this week, so we got a list of stables in the area. I also got some information on Sezincote, an interesting house and gardens that we could walk to from Blockley. Then we headed for the Stow Tesco for our weekly shopping. It was fun to be back in Stow again—the main square was very busy, especially compared to Blockley. Stow has lots of antique shops and galleries, hotels and restaurants, and tourist shops… a lot of activity. Blockley has two pubs on opposite ends of town, a deli, and a post office/shop. It’s much more of a residential village with limited attraction for tour buses. Most of the tourists in Blockley are walkers passing through, as we did in 2002. I think Blockley will be a better place for our family this week.

As has become our pattern, we split up at Tesco, each with a list. Kelly goes with Charley. This seems to work for us—I prefer to shop on my own without the need to consult, and Charley is better at defraying Kelly’s requests for this-and-that. We managed today for ₤66, so a bit less than the last two times. I splurged on makings for a dessert that we can eat over two nights. When I unpacked back at the cottage, it seemed like we bought a lot of chips and cookies!

We had soup and sandwiches for dinner and then my dessert—vanilla and raspberry ice cream with raspberries and blueberries, raspberry coulis and whipped cream. “Dead Poets Society” was on TV—Kelly and Charley watched while I did computer work. I left them watching and went to bed early.

Sunday, July 11

We didn’t set the alarm, but I was up first. I’ve switched from coffee to tea on this trip (Charley is still drinking coffee and enjoys using a French press, which we do have at Michaelmas Cottage), so I made my morning tea. All of our places have a little electric pot to heat up the water—this is not an appliance that most Americans have, but I want one when we get home! I worked on my photos for a while. Managing all the photos takes a fair amount of work, but I enjoy it. I’m taking probably 200 photos a week and editing them as we go along. Then at the end of the week I move them to the hard drive and also to a CD.

When Charley got up, he walked to the village post office/store to get a paper. He reported back that they had an enormous number of papers for a place this size and that the store was very busy. We had a pre-made quiche from Tesco for breakfast. After Kelly got up, she and Charley walked to the village green (just around the corner) to watch a lawn bowling tournament while I finished getting ready.

The weather was mostly overcast today, though it never did rain… we were hesitant to do a walk, so we did a drive instead—much to Kelly’s relief. She was able to read books much of the drive, which interests her more than the scenery. From Blockley we drove to Snowshill to the lavender farm we had visited on our walk in 2002. The farm had just been planted then and we were one of the first customers at the tearoom. Today the fields of lavender were in full bloom—truly spectacular, with several different variations and shades of purple. They seem to be doing great business—lots of people in the fields, tearoom and shop. We took several photos… we’ll unfortunately miss the blooming of the lavender in Provence, so at least we have seen this! We also drove to a small village that wasn’t familiar to us—Ford—to look at a pub called The Plough Inn that several previous guests have recommended in the cottage guest book. It’s an interesting looking place, and we enjoyed the drive through an unfamiliar area of the Cotswolds. Many of the little roads are only wide enough for one car… wouldn’t even make the map in the USA!

We followed parts of our 2002 walk by car today—fun! I brought the ordinance map where I had marked our walking route. In the car we breezed past things we had labored to get to on our walk. We drove by Stanway House and the beautiful 17th century gatehouse and saw the bench where we had rested on the hardest day of our walk. (There was a cricket match underway at the nearby cricket pitch. J. M. Barrie who wrote “Peter Pan” donated the thatched cricket pavilion.) One of the stables on the list from the Tourist Information Office was in the next village, Stanton, so we stopped there to get information. We’ll let Kelly ride later in the week if she still wants to. We saw lots of young girls in riding clothes… a busy place today. The woman we talked to said they had about 50 horses. The riding will be pretty expensive ($35 for an hour), so I don’t think all three of us will go.

We drove to the beautiful village of Broadway and saw the place we had stayed on the walking tour—the Olive Branch Guest House. The woman there was so nice—she washed our muddy clothes and gave us a ride to Snowshill Manor the next day. We also saw the pub—the Horse and Hound—where we had a memorable dinner after our long, muddy day.

We drove up Fish Hill near Broadway Tower and found a picnic area to eat our lunch. The Cotswolds Way passes right through this area, so we would have walked here on our way from Broadway to Chipping Campden. There’s a pretty view of the countryside from this high point. The Cotswolds are very agricultural, even more so than I remembered. We saw lots of fields of sheep and some of cows… and lots of crops. The golden fields of wheat are especially prominent now… so pretty against green fields dotted with sheep and the golden Cotswolds stone walls. We followed alongside our walking route toward Chipping Campden, then drove up to Dovers Hill with beautiful views of the Vale of Evesham. Hundreds of years ago an Olimpick Games was held on Dovers Hill and was revived in the 1950’s. Two boys were using a bicycle type skateboard to do what they called “in line dirt biking” down the hill. Another boy was flying a kite.

