May 26. Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds

Tuesday, May 26, Day 111 - Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds

Our room was somewhat warm when we went to bed (we didn't realize the radiators were turned up full blast) but we fixed that and put a small fan in a window. It cooled down to the point it was coldish by the middle of the night and the comfortable bed and covers felt very good. Dick wakes up at 5:30AM to broad daylight but rolls over for another hour but that is all he can do. He gets up and checks on the blog and then edits what Carolyn has posted.

Carolyn is up in time to go to breakfast at 9AM. Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale are a very nice way to start the day! We had thought we would get out early but Dick’s knee is coloring his attitude toward life and movement so we stay in and get the blog posted up through yesterday. We need to print out luggage tags for boarding the ship tomorrow and our hostess will do so if we can get her the PDF file. Dick finds a (sort of) computer place and buys a very dusty, USB 2-8GB thumb drive for £8 along with a roll of "Cellie." That is what they call Scotch Tape here in the Mother Country!

About 1:30PM and after some drugs for the knee, we drive to the village center to pick up a lunch from a place we saw last night. Poor idea! The place is crawling with people and tour buses are parked in no parking zones. There are "old people" everywhere on walkers and pulling oxygen tanks behind them. A nursing home has sent the whole clientele out for a day! We don’t stop but head out of town without any lunch.

We do a pleasant drive to Lower Slaughter followed by Upper Slaughter and then Stow-on-the-Wold and finally Broadwell on the back country's one lane roads. There is no traffic and we stop for pictures often. We pass on Chipping Campden and Chipping Something Else! Don’t you love these village names?

The countryside is beautiful with the green of Spring and its flowers. We get out to explore the old churchyard at St Pauls, in Broadwell. We find the church open and go in and find a gravestone in the floor with a date of 1662! The newest one we find in the graveyard outside is recent, 2007. It proves to be a pleasant three hours of exploring.  By the way, we 
find Upper Slaughter Manor, the one with the black and gold gate above, and decide we could live there.  "To the Manor Born," as they say.

Back to our rooms for a little while where we have a cocktail and finish off the wine and bourbon that we have left. Then back down to the Rose Tree for dinner. They have our table waiting and the half bottle of wine is sitting on it. Reservations are a must here as people are turned away as we arrive. We have the same appetizers as last night but go for stuffed chicken breast with a delicious sauce similar to the Whisky and Stilton Sauce on the mushrooms. Dessert is a generous slice of lemon meringue pie. The food is fabulous and we rave to the head hostess/waitress/owner? About how good it is. When we leave she runs after us to wish us a safe trip and good bye.

At 8:30PM, the crowds are gone and we enjoy a short walk around the village square and watch the ducks in the stream that runs through town. We will be back and stay a week in one of the many cottages for rent. Off the beaten path this is our favorite part of England. Time to go get this blog written and posted and to give some thought to packing for our transfer to the Queen Mary 2 tomorrow.