Day 2

Day 2 - Swindon outlet mall and Bourton-on-the-water

We woke up early this morning (early, as in 3am!...or 5am SA time). I guess it was still that internal alarm clock working! Leon took this photo once the sun came up at 8am of a pheasant. They are abundant but elusive once you aim a camera at them! We will still get a better photo...we are determined! (Edited note...Still struggling to post properly on the iPad...sorry no photo). 

This morning was supposed to be foggy, but it was partly cloudy with sun peeping through. 

The country road after leaving our village, Bibury, driving towards the main road to get to Swindon, which is about a 25 min drive from Bibury. The scenery was so pretty with the frost. 

We decided to head off for some retail therapy at the Swindon outlet mall. What a lovely mall! We got there at around 9h30 and it wasn’t busy yet. It seems the English take their time getting going in the mornings. The mall has all kinds of well know brand stores with really good prices. Reece got a Superdry T-shirt for GBP11 - around R200. The kids left that mall with big smiles!

The mall has the cutest Christmas train that drives around giving rides.

After the mall, we drove back to Bibury to drop off our purchases and then headed for Bourton-on-the-Water for something to eat. It was about a 25min drive on the other side of Bibury and after all the shopping we only got there at 3pm. The sun was already low in the sky and the Christmas lights in the village of Bourton were slowly coming on. What a beautiful village! It is aptly nicknamed the Venice of the Cotswolds as it has a small river running through the village with lots of low bridges crosssing it. Note the Christmas tree in the middle of the river!

We had late lunch at The Croft restaurant which was delicious. Reece had bangers and mash, Shan and I had chicken pie and Leon had beef and ale pie.

We could have stayed in Bourton for so much longer but the sun set around 4pm and by 5 the shops were closing. The village is so quaint with lovely shops all decorated for Christmas!

We drove home in the dark using our faithful satnav...thank goodness for modern technology or we would most certainly have gotten very lost if we had been using an old fashioned map! 

Tomorrow we are doing a walk in our village to see Arlington Row. William Morris  once said it was the prettiest place in England (for the non-artsy people, he was a textile designer....Google him!). Then afterwards we will probably visit Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill) for afternoon tea and a walk through the Christmas at Blenheim lights display. ............