We drove down into Chipping Campden and walked around the village—quiet today on a Sunday. We walked over to the hotel where we had stayed here too (The Eight Bells Inn, near the church) and then went in a few shops. We do have a hard time “shopping” on this trip because we’re not supposed to be buying. Kelly has an especially hard time with this—and it’s hard for me too! At the Lavender Farm she begged me to buy her a $40 bag. (She absolutely does not need another bag… regardless of the fact that her birthday is next week!) We stopped in the Chipping Campden Tourist Information Office and got some literature. I bought a little pamphlet about some walks. Charley had gotten us a map of walks around Blockley at the village store, so we are in good shape for walking.

We decide to use our National Trust passes to visit Hidcote Manor Garden, a place we really enjoyed in 2002. I know Kelly tires of gardens (“Oh no, not another garden!”), but then she seems to enjoy them when we are there. Since we didn’t have to pay admission (would have been over $20 for the three of us), it was okay if we didn’t stay long. The gardens were quite crowded, which I didn’t care for, especially not in this garden. Hidcote was developed by Major Lawrence Johnston beginning in 1907. It was one of the first gardens to be developed as a series of “rooms”—normally separated by hedges and each with a different style or personality. Small paths run through and between these different rooms. This layout made it a bit awkward with so many people there on a Sunday, though a couple of the areas have sweeping vistas and weren’t as crowded. Hidcote is a whole different environment than Stourhead, which is a more expansive landscape garden and arboretum. We enjoyed our hour at Hidcote though and took a lot of photos of the beautiful flowers.

We had a cream tea at the teashop in what seemed to be the old stable yard. (Kelly had a flavored ice tea and a brownie.) Now we are having a Cotswolds Cream Tea, which seems the same as we’ve had in every other place! On the way into the parking lot, we had seen a sign that there were berries for sale at the Hidcote Bartrim farm. So, as we were leaving the gardens, we moved our car over to the farm. I thought we’d just buy a container of berries and be on our way, but Kelly saw we could pick our own and really wanted to. This was probably the highlight of our day for her—something she’s never done before. We picked two “punnets” (plastic containers) of raspberries. All three of us pitched in, and it really was fun. Kelly then wanted to go to a farther field and pick our own strawberries too, but I wasn’t sure we could even use this many raspberries in a week. I now see why raspberries are fairly expensive for just a few… they all have to be handpicked and it’s slow work!

Before returning to Blockley, we detoured to the little village of Paxford to look at another pub that was highly recommended in the notes in the cottage and also by several previous guests. We do want to eat out a couple of times while we are here, and there are many good pubs. This pub food is hopefully better than its exterior impression. I don’t think we’ll eat here, though I had hoped we could even do a walk over from Blockley.

We decided to go on back to our village. Kelly and Charley went out again to watch the lawn bowling while I worked on my writing. For dinner Kelly and I collaborated on another Chinese stir-fry with the Ho Shin garlic sauce she likes… she fixed the Chinese noodles.

After dinner we went for a walk around the village and stopped at the park. It’s adjacent to the lawn bowling green and has a variety of swings and other equipment for kids. Kelly was playing alone on a merry-go-round while Charley and I watched from a picnic table. Within five minutes she had met two girls—ten year old twins—and not ten minutes later they asked if she could go down to their grandmother’s house where they were visiting. Charley and I hesitated—she’d only known them ten minutes—but she so desperately wanted to be with other kids, and these were the first connections she had made in a month. So we said yes… we’d go on a walk and be back at the park in ten minutes. We followed along a bit behind and met the grandmother and parents at their house just around the corner… it all seemed okay. Charley and I walked around the village for maybe 15 minutes… we found the Mill Dene Gardens (a small garden open to the public that I’m interested in visiting) and also the path marked “The Duck Paddle,” which was our route out of Blockley in 2002. Blockley is much larger than we had realized from our brief walk through the village back then—there seem to be as many as two hundred houses, though there is very little shopping. You can meet your basic needs here—post office/general store, the two pubs, a church, a school and a park, but you need to go a few miles farther to buy anything more substantial, see a doctor, or get a haircut.

When we arrived back at the park, Kelly was playing with her new friends, with their father watching from the picnic table. We sat at the table and chatted with him for maybe 45 minutes. Kelly played hard—it was so good for her to be with other kids. The two girls live in northern England and are leaving to go home in the morning—they still have several more weeks of school before their summer break. Too bad they won’t be here all week!

After our time in the park, we walked back to Michaelmas Cottage—I read and then we watched the first episode of a series called “Island at War”—a fictional account of the Nazi invasion of the British Channel Islands during World War II. Kelly fixed ice cream with raspberries for dessert… we’ll be eating a lot of raspberries over the next week!

