The Cotswolds

We got up early today and had a very nice breakfast at our B&B.  This is a photo of the house -

Our car is the one on the right.

As we were finishing breakfast our friends Nigel & Carol arrived.  They drove from their home 11/2 hours away to show us around the area.  Nigel grew up in the Cotswolds.  Carol grew up in Texas.  They are very similar areas.  Not!  

The Cotswolds are full of charming villages.  First we made a brief visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the village that William Shakespeare is from.  We saw the school he attended.  Now that's an old school!  

We then went to Hidcote Gardens.  They were beautiful!  Hidcote was the first place to make 'garden rooms.'

We had lunch at the cafe at Hidcote, then set off to see some other towns with names like - 

Guiting Power, Bourbon-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Burford.  We had tea and cake in Burford, at a place called Huffkins.  They've been in business since 1890.  The Cotswolds are crisscrossed with walking trails.  People from all over the world come to hike them.  Carol, Jim and I walked the trail from the town Upper Slaughter to Lower Slaughter.  Nigel dropped us off and picked us up.  As we were on the trail church bells started ringing.  A couple had just gotten married.

The Cotwolds are actually named the Cotswold Hills.  The countryside is beautiful.  Most of the buildings are made from stone.  Some buildings have thatched roofs. There are dry stacked stone walls everywhere.

It was a very busy day, and there is so much to see.  Nigel & Carol have very kindly offered to come back tomorrow to take us to more villages.  It's nice to see the things that a local knows about.  We wouldn't have found a lot of the things we saw today without them, as they aren't in guidebooks.  I'm looking forward to their company and seeing more of this beautiful area.