Day 7 - Grasmere, Cumbria

Christmas Eve.

We woke up to light drizzle which had started during the night, still only 10 degrees, so not terribly cold. 

Leon cooked us a breakfast of sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs and toast to fill us up for the day. After breakfast the rain had got a bit worse and the wind had picked up making it a little colder, though still not near as cold as we anticipated.

We headed out to Windermere, about 20min South of us. We went straight to the World of Beatrix Potter. This was well worth visiting. Leon wasn’t keen to go but we convinced him and he loved the beautiful displays depicting Beatrix Potter’s well loved characters. Shannon found two gorgeous hand puppets of Jemima Puddleduck and Peter Rabbit to use fgor her teaching.

   

   

We then wandered off into the shops enjoying the quaint village. It looked like a fairytale village in the rain and of course everything was decorated for Christmas. We popped into Tescos to buy supplies for Christmas lunch which we will have at the house. We considered going to eat out for Christmas lunch at the Langdale Chase Hotel, but decided GBP95 per person (R1600!) was a little extravagant...so a home cooked Christmas Day lunch it will be!

We drove back to the house to chill a bit and drop off the groceries and to research where to go for a late lunch. After much delivberating, Shannon chose The Albert, a pub in the centre of Windermere near the World of Beatrix Potter. So back we drove to Windermere. By now it was raining pretty hard and quite a bit colder.

The pub was bigger than it looked from the outside and pretty busy! We managed to find a table fairly easily, probably as we had arrived at around 3.30pm. It seems the pubs you order drinks and food from the bar and the food gets delivered to your table, which is numbered. 

Leon ordered battered fish and chips, Shan had salmon and Reece and I had ploughman and Mediterranean platters. Well I have never seen so much food for 4 people! The platters were definitely meant for sharing but Leon’s fish was about a foot long with piles of chips, mushy peas and a bowl of veggies. (The Brits seem to like Brussel sprouts). Needless to say we couldn’t finish everything! Though the food was reasonably priced - We paid the same as what we paid at the small cafe in Stow-on-the-Wold for 4 x the amount of food! A total of around GBP50 (about R800).

We headed back to the house after dinner to relax. Leon and Reece are watching a movie, I’m blogging and Shan is busy on her phone.  A fun day exploring. 

Tomorrow is Christmas Day and there is not much open here. So we will see what the weather is like, if it’s better (though unlikely), we’ll go for a walk down to Rydal water lake opposite our cottage and maybe take a drive. At this stage it looks more likely that we will have a lazy day at the cottage making Christmas lunch......

Day 6 - Chester to the Lake District

We woke this morning to beautiful blue skies in Chester. We had had breakfast in our hotel just befor 9am. 

Reece finally got to have eggs Benedict for breakfast! Shannon joined him. We had the continental breakfast which was included in our room rate.

We then headed out for some shopping. The shops only open at 9h30. First stop was a Game store for Reece who was thrilled that two newly released games were on sale. We meandered around the shops a bit (we even bought some Christmas crackers at less 50% at M&S and some obligatory Christmas mince pies) and then walked up to the Chester cathedral which was one block up from the hotel.

The cathedral is huge an a beautiful gothic masterpiece. There was a Christmas tree exhibition in the cathedral in aid of Cancer and we even experienced a small children’s choir practicing some carols for the Christmas service. They were so cute singing Jingle Bells!

After the cathedral we walked back to the hotel and packed up ready for our trip to the Lakes. The Grosvenor was such a fabulous hotel we didn’t want to leave! The doorman arranged for a valet to collect our car and in 20min we were packed into the car and on our way.

Eastgate Clock tower right where our hotel was.

Our hotel

Beautiful mossy details on Chester cathedrals

The sunshine turned to fog soon after leaving Chester but fortunately it was clear enough to drive easily. Traffic was heavy, especially around the major cities like Manchester, but it flowed.

We arrived in Grasmere shortly after 1.30pm. Cumbria is beautiful with rolling hills and grey stone walls cordoning off pastures for wooly sheep. 