Monday, July 12

We really do like being back in the Cotswolds again… a comfortable "back home" feeling… not quite as magical as the first time we crossed a stile and walked in a field of sheep, but still plenty of mysteries and new discoveries. We’re enjoying this small, friendly community… surrounded by these quaint old stone cottages and such lovely countryside. I really like our cottage a lot—good size, comfortable, well appointed. It feels like home already!

We (well, at least Charley and I) decided to do a meaningful walk today. A meaningful walk wasn’t necessarily high on Kelly’s agenda, but she was a good sport about it. Yesterday I bought a little laminated fold-out map that gave instructions for two walks around Moreton-in-Marsh. We decided to do a variation of one of these walks and walk to Moreton and back. It’s about four miles by road.

It took us about 2-1/2 hours to get there (we dawdled…) and about 1-1/2 hours to get back. We walked up a steep hill out of Blockley, then down past the Batsford Stud Farm… lots of horses, including many colts. Very pretty! We then walked to Batsford village (and the entrance to Batsford House) and looked around the church—there were several Mitford/Redesdale monuments. I have a special interest in the Mitford family after reading “The Sisters,” the story of the six famous (some actually notorious) Mitford sisters whose father once owned Batsford House. We walked across the field alongside the estate by the entrance to Batsford Arboretum (which we had visited in 2002), then joined a path to cross the fields to Moreton. This last portion of our walk was the same route we had taken in 2002.

We walked around Moreton a bit… visited a nice bookstore where the owner was very friendly to Kelly and gave her several suggestions. She ordered a book which he will have available later in the week. Kelly really wanted to eat at ASK Pizza—“this may be the last chance I’ll have to eat at ASK for a long time!”… how could we resist? We had eaten at this same restaurant in 2002.

We walked back across the fields toward Blockley… this time the exact same route we’d taken in 2002, only in reverse. We hiked up through the woods by Batsford… good exercise for us after the pizza. The view of Blockley from the top of the sheep fields was just wonderful. We remembered sitting on this same hill… taking a rest on the way up… on our walk in 2002. We would never have dreamed we’d be back for a week in just two years… or that we’d ever be spending 14 months in Europe.

We stopped at the Post Office store on the way back to our cottage. Post Offices in small-town Britain are really different… the post office services are just one of a number of things happening in the shop, apparently owned by an independent business person. The Blockley Post Office is right across the street from the lawn bowls green and seems to be the hub of village life… a true general store. They have an in-store bakery and sell wine, postcards, groceries, hardware items, basic toiletries, and newspapers. Charley really enjoys coming here every morning.

We decided to go out to dinner at a country pub—the Plough that we had checked out in the village of Ford the other day—even though this would be two meals out in the same day. We hadn’t eaten dinner out at Gants Mill at all. We traveled over to Ford on small country roads, a different way than the other day. It’s a pretty place, decorated with hanging baskets of flowers outside. There was a big beer garden outside, but it was too cool this evening to eat outside—actually, there was a fire going inside! Inside the pub we saw a plaque that said The Plough Inn had been voted the best pub in the North Cotswolds in 2004.

We had a table in the dining room… a bit smoky, but we could see a lot that was going on… a mix of regulars and visitors, perhaps mostly regulars or “repeat” guests. There was a menu of about ten items, then a long list of specials on a blackboard at the entrance. Everyone had to go out front to check out the specials. The menu said this was “gastropub” food—really almost gourmet. Charley had a chicken, ham and leek pie (one of the specials), and I had a steak and ale pie—both topped with a great puff pastry. We shared our meals, and both were great! We also got a bowl of potatoes and vegetables and nice cold beers. Kelly wasn’t too interested in anything on the menu, but we managed to get her penne pasta with tomato sauce. We splurged tonight-- ₤40.

We drove back a different way… very few cars out. I had expected it to be much more crowded in the Cotswolds this time of year. We drove by Temple Guiting and then tried to cross the Windrush River. We didn’t understand the sign on the little road that said “Ford”… when we got to the bottom of the hill to the little river, there was only a stone foot bridge and the water was too deep for us to cross in our car… we would have needed a four wheel drive. It was a bit complicated for Charley to turn the car around in that small space. We drove back through Lower Swell where we had stayed in 1997. Our old hotel—the Old Farmhouse Inn—has been turned into some kind of strange condominium. When we walked by on our walk in 2002, the owner was just taking the sign down… his last day in business.

We stopped at the Tesco in Stow to pick up a few things, including more ice cream so Kelly can make another special dessert!

