BOURTON ON THE WATER

Wednesday, October 26^th, 2011 Broadway

Awake at 5:30 am….it was an early morning. But I made good use of the time; about 8 am I ate my breakfast that I’d purchased at the grocery store last night. Coffee that was provided in the room; orange juice, roll, banana and dry cereal. By 10 am I had taken my cases to the car and went to help the girls. They’d slept in and were still putting their things together.

We were loaded and ready to leave by 11 am but we took a short walk to the local pharmacy for some cream and ice packs for Barbara’s bruises.

The weather is beautiful…cold…but the sun is shining and it’s a glorious day for exploring the Cotswolds. We drove through rolling hills with red, green and gold colors everywhere. The cold is snapping the trees into fall colors as we drive further north. I hope you enjoyed our rainbow in the photos yesterday.

By noon we’d arrived in a village called Bourton On The Water…a quaint little village that is a magnetic for tourists…they bring them in by the busload. There is a canal that runs through the town and creates a safe haven for ducks and sea gulls. We saw several artists with their sketch pads enjoying the scene. We enjoyed visiting the Dial Hotel where we stayed on our visit in 1996. No room at the Inn so it’s on to another village. We did stay for some shopping and a lunch at the Windrush Café.

After lunch Nancy and I strolled over the Model Village for a bird’s eye view of the village as it was in 1937. At that time a 1/9 scale model of the village was built by the owner of the New Old Inn and it eventually became an internationally known site for visitors from around the world. Barbara had seen it before so used the time for more shopping.

By 2:30 pm we were in the car and heading down the carriageway…only hitting the curb a few times…on our way to Broadway; a slightly larger but still small village to the North West. We had a short period of heavy rain but then the sun came out again before we arrived. On the way we went through the village of Bourton on the Hill…would be nice to know more about “Bourton”….and also had a very long downhill just before Broadway. The downhill was an unexpected surprise. The vistas are fabulous here in the Cotswolds. The scary part of driving is passing those large trucks on these small highways…and the country roads are nail bitting time!

We had another new challenge to find lodging for the night in a new town. After several unsuccessful inquiries…Nancy and Barbara went to the Tourist Office who arranged for us to stay at a B&B in a private home known as Southwold House. It’s only a five minute walk from the center of town and priced well for our budget. When we arrived the owners greeted us with tea and/or coffee before showing us our rooms. We’re up several flights (no elevators…but then we’ve not seen those since London) with a double room and a twin room with in suite baths. Very clean and owners are very nice. We’ll have breakfast here tomorrow before we leave; we filled out a form this evening about what we wanted for breakfast.

Settled in and then got back into the car for our trip into town for dinner about 5:30 pm. We decided on The Swan, a very popular restaurant…it was packed. Since we couldn’t get a table until six o’clock…enjoyed a drink before dinner…my first scotch of the trip!

I ordered French Onion Soup and then Fish and Chips…substituting a salad for the chips. Another flaky and delicious fish…Halibut instead of Cod…that melted in my mouth.

Home to the B&B before 8 am…Barbara and I are sharing the twin room tonight and Nancy has the single room. Switching every other night works well for roommates. Tomorrow we hope to see Stratford Upon Avon; would be nice to have another day like today weather wise. But…we’ll make the best of it; haven’t used our rain ponchos yet so it hasn’t been all that bad. Sure glad we packed smart for three days and haven’t had to move the big suitcases.