Part 1--the first week in the Southwest
Last year with momentous events going on in the UK (the Diamond Jubilee and the Queen’s death and funeral), I was absent. And after much thought, I decided not to go for Charles’ coronation, when for years I thought I would be in the UK to see all the hoopla. Now I just figured that the best place to see it all, as I wanted to do, was in front of my TV. But I couldn’t go another year without going, so in August I did go—with a friend who had never been there. Thus the tour guide appellation.
I asked Rita what kinds of things she wanted to see and planned a trip around that. We ended up making a round trip by car from Oxford, seeing the Cotswolds, Bath, Wells, Glastonbury, and Stonehenge. Then we spent another week in London which never fails to thrill me no matter how many times I have seen the monuments and walked the familiar streets.
Thursday. A busy week proceeded our trip, so I was packing up to the last minute when Martha picked us up to take us to GSP. We flew to Charlotte for a short layover and then left on time for Heathrow. After a pretty good dinner (chicken and couscous), I tried to sleep. I got a little though I also spent uncomfortable periods as a result of an infusion earlier in the week. Rita said she didn’t sleep. But that didn’t stop us. We had a full day ahead.
Friday. We got through passport control and customs without talking to a single person. It was really quick unlike some arrivals I have experienced in the past. I had booked a 10:17 Heathrow Express to Paddington, but we took an earlier one and were thus way early for our 10:53 train to Oxford. We spent the time at a coffee bar in the station. The train to Oxford was only 45 minutes.
I had seen on Google maps that something was up with the streets in Oxford when I looked at the route from the train station to the place where we were picking up the rental car. It turned out that they were putting in more train tracks near the station which affected the bridge over the tracks and roads near that bridge. We hailed a taxi which the driver apologetically told us would be expensive because of the incredibly round-about route he had to take to get us what was actually less than a mile on normal streets. We could have walked it—and did on our return.
We got the rental easily enough—a Toyota Corolla 1.8 which was a mini-SUV—but the next couple of hours were a nightmare. It was 2 1/2 hours before we got out of the Oxford area. I had printed some Google maps for our trip which turned out to be inadequate. In any built-up area there are always lots of busy roads crossing one another. And in the UK, of course, they cross at complicated roundabouts. We several times took the wrong exit, one time going several miles south of Oxford when we were supposed to be going north. I finally said to Rita that we were going to have to pay the Verizon daily $10 charge so that we could use the GPS. We used Rita’s phone for the rest of the time with the car. It was a necessity! Even then we made some goofs, one time winding up in a housing development in a small town which I realized had happened because in our attempt to leave Oxford we put in a town along our route rather than our final destination. Once we put that in, we were on our way.
Our plan was to start at the northern part of the Cotswolds and proceed south. I had booked a hotel in Mickelton, a little town just north of Chipping Campden for the first night. After driving on some narrow roads with no numbers, we arrived at a lovely town and a lovely hotel. But we were soon off to Chipping Campden before we lost the light. The rest of the plan for the day had to be chucked (a walk to a nearby town and a visit to some gardens) in favor of doing the rest of the plan which was walking the streets of the charming CC. Here Rita was first exposed to the pretty yellow native limestone used as building material that defines the Cotswolds.
And, by the way, there are two theories about the name Cotswold. One is that ‘cots’ means sheep enclosure and ‘wold’ means gentle hills, so Cotswold means an area of gentle hills with plenty of sheep around. The second theory is that there was a 12th century Saxon chief named Cod who owned high land; thus his property was named Cotswolds.
After wandering a bit, we sat down to our first meal which was very relaxing after our stressful day. Back at the hotel we still weren’t sleepy for quite awhile.
 |
| Yellow limestone of the Cotswolds |
 |
| Chipping Campden market hall |
 |
| Chipping Campden street |
 |
I've always liked to look at the real estate pictures
and marvel at the prices |
Saturday. We started with a good breakfast including tasty red fruits in juices for the yogurt and granola and also including the usual English breakfast foods—eggs, ham, cheese, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, toast, tea. The only item we didn’t encounter on this trip was the fried bread which isn’t my favorite anyway. Croissants are a nice addition. The plan for today was to drive through several Cotswolds villages and stop at a few of them. Blockley (a popular setting for films) was a drive-through and Bourton-on-the-Hill didn’t seem to be where the GPS said it was. We were on a hill, but there was no Bourton. We went on. We skipped Broadway in favor of Moreton-in-Marsh. It was Saturday market day and quite crowded, and we had a hard time finding a parking place. We visited several of the shops, the most interesting to me being one selling furniture and furnishings. It’s always fun for me to see contemporary styles.