Tuesday, July 13

We managed to get up and ready fairly early this morning. We drove to Moreton-in-Marsh and got there about 9 am for the weekly market that starts at 8. We were lucky to find a spot in the pay lot! The market was a really big deal—apparently the biggest in the Cotswolds. There were about 200 stalls: food, clothes, kitchen stuff, hardware, videos and CDs, books, gift wrapping paper, small appliances. Kelly and Charley got a couple of books and then Charley bought a much better jacket. There were good deals here (like Charley’s jacket) and lots of people shopping… many more arrived after we did. I had wondered where people went to shop for a lot of these things—and now I know. This wasn’t a tourist market—it was really designed for people who live in the area. About 10:00 am Kelly and I walked down to the library… Charley was still jacket-shopping and met us there. The Moreton library is quite small and had just three computers that you’re supposed to reserve to use more than 15 minutes. We were able to use the internet for a while though, and I made a reservation for Saturday morning before we leave. I had long newsy messages from Mom and Debbie and also messages from several friends with blog comments. I’m sure it’s too overwhelming for many people to read! Jeanne wrote with a couple of “business” items—she’s such a good friend for helping me with all this. We got Kelly a temporary library card so she could borrow a couple books… the librarian didn’t volunteer her own card here. We had to show proof of temporary local residency and thought we had hit a dead end, but then Charley showed our house keys with our address on the tag. We walked back to our car, doing a little shopping along the way. Kelly found a great sweet shop…

We got back to our cottage about noon and fixed lunch. I wanted to go to Mill Dene Gardens, a smaller garden right in Blockley… down by the stream. We walked down the hill and spent about 45 minutes strolling through the pretty gardens. This is a much more contemporary garden than others we have visited, developed over the past 30 years by the woman who lives in the old mill house. It probably actually started as her personal garden and just got bigger and bigger. There were about two acres… a winding path travels through the various areas of the garden with some surprises like a little grotto, a duck pond, an area with little memorials to the departed family cats, and a cricket pitch up on the hill. We especially liked a trump d’oeil that looked like a window looking out to another part of the garden, but was really a mirror painted to look like an open window. The stream is integrated into part of the garden and is very pretty. All these gardens have inspired me—and maybe Charley too (I hope!)—to want to have a better garden when we get home. We have fallen off in our gardening interests these last few years… it really does take a fair amount of work to keep it going and even more work to make it better… but I also know how rewarding it can be.

Kelly had a bit of an upset stomach and didn’t want to use the little restroom at Mill Dene, so we hurried through the last part of the garden to get back to our cottage. Kelly’s big request for this week was to go horseback riding and Charley finally connected with the stables in Stanton this morning—she was to be part of a “group hack” at 3:00 pm. I stayed at home to work on my writing, and Charley took her over to Stanton. (Charley didn’t ride because of the cost… and probably also his interests! He read a book and waited in the car.) Kelly went out with a father and two teenage sons from Sarasota, Florida who are staying in Winchcombe… along with two guides. She seemed to really enjoy the hour-and-a-half ride. She now wants to do more riding when we get home. “Please, Mom. Please!” ₤27 for an hour-and-a-half, but this was her big event… and she has followed along to a lot of gardens and fancy houses that weren’t high on her list.

I got a bit more ambitious for dinner… fixed a meatloaf with mashed potatoes for Charley and me, pasta with meat sauce for Kelly, and asparagus for all three of us. I normally work with recipes—even though I often stray from the directions—but did this one out of my head for a change. While I cooked, Charley and Kelly went down to the park to watch a lawn bowling match (Blockley vs. Moreton-in-Marsh). Kelly met two new girls at the park and had a good time playing. The park has turned out to be a real highlight of our stay in Blockley. After dinner we watched part of “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” one of the videos here in the cottage. We have this movie at home, but have not watched it for a long time and never with Kelly… it was a better movie than I had remembered. Kelly went off to the kitchen to make a special dessert… and returned with BIG banana splits for each of us… complete with raspberries.

Wednesday, July 14

Yesterday evening Kelly developed a problem with her braces… something had slipped. Charley has been the “braces parent,” and he was concerned this was something that really needed to be fixed. Our orthodontist at home had given Charley a name in Paris of someone he knew and I think also someone in Avignon, but we were on our own in England. We decided to go to Oxford today (someplace we planned to go anyway), which would be a big enough place to find an orthodontist. So first thing this morning Charley went down to the village phone booth and called the dentist in Chipping Campden on the “emergency” list in the cottage. The orthodontist only visits Chipping Campden once a month. They gave him a name in Oxford. We also had an Oxford phone directory in the cottage, so Charley wrote down another few names that appeared to do orthodontist work. We headed out about 10:00 am and decided we would make calls when we got there. It was only about a 45-minute drive to Oxford… about 30 miles… but totally another world. Oxford might has well be 100 miles away from the Cotswolds… a much bigger place than we had envisioned, especially after we had seen Cambridge. This was Charley’s version of my “Jane Austen’s House”—somewhere he has always wanted to go that never quite got on our England agenda. We were finally fulfilling his big dream.

