Avebury, Bleinheim, Stow-on-the-Wold

On the way to the Cotswolds we made several side trips. The first was a look at the tiny village of Lacock. Next, we visited the village of Avebury and took a walking tour of three mysterious prehistoric stone circles.

On our drive we spotted two white horses in the hillsides that were made from cutting deep into a hillside, creating large trenches up to 3 feet deep of chalk, a soft and white form of limestone. These date back as far as the early 1700s and one dates from 1380 BC to 550 BC. There are others in England including ones of human figures. I thought it was cool. They show up from great distances.

Spring is alive here, and I’ve seen lots of very deep purple lilacs, wisteria all over houses and buildings, bluebells everywhere, peonies and ornamental trees in profuse blooms. We have seen many bright yellow fields of rapeseed. It’s what we call canola. They have strange names for things…rocket is arugula, crisps are what we call chips, chips are French fries, a pavement is a sidewalk, a flannel is a washcloth, a public school is a private school and a state school is a public school! I could go on and on and let me tell you, it gets confusing!

Then we drove to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Queen Anne made John Churchill the first Duke of Marlborough, gave him the land, and helped him finance the palace back in the early 1700s because he won some big battle for England. It’s been in the Churchill/Spenser (as in Princess Diana Spencer) family for over 300 years. It’s still the home of the dukes of Marlborough. We toured the gardens in the rain!

We are staying at the Sheep on Sheep Street in the charming town of Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds. It dates to pre-Roman times and the location was a place for medieval sheep markets where sheep and wool trade was a thriving business.Read more