 |
| Martha's coffee shop in Moreton-in-Marsh |
 |
For some reason I've always liked wheat fields--
perhaps from childhood in Iowa |
 |
| View from the car near Moreton-in-Marsh |
I had the Jacobean Stanway House on my list, but it wasn’t open on Sat. And Chastleton House wasn’t open until 2, and we were much earlier than that. So we pushed on to Snowshill instead—and were glad we did. There we visited the intriguing Snowshill Manor set in lovely terrain much of which we saw on our walk from the visitors’ centre to the house. The 15th century manor was the home of Charles Wade, an eccentric artist, architect, craftsman, poet and collector, who bought the property in 1919 and willed it to the National Trust. He viewed his home and gardens as works of art together with the everyday objects with which he filled the house (and I do mean filled!) and in which he found beauty. But he didn’t want it to be a museum with labels and precise lighting, and it isn’t. The rooms are filled with an eclectic mix of most any kind of object you can imagine, sometimes seen in dim light. It was a most interesting place.
 |
A few of the remaining sheep for which
the Cotswolds was once known |
 |
| Side view of the manor |
 |
Wonderful sentiment:
Hours fly..Flowers die..
New Days..New Ways..
Pass by..Love Stays |
 |
| Love these flowers--so perfect |
I wanted to make sure we got to Tewkesbury in time to visit the Abbey. Rita took her first turn at driving with me navigating. She later decided that she preferred it that way and drove the rest of the time. We parked in a Pay and Display and hurried to the Abbey. It is quite simple inside, Romanesque (called Norman in the UK) begun in 1102. It has wonderful ceilings (as many of the English cathedrals and large churches do) and many tombs for abbots.
 |
| Tewkesbury Abbey |
 |
| View of the tower |
 |
The highly decorated pulpit
|
 |
| The fan vaulting--so beautiful |
 |
| View of the quire and apse |
 |
Example of the always beautiful
kneelers in English churches |
 |
| One of the beautiful stained glass windows |
 |
| View of the nave |
 |
| The font and Romanesque pillars |
When Glenna was in first grade, we took her out of school for a two-week trip. To make up for the lost school time, we had her read books and write and sketch in a notebook. At Tewkesbury she sat on a bench and sketched the church while we were otherwise occupied, so I had Rita take a picture of me on that bench imitating Glenna sketching.
 |
| Me on the bench where Glenna sketched |
Our hotel that night was with a Singaporean lady who had done a wonderful job of restoring a very old building and who very kindly let us park in her private lot blocking a car that wouldn’t be leaving Sunday morning because they would be watching the Women’s World Cup Finals—England vs Spain--which England unfortunately lost. We had a great Italian meal that evening after exploring the town a little.
 |
| Tewkesbury street |
Sunday. After breakfast we set off for Stow-on-the-Wold with the intention of doing what was billed as one of the best Cotswold hikes. We explored the town a bit, actually looking for tourist information which was closed. We came across St Edwards Church where the service was about to begin. I popped in for a minute (and two pictures) under Rita’s disapproving eye.
 |
| St Edwards Church in Stow-on-the-Wold |
We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the path we were to take (which is why we were looking for TI) but eventually found the sign. We walked almost 5 miles to Lower Slaughter sometimes downhill but mostly flat through pretty countryside, sometimes with the animals, through farmsteads and fields. The UK has a network of footpaths that go right through people’s property which walkers are allowed to traverse. This one was quite well marked. We followed the little yellow signs and only missed one once, eventually getting back on track and making it to Lower Slaughter, a very picturesque town with a river and a mill and a pretty church which we looked in on—no service since it was afternoon!
 |
| One of the yellow footpath signs |
 |
| Gorgeous view on our hike |
 |
| Rita at the River Dikler |
 |
| Betty on the same bridge |
 |
| St Mary's Church in Lower Slaughter |
 |
| Interior of St Mary's Church |
 |
| Stream and walkway in Lower Slaughter |
 |
| Lower Slaughter row of houses |
 |
| Lower Slaughter mill |
We took a taxi back to Stow with a very friendly driver who took us to an ATM as he required cash and we had very little and then to the lot where we picked up our car. We set out for Bibury but got turned around somehow and wound up back in Stow where we got petrol but had a heck of a time finding the petrol cap. A couple of people helped us look; we actually had to Google it. This was only one of several times that we had to backtrack. The driving was definitely not easy. The English minor roads are often quite narrow with the hedges sometimes right up to the road, and they have always had a habit of parking just anywhere including taking up almost a whole lane of a two-lane road. In addition, the roundabouts are often quite complicated with several roads crossing at one place. It got so we would heave a sigh of relief after getting through a roundabout and being told by the GPS that it was 5 miles to the next one. I have never been so glad to give up a rental car as we did several days later in Oxford. I vowed that I would not drive overseas again. It was just too stressful whether as driver or navigator. I guess I am finally too old and anxious to do it anymore.
