Tea Time Travels

After almost 6 months of living our new London life in the fast paced city, we decided to spend Valentine’s Day in the quaint and peaceful Cotswolds. Just a two hour drive from London, the Cotswolds takes you through England’s rolling green hills, with cozy picturesque villages scattered throughout.

Before we could start our peaceful weekend, we had to get there first… Which involved my husband’s first experience driving on the opposite side of the road. Luckily he quickly adjusted and easily began navigating through London’s traffic to get outside of the city. With Cookie as our copilot in the back seat, we were soon winding down the country roads after the sun had set.

Our bed and breakfast was located in Stow-on-the-Wold, the perfect central location to explore several different villages throughout the weekend. Each village that we wanted to see was within a 20 minute driving distance.

My husband had to work on Friday, but we ventured into the village for lunch to start exploring the area. After a delicious meal we walked by a pub called the Porch House, which we learned was England’s oldest inn. It is certified as dating from 947 AD. We decided to stop in and found that they had a cozy seating area where Clay could finish his work day. Not a bad day at the office if you ask me.

That evening we dropped Cookie off at home and drove to a nearby village called Burton-on-the-Water. Just a 10 minute drive from our bed and breakfast, we found a quiet village with a small river flowing down the middle. I had read this village is known as “The Venice of the Cotswalds”.

My husband as I smiled as we sauntered beside the small stone buildings, feeling almost like giants based on their relative size. I was very happy we came during the off season, as it felt like we had the whole village to ourselves. We stopped at a pub and warmed up by the fire before heading back to get dinner.

Saturday morning we got up and were ready for a day of village hopping. Our first stop was Broadway, only a 20 minute drive from our B&B. We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny morning that lit up the rolling hills as we drove by flocks of sheep. We arrived in Broadway and began exploring the shops and boutiques that lined the main street.

We started to realize that each village had a “Sheep Street” and a “High Street”. These were always the main streets of the village. We stopped in a cafe to get something to eat, and tried our luck with a Scotch egg, which is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage and coated in bread crumbs. We had one before and weren’t impressed but it had been served cold. This one we asked for warm and it was so much better.

Just a quick 10 minute drive and we arrived at our next stop, Chipping Campden. This old market town contained more honey-colored limstone buildings, and a beautiful stone marketplace in the middle of high street. After admiring the beautiful houses, we made our way back to our bed and breakfast to pick up Cookie.

We picked up our dog and headed to Upper and Lower Slaughter, two villages that are just one mile apart. We had a recommendation to take the lovely walking trail that connected the two, and it was easy to understand why.

Lower Slaughter boasted charm as we strolled along the stream leading to the footpath. Although it was more sleepy than the other villages, it was even more serene and stunning.

We made our way out of the village to the fields that connected the two villages. Our dog was having the best time as she was prancing around just like the sheep that roam the same grounds. We arrived at Upper Slaughter, which was even more quiet and only saw a few other people while walking through the cobblestone streets. We continued to walk up the hill to admire a tranquil view overlooking the village and countryside.

As the sun was creeping toward the horizon, we made our way back to drop off our muddy dog and have another delicious dinner.

We checked out of our bed and breakfast on Sunday and made our way to the last village, Bilbury. This town is famous for Arlington Row, a row of picturesque cottages from the 14th century. We made a loop around the village with Cookie before heading back toward home.

Our final stop of the trip was in Oxford, where we got our first full English breakfast. The combination of eggs, sausage, tomato, mushroom and bacon left our stomachs bursting with happiness. We explored the university town filled with students and visitors for a couple of hours before driving back home.

Village hopping through the Cotswolds was the perfect way to spend a relaxing and romantic weekend in the English countryside.