Woklyn

Yesterday’s trip to the Cotswold villages was absolutely all that we could have expected and more. I decided not to attempt the blog last night as it had been a twelve hour day, with a lot of travelling, as well as all the sightseeing. And you can imagine there were a lot of photos to sort through.

You can see from the photos that the weather was perfect. After about an hour and a half travelling out of London and on the motorway, we were on country roads among farms, and then we reached our first stop, Burford, photos 1 and 3. It was a pretty village on a hill, and of course all the shops and houses are old, yet well cared-for. There were lambs in the paddocks (I suppose they’re fields over here, but it seemed pretentious to say that) and though this whole area grew rich on the wool industry, now the fat lambs are the main source of income. Our second stop was at Bibury. This is the classic scene that photos of the Cotswolds show, Arlington Row, photo 2, a row of cottages made from the local cream stone. With a small stream flowing through, it was a classic rustic village scene. Photos 4,7,9 and 10 are also taken there, which in itself tells you what Wok’s favourite place was.

Our lunch stop was at Bourton-on-the-Water, one of those names which gives a description of the place. Photos 1,8. It was bigger and busier, with lots of tourists and locals brought out for the day, along with their dogs, by the beautiful weather. There were a number of stone bridges across the stream, built long before tourist days, to enable the large flocks of sheep to cross on market days. We had fish and chips by the water, walked across each of the bridges, chatted to a couple who’d been to Australia a number of times, and sat on a bench next to a man with whom I talked cricket. I reminded him that we won the ashes, but he was quite reasonable about it. Maybe he wasn’t that committed to the game.

As we left there for or last stop our driver offered us a different route from usual, which was slightly longer. We accepted enthusiastically, and we were so pleased we did. We drove down the classic narrow country lanes, meeting other vehicles which sometimes required one to reverse, through many small villages, and where I’m sure only locals would normally venture. One was called Coln-Rogers, a “blessed village”. The practice in WWI was for all the young men of a village or district to enlist together, sometimes with tragic results. The prefix was added to the village name if all their soldiers returned home. There are only 56 such villages throughout Britain, and only 14 that are doubly blessed, having lost no men in both wars.

Our final stop was Stow-on-the-Wold. As with all these towns their history goes back to Saxon times. The most striking sight here was a door behind one of the churches where there are two ancient yew trees, where everyone has their photos taken.

We were so pleased to have been able to see this beautiful area. Today is our last day. We planned to go to Greenwich on the River Ferry, but discovered there’s a strike!! So now we’re about to decide what alternative we’ll choose.Læs mere