We decided to park in a “Park and Ride” lot on the outskirts of Oxford, typical in many of the bigger, popular towns and cities in England, where the streets are narrow and parking in the center is very limited. We rode in a big double-decker bus to the center of Oxford. What a busy place! There were many groups of international students… maybe high school students… all wearing colorful matching backpacks, moving slowly in big groups along the sidewalks. There were also many tour groups and tour buses… open-top double-decker sightseeing buses like London! We got off the bus near a busy shopping street—major shopping with all the chains we are now familiar with. After our three weeks in the countryside, we were really taken aback.

Charley tried to reach the orthodontist recommended by the Chipping Campden dentist several times, but could not get an answer. We went to Tourist Information and got a map… then decided since it was almost noon, we’d go ahead and have lunch. My guidebook recommended a place called the Lamb and Flag, which we had seen on the way in and was a bit removed from the hustle and bustle of the shopping areas. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (two favorites) used to eat and drink at this pub, which also interested us. We got a table in the front room where children were allowed after noon. Kelly had pizza, I had a good vegetarian tart, and Charley had a jacket (baked) potato with chili. Jacket potatoes with filling are very big here, though some of the fillings (like tuna) seem strange combinations with potato to us. A couple of beers and a coke— ₤20 ($40)… pretty typical of a pub lunch for the three of us.

Charley tried to call again to the orthodontist without luck, so we headed to the Ashmolean museum just down the street. Kelly realized that the address for one of the phone-book orthodontists was the same street as the museum… actually just a few doors away. We decided to just go over there without calling and see if we could get an emergency appointment. The receptionist said the dentist was out till 2:30 pm and we should come back then and they’d see what they could do. It was about 12:45 pm, so we went on over to the museum. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in Britain with several important collections—many donated by Oxford alums—and was also free. Charley was especially interested in seeing a famous Stradivari violin. I realized while we were looking at the musical instruments that Kelly and Charley were much more into the details than me—they could look at one instrument and discuss it together for five minutes… about the time it took me to breeze by every display case in the room. This is our typical pattern for our family in certain kinds of museums. I headed off on my own for an hour. I looked at paintings, sculptures, and archaeological artifacts from Britain, Crete, Rome, Egypt, even Hallstatt, Austria—a place we visited at Christmastime. I looked at lots and lots of silver and various collections bequeathed by various people who had amassed collections of various interesting things.

When I arrived at the museum shop, I saw Kelly and Charley by the restrooms. At this point, Kelly was ready to leave the museum and was anxious to go to a bookstore. She much prefers to shop with me, because her chances of getting things are much, much greater—so she was glad to see me. She and I headed off to a bookstore so she could spend some birthday money from Mom and Dad and also some other birthday money I had promised for books. Charley wanted another 30 minutes at the museum. We went over to Blackwells, one of the largest bookshops in England that started in Oxford. There were actually five different Blackwell shops on the same street. They had a large “young readers” section, and Kelly fussed around for the full 30 minutes trying to decide between books and hoping I might add more money to the kitty. Several books were marked “3 for 2,” which is what she finally decided to do. We really are struggling with books and are accumulating way too many. I find it impossible to part with almost any book—in fact I just recently threw away many of my college and grad school textbooks while packing up things at home). We can’t lug books around with us for a year and it’s expensive to mail them home—at this point, I’m mailing a few back every week.

Kelly and I rushed back to the museum to meet Charley out front. He had somehow connected with the curator of the museum and had a brief discussion about the Hallstatt collection.

When we got to the orthodontist’s office, Charley explained our problem to the receptionist and then another woman. At first they said they were fully booked and could make an appointment for us for another day. Charley told them our situation…that we were in Oxford just for the day and were away from home for a year. The orthodontist (called “Mr.” instead of ‘Dr.”) came out and beckoned Kelly in. He removed the problem bracket and replaced it with some type of elastic band that’s supposed to hold until we get home—and then didn’t charge us anything! (Kelly wrote him a very enthusiastic note when we got home.) The ladies in the office were all very nice … they were all wearing old-fashioned blue polka-dotted dresses.

With this problem solved, we set out to explore more of Oxford. It was still very very crowded. We were surprised at how different it was from Cambridge—much more commercial and touristy… and so much more crowded. We walked down to Christ Church College and Cathedral and paid to walk through. The college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546. There’s a beautiful entry tower designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland) was a student and then a teacher at Christ Church for a total of 47 years, and the little girl Alice who inspired his famous book was the daughter of the dean. Some filming for the Harry Potter movies was been done here—on the grand staircase and the big dining hall (called the Great Hall), which was the dining hall for Hogwarts. It really did look exactly like the Harry Potter dining hall, with the professors at a separate table up on the stage. The walls were filled with big portraits of former Christ College graduates.

The Christ College cathedral was very interesting. Kelly had a quiz to complete, which helped me learn more about the cathedral too. We watched a video about the college and cathedral… also very informative. Just outside the college, it was countryside—amazing…. a big open meadow. We walked down to the river where there were boats to rent and a nice-looking pub with outdoor seating over the river. Two rivers meet in Oxford—the Thames (also called the Isis in Oxford) and the Cherwell.