So after our petrol adventure we were back in the car on our way to Cirencester, skipping Bibury with its iconic Arlington Row and a few others. We easily found our pub hotel where the proprietress was very nice. We were on the ground floor with our car right outside the door. That’s much better than hauling bags up two steep flights of steps as we had to the night before. As we headed out for dinner, it started to rain hard, the only significant rain we had during the trip.
Our host had recommended The Fleece, a vibrant, busy place with lots of 20-somethings in big groups. We had our first fish and chips with minty crushed peas (they seem to be getting away from the awful mushy peas). We took a walk afterward to find a breakfast place since I wanted to go to the Monday market that always used to be so good. Today I recorded 6.1 miles, 14,557 steps. Rita consistently got 1500-2000 more steps than I did. She said it was because I don’t swing my watch arm (I carry my purse on that side.) so it doesn’t record me as walking.
 |
| Cirencester street |
Monday. Well, the market was tiny as our host had warned us. But I did get three things. While waiting for it to be set up, we had a yummy breakfast of sorts and spoke for awhile to a young doctor from Boston who was visiting friends. Then it was on to Wells and another stressful day in the car. We weren’t far out of Cirencester when I heard a noise on my side. We had a flat tire! We were able to pull off in a layby where Rita thought she could change the tire to the donut. She was having trouble figuring out the jack when a couple stopped to see if they could help. They finally said we should just call the rental car company which I then did. The lady on the phone who was somewhere on the Continent wanted me to give her the postal code of where we were which I, of course, had no clue about. Meanwhile two guys in a highway vehicle pulled up, saying they were also mechanics and could they help. They got the donut on in short order and recommended that we go back to Cirencester and even gave us a particular place to go which we found fairly easily. We had a new tire in no time and were on our way again. Throughout the trip we got help from very kind people when we needed it. I don’t know if it was because we looked helpless or old or they were just nice. I don’t remember such over-the-top generosity in the past, so maybe I’ll go with old.
We got to the Park and Ride near Bath without incident and were soon on the shuttle to the city centre. We went first to Bath Abbey where they had nice displays using as the theme the depictions in several of their stained glass windows. For each there was an interpretation in yarn sculpture and calligraphy. The church has the fan vaulting that I so like, and Rita really liked the chandeliers.
 |
| Bath Abbey |
 |
| Typical effusive memorial from the past |
 |
| Sermon on the Mount--calligraphy and yarn sculpture |
 |
| Pretty altar cloth |
 |
| Stained glass and chandelier |
 |
| More fan vaulting |
 |
| Longer view of the nave ceiling |
We should have gotten tickets for the Roman Baths when got there. When we did get to the ticket line, we got a time two hours later. We decided to have lunch in a nice pub and browse some shops while we waited. I’ve been here several times, the last one being in 2012 with Glenna. They had introduced a new audio tour which was very good, and it also included holograms of Romans doing what Romans did at a bath. I enjoyed it all over again this time.
 |
| One of the baths from above |
 |
| Rita at the Roman Baths |
 |
| Me at baths with the Abbey in the background |
 |
| One of the holograms |
 |
| The main bath |
Our stop that night was Wells, not far away but we annoyed a lot of drivers by driving rather slowly after our earlier experiences. Once again we were back-and-forthing to find our hotel which was built in 1450. They had messed up and given us a double bed; when we protested they kindly put a cot in our large room which worked out just fine. We found a place down the street for dinner where I had a delicious sesame noodle salad.
