A Day in the Cotswolds

I wasn't in England for a full 24 hours before I was whisked off to the Cotwolds, a beautiful region west of Oxford with rolling hills, green spaces, sheep dotting the landscape, creamy coloured buildings, and lots of history and scenic drives. 

Before any adventuring began, we had to stop for coffee, at Brew, one of my favourite tiny coffee shops on the north side of Oxford. They use this old fashioned copper espresso machine, which seems to take longer, but the wait is completely worth it for the delicious flat white I always get there. The crew on the day into the Cotswolds included my mum and me, and my friend Amber and her husband Brady, who live in Lebanon, and were able to coordinate their trip with mine so we could meet up! That was a huge highlight, of course.

We drove into the Cotswolds, about an hour, to Sudeley Castle. The castle has 1,000 years of history, and the family who currently lives there has been in residence for 200 years. Sudeley has a church on site, St. Mary's Church, which holds the once lost tomb of the 6th wife of King Henry VIII, Queen Katherine Parr. The tomb was lost but was re-discovered in the 18th century. She died in 1548, and is the only English queen to have been buried in a private residence. There is also history of King Richard III (who died in 1485) who owned Sudeley twice during his lifetime.

We toured the castle, but couldn't take photos inside, as the family still lives there, and many of the rooms we walked through are used regularly. They were grand, ornate, and full of interesting details. I could have stayed in the library for hours, as they have over 1,000 first edition books. Outside, there was so much to see. The labyrinth, the grounds, the pheasantry, the ruins of the 16th century banquet hall, and the view of the land surrounding. Amber made friends with the peacock, and then the peacock stepped out along the path with us and started to follow us. I would walk 5 steps, and the peacock would follow. I don't like getting up close and personal with animals, so I was nervous he would suddenly decide he didn't like the colour of my scarf and come after me, but as we all started walking, Mr. Peacock actually lead us along the path, until we reached a bridge, when he departed under the fence to head back to his spot. He was just guiding us out, I suppose.

We were all quite hungry, but were late for lunch, and we ended up being turned away from two pubs. We realized that pubs stop serving food at 2 pm. So, we stopped at a Tesco (grocery store) and got warm beef pasties, and ate them in the car. The rain started getting worse, and the wind grew stronger, but we drove through various small villages in the Cotswolds until the weather was really bad, and we headed back to Oxford. 

A nicer dinner was in order, so we decided to go to The Trout Inn, which is a lovely spot on the river (north of Oxford). I was interested in eating here because C.S. Lewis would stop here on his many walking tours for a beer and nourishment. Needless to say, the dinner made up for all the rain that spoiled some of our touring plans.