At about this point, things got tense for our family. Kelly got argumentative about something—I don’t even remember why now— and Charley got very angry at her. Then I intervened, which created another problem. (Is this a story I’ve told before????) Our family crisis reached its dramatic climax out on the street in front of an art shop where I was going to buy Kelly’s big birthday gift. Fortunately, all was resolved and we had a constructive discussion in the car while we drove back to Blockley, which hopefully will help us better work through our interactions as a family. We’ve spent almost 24/7 together for a month now… quite a change from our “normal” life when the three of us might be together three hours a day during the week.

We were disappointed in Oxford—at one point, Charley said he didn’t like it at all. Maybe the reality just didn’t match his long-held fantasy. We have joked (though we’re actually serious) about checking out colleges for Kelly… at least for a junior year abroad. At this point, I’d much prefer to see her at Cambridge, even though Oxford is perhaps more prominent with a longer-list of famous students: Lewis Carroll, Tony Blair, C. S. Lewis, Edward Halley (of the comet). T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), John Wesley, Christopher Wren, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher. I bought a little book that contained one-page profiles of 30 of Oxford’s most famous.

On the way back to the Cotswolds we detoured to see the Rollright Stones—another prehistoric stone circle, on private property just off a small road. Because there are tall hedges, you can’t see the stones from the road. There was a hermitty-looking little man in a little booth, selling some very weary Rollright Stone souvenirs… I’m not sure how much business he really gets. We paid 50p each (25p for Kelly) to go behind the hedge and walk among the stones. Kelly tried to count the stones and says there are 75. We were then also able to cross the road to look at another possibly-related stone and take in an absolutely beautiful view. Our friends Fred and Jeanne have always joked about their visit to the Rollright Stones, so now we can tell them we’ve been here too.

I fixed dinner while Kelly and Charley went down to the park—the two girls weren’t there tonight, but they still had a good time. I fixed a peppercorn Chicken Tonight dish with risotto and sugar snap peas—plain chicken with pasta and leftover spaghetti sauce for Kelly, though she did eat the sugar snap peas. We finished our Mr. Holland movie and enjoyed it a lot.

Thursday, July 15

Today was one of the very best days of our trip. We had really decent weather (almost 80º)—I actually wore capris and sandals for the first time since London. We spent most of the day in Stratford-on-Avon, about 30 minutes north of Moreton. Moreton is just on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, and the environment changed pretty quickly… mainly due to the difference in building construction, I think. Stratford is the birthplace, home, and final resting place of William Shakespeare… almost 450 years later he still has a tremendous impact on his hometown.

We left Blockley about 9:30 am and parked in a big car pack near a leisure center. From there we walked a few minutes to the Tourist Information Center and a beautiful Shakespeare memorial by the River Avon: a statue of Shakespeare surrounded by life-size statues of four of his most famous characters (Falstaff, Prince Hal, Lady Macbeth, and Hamlet). The four statues represent the genres of his plays: comedy, history, tragedy and philosophy.

I watched canal boats going through the locks. Canal boats are flat narrow boats, usually very colorful, that are equipped somewhat like a mobile home. The boats travel on various inland canal systems throughout England, navigating their way through a series of locks and tying up each night. The papers have recently carried photos of Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart and her young son on a canal boat vacation in Wales. There were two boats going through the Stratford lock together while I watched—two retired American couples and a British family with two children about Kelly’s age. The people on the boats have to run between both ends of the lock, opening and closing gates and raising and lowering the water. I think this would be an interesting way to travel around England, though I would not want to go through the lock at Stratford-on-Avon—there must have been at least 100 spectators!

Charley and Kelly were also learning about the canal boats… they had struck up a conversation with some people on a boat over where the boats were docked… a couple with a dog (which was Kelly’s initial attraction) and a pet chinchilla of all things. I was trying to get Charley’s attention to come over to where I was watching the boat on the lock and saw him wave at me. All of a sudden he was gone. I went over to where I had seen him by the boats—no sign of him or Kelly. I figured he somehow must be down inside one of the boats. I sat on a bench and waited maybe ten minutes—then he and Kelly came out of a boat, the one with the dog and the chinchilla. They had gotten a complete tour of the boat. The woman, her husband, and an elderly father spend half the year traveling on their canal boat (named Mandalay) and half the year living in Newcastle. She gave Charley her information and even offered the use of her house (free!) if we ever wanted to spend time in Newcastle.

