Owlpen Manor Cotswolds

... of the town and headed over to Burton-on-the-water (known as the Venice of the Cotswalds). Burton-on-the-water is very picturesque and has an excellent motor museum and one of the best shoe shops! Chezza almost found some boots that fitted correctly.... So close but oh so far! exciting! In Burton there was also a perfumery which didn't exactly smell that nice!

We borrowed Mats GPS navigation thingy for the car so I programme in our next ...

On Saturday we travelled through some not so touristy Cotswolds towns/villages, Leichlade (where there was a cool christmas shop), Buscot Weir ( where we saw the river lock working), Quinington ( had a pub lunch in a small village near here). We had a great day with Mary and Moe. On the Sunday we headed back to Grays, we dropped into Windsor on the way. It was packed with tourist, cute shops and a massive castle. The queen was in because the flag was up.

... Castle, we found that it was almost 10 pounds to see the restored prison and to wander about on the Castle Mound in the boiling heat. Neither of us thought that was a great idea. The whole area has been restored and re-developed (Oxford Castle - Unlocked) so it is quite upscale with little boutiques and classy delis and restaurants galore. The tourist brochure says "For the first time in 1000 years, the secrets of Oxford Castle have been Unlocked revealing episodes of VIOLENCE ...

... 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 ...

... on doing the 4 hour walk (9 miles) but due to the bad directions ended up getting lost, going to village that wasn't even on our map and did the 2 hour walk in 3-1/2 hours and walked about 10 miles. We started off uphill to the top of Dover Hill where snow totally covered the ...

... ticket to London on the National Express Coach for 13 pound 50 for both of us. Got it heaps cheaper because booking 3 days in advance ($31). Went for a hot chocolate at Costa’s in a lovely Tudor building. Changed $200 Aus to 79 pounds, bought a vegetable pastie and then went through Shakespeare’s birthplace 9 pounds ($21). Lovely home from the 1500s ...

... another pretty little Cotswold village with a stream, pub and a trout farm. We had a map with directions and they were very bad directions, because we got lost from box 1 and ended up doing the walk back to front and totally wrong sections. It snowed the whole time and was wet snow so after a couple of ...

... old buildings – Lord Leicester Hospital- timber-framed buildings built in the 1500s. Okens House, near the Castle Gates and Mill Street – a gorgeous cobblestoned street of pre-fire houses that survived the great fire of 1694 destroying most of the medieval town.















Stephen and ...

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We then went home and went for a drive to Bourton-on-the-Water. We paid 3 pounds to park the car for 3 hours and walked into the village called the Venice of the Cotswolds due to the number of little bridges over the shallow little stream running through the middle. Has lovely pubs and beautiful shops. Stopped for lunch and ...

... Mews. They have a lovely one bedroom upstairs apartment. Nathan and I sleep on a blow-up bed behind the map divider in the lounge. The map divider is great – wallpaper of the map of the world. Makes you want to explore the world. Had a dinner of Roast Chicken and veggies – all premade and just heated up. So yummy! In bed asleep by 8 pm UK time – 12 midnight Dubai time.