Tuesday. We were right next to Wells Cathedral grounds which was the reason we came to Wells. It is one of my favorite cathedrals. It is famous for its west front façade and the scissor arch at the crossing, but my favorite part has always been the chapter room which is reached by ancient, steep stone steps. They had an art competition going on, so we saw some very interesting installations.
 |
North side of Wells Cathedral--
the iconic front had scaffolding |
 |
| Close-up of north side |
 |
| Also iconic--the scissor arches |
Back in the car, we were on our way to Glastonbury to visit the Abbey ruins. Again we had trouble finding a place to park until we lucked into a space on the street behind the abbey.
 |
| Rita standing beside our car in Glastonbury |
I really like ruins (my favorite is probably Tintern Abbey, not too far from where we were but too far to go there on this trip). They let my imagination run wild. This one is famous because it contains a thorn tree that was supposedly associated with Joseph of Arimathea who visited ancient Britain and also is the supposed burial place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The historical record chronicles a late 7th century Saxon church; whether there was a religious settlement here before that time is a matter of faith. The abbey is a ruin today because of Henry VIII’s policy of stripping all the abbeys of their Catholic associations as well as the very building stones. This trip I also got to experience the very good museum they have added which tells who lived in the area and how they lived back in the day.
 |
| The Glastonbury Thorn |
 |
| Woodworking using the old methods |
 |
| Entrance to the Abbey church |
 |
| A tangle of arches--my favorite part of a church ruin |
 |
| Some of the Abbey church ruins |
 |
The amazing Abbott's kitchen,
the only part that survived intact |
 |
| Ceiling of Abbott's kitchen |
 |
| The Abbott's Kitchen from outside |
Because of its association with the mystical Glastonbury many years ago became a haven for the hippie crowd, the new age crowd and pagans. You can still see that today with all the shops carrying kitschy items associated with the occult or spirituality. Afterward we sat for awhile having a good chocolate chip cookie and a drink—and people watched.
 |
| Sidewalk artist at work |
 |
| Typical Glastonbury shop with lots of kitschy stuff |
Then it was back to the car and on to Stonehenge. It was really slow going at first while still in Glastonbury because there was a truck carrying a very wide mobile home up ahead of us which eventually pulled off. There is a new museum at Stonehenge also (new since I last went anyway) which we went through first—all about why it was built, who lived around there, and the winter festival which brought people from all over the British Isles there for worship as early as 3000 BC. A shuttle took us up closer to the monument. We walked around it on a path pretty far from the stones—so different from the first couple of times I was there when we walked among the stones! On to Marlborough, our stop for the night. We had a good dinner in the hotel and called it a night.
 |
| Ancient skeleton in museum |
 |
| Display of what dwellings would have looked like |
 |
| Interior of dwelling showing how it was constructed |
 |
| Here we are at Stonehenge |
 |
| The stones from a distance |
 |
| Me with the stones in the far distance |
 |
| The heelstone so important to the view on the solstices |
Wednesday. In the morning we decided that this would be our day for a high tea, so we had a big breakfast as our other meal. Too much, it turned out (yogurt/granola/berries, tea, toast, egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato and potato hashbrown!). We reorganized our luggage in the parking lot because this was the day we were giving up the car. Yay!
The drive to Oxford wasn’t bad, and we easily found the car rental company. We were anxious to get out of there as we had added a few items to the car (thank goodness for comprehensive insurance). Instead of taking that long taxi ride again, we walked to our hotel which was very near the train station, so we obviously could have done it the first day also. Oh well.
We couldn’t get our room yet, so we set off with a map. We couldn’t get a ticket for Christ Church College; it is very popular these days because of its association with the Harry Potter movies. So we had to be satisfied by seeing the gardens. Merton College wasn’t open until 2:00, but we got in to Magdalen College which Rick Steves says is the most beautiful. We were there quite awhile, walking all around, visiting the interesting chapel, several quads, the cloister and the dining hall (for which we had to wait until the students cleared out).
 |
| Oxford's Christ Church College and gardens |
 |
| Tower of Oxford's Merton College |
 |
| View of Oxford's Magdalen College from the outside |
 |
| Magdalen College St John's Quad |
 |
| View into the Cloister and Founder's Tower |
 |
| Magdalen Chapel |
 |
| The chapel interior |
 |
| The vestibule of the chapel |
 |
| Magdalen student dining hall |
 |
| Nice ceiling of the dining hall |
Time for our tea, and a good one it was. We had tea/coffee, cucumber, smoked salmon, and egg mayonnaise sandwiches, two scones which were really fluffy even though no clotted cream (!), brownie, lemon pudding, and ginger cake. Delicious. And we were stuffed. So we needed to walk some more.
 |
| The Grand Cafe |
No comments:
Post a Comment