eighteenpromises : UK & Canary Islands Travelogue

On this day, we spent our day exploring the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds covers a huge area - almost 800 square miles - and runs through five counties (Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire). One of the delights of visiting the Cotswolds is exploring the different areas, each with its own identity, yet all with those defining Cotswold features: golden stone and rolling hills, the 'wolds'.

Explore quintessentially English villages of honey-coloured stone; take in splendid, likely market towns; visit some of the country's greatest palaces, castles and country houses; marvel at the natural world in acclaimed reserves and at some of the most famous arboretas in Brtain; walk through breath-taking landscapes along historic trails; or make a splash in our own lake0land area with its own inland beach. (Credit: x)

The Arlington Row is a row of cottages that were built in the 1300s as a monastic wool store but were converted into a row of weavers' cottages in the 1600s. In the Cotswolds, the Arlington Row is probably the most photographed site and with good reason as well.

The following photos do not do it justice because the best way to capture these cottages is from a distance. I managed to do so later on but I thought I would just show what the row of cottages look like from up close.

We continued wandering around the area and even normal houses looked beautiful as well. I really really want to live in a cottage one day.

So this is the Arlington Row cottages from a distance and you can see the full stretch of cottages here which make them look even prettier than up close.

Our next destination was Bourton-on-the-Water. Don't you just love the names the English people come up with? It was pretty busy when we reached there but it's a really good place to do a spot of shopping in the shops that adorn the river side, to have a picnic along the River Windrush with your friends and family and of course just take a breather if you just want to stroll along the riverside.

We had lunch in one of the little tea rooms along the river and it was a really pleasant lunch. None of us were really hungry so we had really light food, mum and I had a soup each and dad had a cup of coffee with a little cake. The soup tasted great because it was a pretty chilly day so far and it warmed us up just right.

Latte (£2)

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Goulash Soup with baguette (£6.95)

Onion & Leek Soup with roll (£4.95)

The next place we headed to was Lower Slaughter. The name of Lower Slaughter stems from the Old English name for a wet land 'slough' or 'slothre' (Old English for muddy place) upon which it lies. This quaint village sits beside the little Eye stream and is known for its unspoilt limestone cottages in the traditional Cotswold style. The stream running through the village is crossed by two small bridges and the local attraction is a converted mill with original water wheel selling craft type products and includes a cafe. Copse Hill Road in Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire Cotswolds, has been named the most romantic street in Britain in a poll for Google Street View. (Credit: x)

Lower Slaughter was indeed very pretty and I don't know if you can tell but part of the road (in the second picture after this paragraph) is submerged under a river. So drivers who want to drive their car over to the other side of the road will have to actually enter the river, drive across it and then up the bank on the other side. I thought it was so cool. We actually saw a driver doing just that (see the vlog below)!

The last two stops we made were to Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton. By then, it was spitting and the temperature dipped so we didn't really spend a lot of time wandering around the market squares.

We poked our heads around and had tea in a little coffee place called The Old Mill Coffee House & Bistro in Chipping Norton which was great. We all needed a little pick me up after braving the bad weather and a sweet bite and a hot cup of coffee/tea was a very welcome distraction.