The Cotswolds

Marshfield

Once we finally got our hire car, we drove all the way to our cottage in a small village called Marshfield.

We stopped at a miniscule village called Halfway for a pub lunch. On the way to our cottage we also saw a white horse (carved into the hillside) and Silbury hill, which is where all the ley lines meet (search ley lines on google!).

We caught a bus tour around Bath, which is only about 20 minutes down the road. Bath is an old Roman town and is home to the famous Roman Baths.

We later went to the baths, to look around and explore. It's a little bit like Rotorua, because the springs that supply water for the baths are actually hot.

The next day we went to Warwick Castle.

It was a stunningly clear and cold morning.

At Warwick Castle we saw a falconry show, where a falconer flew a hawk and had a giant golden eagle. He said he didn't want to fly the eagle because it was a bit of a psychopath.

We walked around the castle, and up on the walls and turrets.

The only way to get there was to take hundreds of dark, narrow, steep stairs up.

We also visited the dungeons, and the stately rooms.

It then decided to rain, then hail on us!

By the time we got back to the car we were absolutely soaked, and were pretty much icicles. Later that day we found out that it had snowed in Birmingham, which is only 20 miles away from where we were.

We went to visit our friend Ashara, and she took us to see a white horse that was carved into the hill. It was only 5 minutes up the road from her house. It disappointingly had been concreted over to make it maintenance free. We still had fun clambering down the steep hillside to get to it's hooves. We found buckets and buckets of stuck together hail from the day before that hadn't melted yet! We then had well needed warm soup at Ashara's (Thanks Ashara - it was delicious!)

We then drove to Glastonbury.

This is a magical, mystical place that has many legends and myths behind it. It used to be known as Avalon, and Joseph (Jesus' uncle) supposedly brought him here as a young man. Also, King Arthur (the one who pulled the sword out of the stone) is supposedly buried in the Glastonbury Abbey, which we also visited.

At the Glastonbury Abbey we saw all the hundreds of years old ruins. We also saw a couple of squirrels, a badger set (which is their network of home tunnels) and some very unfriendly territorial geese! The grounds were very large and peaceful.

I fell down the stairs at the cottage (yes, from the top!) and now my tail bone is as good as broken (no, not actually that bad, I am exaggerating a little - but it did REALLY hurt)(Chantal).

Today we visited the graveyard next door. Some graves here are from the 1700's, and those are the ones you can read.

Back to London tomorrow, to visit some friends, and then we are truly on our way home!

Getting homesick, and missing friends, family and cat! I know this sounds silly, but I actually miss our phone ringing!(Chantal)