Coombe House Bed and Breakfast Bourton-on-the-Water

With time rapidly dwindling I went down to Banbury way this afternoon to visit my brother et famille before I leave, taking the opportunity to say goobye to two young nephews - one of whom was able to appreciate some of the implications of what I am doing, "But what if you get sick?" he asked. :-)

Back up to Stoke in the late evening. Last day of preparations tomorrow.

... itinerary items had taken some time. Thus, the decision was made to try to ditch part of the itinerary for tomorrow and try to make it back.

Bourton on the Water is the Cotswold village we are staying in tonight. The "water" is a cute little stream about 30cm deep and 2m wide. It is very quiant and we had dinner beside the river before gonig for a wander around the town- a very pleasant way to sepnd an evening.

... kids. There really isn't much you can do about it either as they travel in packs of dozen or more. There was one occasion in particular we were walking home threw a park after dark on a Friday after getting some groceries. The closest large grocery store we know of requires us to walk threw a park which is fine during the day but being in a pitch black park away from eyes at night is a little unnerving. All three of us were together but as we neared the end of ...

Well we're finally back home and have had a fantastic time. We hope you've enjoyed reading our blogs and haven't got too jealous!! Photo's are still being uploaded for the last few places and we'll add the links to the relevant blog entries once they're done so keep checking the entries if you want to see them.

... Earl of Leicester, transformed Kenilworth from a medieval fortress into one of the greatest Tudor palaces so he could entertain Queen Elizabeth I in style for 19 days in 1575, costing millions of pounds. The Keep was breeched during the Civil War in the 1600s. The Great Hall where they dined was huge. It was so cold ...

... church of St. Lawrence. We then crossed little streams and did a huge uphill walk in deep mud tracks. At the top of the hill we followed the road back to Chipping Campden for the next 2-3/4 miles. The wind howled at times and was freezing. We passed fields of black sheep and then ...

... crooked walls, stone floors and period furniture. Youngest children slept in a trundle (trunkle bed) until old enough to handle a candle in their parents room and then up to 4 of them share a largish single bed.





We then walked around the markets and then past Garrick’s Inn, Nash’s house, the Alms houses and Hall’s ...

... br>





We had thought to bring spare shoes with us to change into but hadn’t thought about spare jeans. Nathan had mud up the inside of his legs past his knees and so we made him strip down to his undies to get into the car. My jeans were wet and muddy, at least the bottom 8 ...

... and river and beautiful country on the other. It was started in 1068 by William the Conqueror. It was owned until 1978 by the Earls of Warwick and then bought the Tussaud Group. We walked over the drawbridge and explored first in the towers of the Gatehouse and Barbican. They had 2 port cullis to lower to keep people out and if they trapped people ...

... make it there, and at what time, we could have booked tickets for the tour ahead of time. As it was, we hadn't, and didn't, so the next available tour was 3 hours away. No worry -- we could keep ourselves plenty amused by shopping!! Everyone else had completed their shopping, and I was nearly done, when the fire alarm ...