 

Our cottage is warm and cozy despite being really modern with white/grey floors! Very impractical for muddy feet! We ditch our shoes at the entrance but the floor there was instantly dirty! 

There was even a Christmas tree in the living area all decorated and a reindeer outside made from vines. The whole cottage is decorated in white and mustard and lime green and brown and it has a sheep theme. 

There are 6 tiny Japanese owls hidden throughout the house which you have to find. We have found 3 only, despite looking everywhere! 

  

Once we got settled, we drove into Grasmere (5min) to buy some groceries at the co-op. Such a tiny shop that to go down an aisle, you have to really squeeze to allow another person to go past. For dinner we made mince Bolognese tagliatelle and a small pizza. It was so good to have our first truly home cooked meal since we arrived.

After dinner we relaxed at the house. Reece was thrilled there is Netflix... and a better selection than the one at home!

Day 5 - Roadtrip from the Cotswolds up to Chester

We were sad to say goodbye to the beautiful Cotswolds today but excited for the next adventure.

We headed out at around 9h30. It seems it must have rained a bit last night as it was quite a lot more damp and there was a lot of mist/fog around. The temperature is still around 10 degrees and a different feel to 10 den at home - somehow it’s quite tolerable. 

We headed off towards Stratford-upon-Avon to explore Shakespeare’s hometown. We managed to find a parking lot quite easily with the help of the satnav. Stratford is a beautiful town with quaint buildings and a lovely pedestrian only shopping street where Shakespeare’s birthplace is situated. The shops are lovely - Reece bought some playing cards at Magic Alley - a shop filled with wizards, dragons, games and all things fantasy. We finally bought 2 umbrellas as I think they may just be necessary for the Lake District. 

  

Shakespeare’s birthplace in a lovely pedestrian only shopping street

Magic Alley - a magical fantasy filled shop - Reece bought some reproduction old playing cards.

A gorgeous Christmas shop...just my thing!

 

Love these old Tudor buildings! They are actually skew!

We grabbed really good sandwiches at Subway and then left Stratford for Chester. We arrived in Chester after another 2 hours of driving, got a little confused with the chaotic traffic in the city centre and arrived by default at a little kiosk, asked directions and were surprised when it happened to be a kiosk for arrivals for our hotel. We were told to follow a car and ended up right outside the entrance to the hotel, greeted by a doorman and our car was whisked away by valet to be parked who-knows-where! 

The Grosvenor is a beautiful hotel in a Tudor building with old wooden stairs (there are lefts too) and lavishly carpeted in cream and gold. There are beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere!

 

The city itself is fascinating! Beautifully decorated Christmas lights are hanging in the streets and the Chester rows are so quaint! I love the Tudor buildings! But what a busy place with people everywhere frantically buying Christmas gifts! The shops closed at 5.30pm and by 6pm it was amazing how the streets had emptied! 

We had a delicious Italian dinner at Sergio’s restaurant just up the road from our hotel towards the Chester Cathedral. Reece had pizza, we all had pasta. Such a friendly place and the food was excellent! After dinner we returned to the hotel to get ready for bed. 

I think tomorrow will be a busy day as we will do a bit of shopping before our trip up to Grasmere and we need to get to a grocery store as Christmas Eve will not be the time to go food shopping! Leon has decided that he is cooking Christmas dinner(or lunch?) for us at our cottage in Grasmere. The weather forecast is looking like it could rain quite a bit and there is an outside chance of it turning to a bit of snow.... *whatch this space!*

Day 4 - Ross-on-Wye and Stow-on-the-Wold

Today was a short road trip (1hour 10min) to visit Ross-on-Wye. We left the cottage at 9am after having pies for breakfast (bought yesterday at the butcher in Fairford). 

The drive up to Ross wasn’t particularly picturesque as most of it was on main roads and highways. Once past Gloucester, it became a bit more hilly and we drove through farmlands and little villages. What was interesting was how the architecture was so different to the Cotswolds. As the last few days all we’ve seen are the golden Cotswold stone buildings in village after village.