We walked through the pretty riverside park up through the town of Stratford-on-Avon… a very good shopping town. There was a Whittards tea shop and I bought Kelly another kind of the flavored instant tea mix like we had bought in Cambridge. Whittards is a place I would do some major shopping (for me and for others) if we were on a “normal” vacation to England. Becky Rohde would love this shop! Next door to Whittards was a shop with all kinds of liquids in barrels—oil, wine and liquors—that were then poured into custom bottles. Charley surprised me with some Bailey’s Irish Crème. Kelly and I found a Christmas shop with a whole line of hedgehog products—we couldn’t resist! We also stopped in a stuffed animal shop and would have bought a small stuffed badger… but none were left. The man in the shop said the toy badgers are very popular because no one sees a real badger—they only see them dead on the road. Sad! We are not sure if badgers really exist… perhaps they’re mythical animals like unicorns. Kelly and Charley call them “baxters.” We think Baxter would be a great name for a dog.

Although we’re just 30 minutes from Blockley, Stratford is entirely different than a Cotswolds town, mainly because of the style of architecture. In the Cotswolds the houses are all built of the famous Cotswolds stone… a golden honey color. Stratford’s old buildings are made of a reddish stone or brick and there are many buildings constructed in a tutor style.

There are five different homes that can be visited related to Shakespeare… his birthplace, his wife’s home (the well-known Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, which is about a mile out of town), his mother’s home, his daughter’s home, his granddaughter’s home… you can get a discount ticket to go to three or five of these houses—not cheap and unfortunately not National Trust. I originally thought we might go to the birthplace and then walk out to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage… and I also originally thought we might also go to Warwick Castle in the afternoon. I realized when we arrived and lingered at the canal boats that we needed to just focus on Stratford and enjoy the day… not try to do too much.

I did really want to go in Shakespeare’s birthplace, which is the home where they believe he was born in 1564 and where he grew up. There was also a very good exhibit about his life and work. Charley decided he didn’t really need to see this, so he waited on a bench out on the street and did one of his favorite things—“watch the world go by.” Kelly and I went in and read and looked at just about everything. There’s an amazing amount of documentation about the lives of Shakespeare’s parents and Shakespeare’s own life. He became a fairly famous person during his own lifetime, and he and his father were important people in Stratford-on-Avon. Kelly is reading a book now related to Shakespeare—a fictionalized story that involves him and several of his contemporaries. She was very excited that several of the characters in her book were mentioned in the exhibit. After we walked through the exhibit, we walked through the house itself, furnished much as it would have been during Shakespeare’s time. The beds looked very uncomfortable! Tourists have been visiting here for over 250 years… in fact, the owner of Shakespeare’s adult home finally tore it down in frustration over all the attention from the tourists.

After we met back up with Charley, we needed lunch. Kelly wanted Pizza Hut—we had seen one on our way to the Birthplace in a very old building. Charley and I absolutely did not want Pizza Hut, so we ordered a pizza to go for Kelly and she waited inside for her pizza to be made while Charley went down the street in search of sandwiches for us. I waited on the street outside and took a few photos of the beautiful old buildings. We ate our lunch in the park by the river. After lunch we decided to go on a little boat cruise down the Avon. Charley bought a bag of day-old bread, and he and Kelly fed the ducks, geese and swans… hoards of them in a feeding frenzy. Charley and Kelly really do like feeding the water birds, which doesn’t really interest me much at all.

Our boat ride was in a little canal-type boat that glided along the narrow river… about 30 minutes. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. Just a few minutes and we were out of busy Stratford.

After our boat ride, we walked down the river to Trinity Church, which we had seen from the water. Parts of this church were built in the 12th century. Shakespeare was baptized here, and he and several of his family members are buried here. It was a pretty walk down to the old church. Shakespeare and his family are buried right up by the altar, recognizing his important role in the town and the church. We’ve seen the graves of many famous people on this trip.

From Stratford we decided to drive down to Stow-on-the-Wold. Charley really wanted to spend some time there. We arrived in Stow about 4:45 pm and stopped in the art gallery where we had bought our 10th anniversary painting in 2000. We have exchanged Christmas cards with the gallery owner we had bought the painting from and hoped to see her, but she wasn’t there today so we just left her a message. We browsed through the gallery, wishing we could buy another painting. There were three other paintings by our artist—Elizabeth Steele… we recognized them instantly. The women we talked to said she isn’t painting anymore… she’s an older artist. I would have loved to buy one of the three!

We walked around the town… shopped at Tourist Information… then took Kelly’s photo at the market cross and the old stocks for the third time. We sat on a bench outside the Old Stocks Hotel where we had stayed in 2002, colorful today with flowers and Union Jack flags. I like Stow, but I’m glad we’re staying in a place that’s not quite so busy.

We wanted to eat again at the Horse and Hound in Broadway, where we’d enjoyed the atmosphere and had such a good meal in 2002… after our long walking day and falls in the mud. We traveled an interesting way through Upper Swell and Snowshill, where we saw the lavender again. We had the same table in the pub restaurant where we’d eaten before, and we splurged on a good meal including a shared dessert. (We’ve eaten out a lot this week and don’t expect to eat out much next week…) Our waiter was from Poland. Charley and I had Steak, Mushroom and Ale pie—good! Kelly had chicken and fries, and she even ate her broccoli and carrots.