I was expecting Ross to be flat, but the town was hilly. Reece said it reminded him of the hills in San Francisco. It is an interesting town. Very busy with people everywhere and lots of cars. We found a short term parking lot and walked back uphill into the centre of town. Everywhere are signs for a Jonathan Preece, the local estate agent!

 

In the middle of the town stands the market building. Centuries ago, it was built for the people to trade their goods- mainly wool. I have to admit I was disappointed to see it filled with a market selling cheap Chinese clothing and other rubbish. 

It’s almost as if Ross has been neglected a bit. No one pays too much attention to preserving the quaint old buildings. Many are quite derelict and the town in general needs to be neatened up. Perhaps I was expecting more and we have been used to the perfect little villages and towns of the Cotswolds, many of which have hardly any modern signage at all.

We were so glad we went though as we could send some photos to dad and I could finally see the town he has spoken of for so long!

 

 

We left Ross and travelled a different route back to the Cotswolds via Stow-on-the-Wold. Such a pretty route back through the tiniest unspoiled villages that you missed if you blinked once! stow is a larger village but so pretty. It’s filled with gorgeous quaint shops (albeit very tourist orientated and expensive), but such a lovely place to wander around. 

 

 

We had a quick lunch in a small tea room. I had. Ploughmans platter, Reece and Shannon had sandwiches and Leon had soup. We had coffee and mochas and Reece had a double size “snowman” milkshake that cost R109! Without a doubt food is terribly expensive! Even the supermarkets aren’t cheap. Dr Oetker pizzas cost around R80 in the supermarket, for example. 

At around 3.30 we left Stow which was a 30min drive from our village. Right outside our village we stumbled across a classic car shop in old RAF barns. They sell classic cars ranging from an old Rolls Silver Ghost to 1940s Jags and Porsche’s from 1980’s, Ferrari’s, Lamborghinis and even an old VW Combi in perfect condition. The one Porsche was selling for over GBP300 0000 - R6 million. Leon and Reece loved this!

We relaxed a bit at our cottage before heading back to the Catherine Wheel pub in Bibury for dinner. 

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Cotswolds but we are looking forward to visiting Chester tomorrow. We plan on heading out at around 8h30 or 9am. 

Day 3 - Wednesday : walk into Bibury

Today our plans changed..... we still walked into Bibury but skipped Blenheim Palace. Firstly we could only get a time slot for the Christmas lights at 7pm, and secondly, with the entrance fee and the cost of the high tea, it would have cost around R4000. We decided we will wait for Christmas lights elsewhere.....

Our cottage

Public phone booth in Bibury

  

This little hut has shelves in it where deliveries of eggs, bread,milk and the newspaper are made for the locals in Ablington. 

The residents seem to pop in and pick up their goods off the shelf. 

Scenery from our walk into the village...

  

  

We had a great walk into the village. It took about 20 minutes. Nice and brisk in the 10 degree air. Not too cold. Arlington Row is so pretty. The doorways and windows are so tiny. The teeny houses are old weavers cottages dating back to 1300. So quaint! One has to feel sorry for the residents... they live in a fish bowl. We saw no less than 3 Asian tourist buses arrive while we were there. Apparently in summer it is so busy with tourists!

 

 

Arlington Row no. 4 (this Dorris is no more than 5ft high, probably shorter!)

We bought some smoked trout, cream cheese and fresh bread and had a brunch at the house before heading out to visit a few villages nearby that the Bibury Post Office/gift shop owner recommended.

We loved Coln St Aldwyn which is the next village after Bibury. Absolutely picturesque! Then visited Fairford to see the beautiful 500 year old St Mary’s Church. It has the oldest medieval stained glass windows in the world! The old cemetary surrounds the church and there was even a tombstone for a cat!

The local butcher said he visited South Africa in October and got a recipe for Boerewors when he was there and now makes it in Fairford!

We drove through a few other little villages and then had a lazy late afternoon at the cottage doing some washing, figuring out this darn blog and just chilling.

Dinner will be at our local Swan Hotel in Bibury in the pub. (The kids & Leon are always hungry!) After the 6.5km of walking this morning (recorded by Reece’s watch), I could do with an early sleep!

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. ............