We drove back the most direct way to Blockley… back to our sweet little Michaelmas Cottage. We really hate that this week is almost over.

Friday, July 16

Our last day in the Cotswolds was another really great day. We had decent weather… actually really beautiful at some times. We left the cottage about 11:00 am headed on a walk to Sezincote, an unusual house about three miles away. On our way out of the village, we stopped to walk through the old Blockley church, which was quite interesting. There’s been a church here for over a thousand years—this building dates back to 1180.

As we walked down the hill from the church, a woman with a big black dog was at her big gate next to the church. We spoke to her about the dog and then I commented on her pretty garden, which we could just see a bit through the gate. We talked for a few minutes and then to our surprise she said, “Would you like to see inside?” Of course, we accepted eagerly. I thought perhaps she was just going to show her garden, but this wonderful woman—Zoe Thompson—ended up giving us a complete tour of her home and garden… her absolutely beautiful home and garden. She and her husband George bought the old Manor House (where the bishops of the church once lived) about eight years ago and have restored what was really almost falling apart. Parts of the house date back to the 1500’s, and several of the walls actually hold up the side of the cemetery. The house was amazing and has been redone just beautifully… about eight bedrooms over three floors, not counting the cellar (which we also saw). They had so many unique things. I especially liked the big kitchen with the big old fireplace and a big blue Aga stove. (I had read an article in Cotswolds Life about the Aga stoves and would absolutely love to have one!) The Thompsons have beautiful gardens as well… formal gardens, a small stream, an orchard, and a big vegetable and cutting flower garden. (Their property borders Mill Dene garden, and we realized we had actually looked into their garden earlier in the week.) George was also very nice… he had been involved in horseracing… at first I thought as a jockey due to his size, but Zoe said he had owned horses. He still has a part-ownership in one horse, which is running a race tomorrow. She also told us that he was 72—impossible to believe. They had just vacationed in Mousehole the previous week. We were in awe that they had shared their home with us in such detail… based on a short interaction out on the street. This was truly one of the highlights of our trip so far.

After leaving the Thompsons, we walked up the steep hill above Blockley. Kelly remembered a stone wall with a vantage point of the village, so we sat there to eat our picnic lunch. Just as we were finishing, a middle-aged couple from Canada struggled up the hill and we visited with them for about ten minutes. They were on a circular walking tour of the Cotswolds… sounded very much like our walk. We cut over towards Bourton-on-the-Hill on a small rural road and from there it was an easy walk across a couple of fields to Sezincote. We walked through two fields of cows, though, which I don’t really like… one field had a very big bull.

We circled around Sezincote to get to the entrance. I thought it was pricey-- ₤5 each to see the house and gardens. Children weren’t allowed, but we paid the adult price for Kelly and so she was then allowed. The house was built in the late 1800s and is best known for its unique Indian style… the only Moghul-style building in Western Europe. The gardens were very pretty with some interesting features. We walked around the gardens and then went on a tour of the house at 3:30… another kind of musty house, but quite interesting with some beautiful things. The older woman who gave the tour was quite good… we were able to see maybe five rooms. I enjoy going on guided tours because you do learn a lot you wouldn’t otherwise pick up. We had our backpacks and when we went in, we asked if there was a place we could leave our packs. (I was afraid we would too easily bump against something.) The woman said that anyone who wanted to leave something could set them down and they would be moved to where we would end the tour. We put our packs where she directed and a couple of other people put things too. As she started into her spiel, an elderly woman—very stooped-over, maybe in her 80’s—came in and carried off our backpacks. We felt terrible that this great-grandmother was lugging our messy packs!

It was an easy walk back from Sezincote, and we walked part of the way with a nice couple who live at Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham. They enjoy traveling and were interested to hear about our trip. When we got back to Blockley, we stopped at the Crown Pub for a cold beer (a cold J2O for Kelly) and sat outside at a picnic table. I wish we had been able to spend some “pub-time” in Blockley—Zoe told us George goes over to the other pub (the Great Western) almost every night. We had an early dinner in the sunroom at the cottage… pizza, which got a bit too well done for my liking. After dinner, we watched the first night of the Proms (big series of classical concerts from the Royal Albert Hall) on BBC—I especially enjoyed Holst’s The Planets.

We really really like it here and wish were staying at least one more week… or three or four! Perhaps we can have an extended stay in the Cotswolds sometime. Charley and I kept looking at ads for houses for sale in Cotswold Life magazine—this cottage has a great supply of magazines. The environment and lifestyle here really appeal to us… it’s just incredibly expensive! I know we will be back in the Cotswolds again, hopefully sometime soon.