Last summer, my parents and I went to Cotswold which is the quintessential English countryside. It is a beautiful place with churches, scenic avenues and lush green fields. Cotswold is featured in many movies such as the Harry Potter Series and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
We were driving up from the south from the Jurassic coast, and so, first, we visited a town called Painswick and took a walk around to the local church which is famous for its 99 yew trees. I wondered why they stopped at 99 and didn’t move to 100 which is a nice round number. Anyways it was very pretty to see those yew trees standing tall in neat rows. As we admired the trees, it started to rain so we ran to the car and drove to our hotel, in the town of Burford.
Our room was very luxurious and the pub downstairs made the best fish and chips I have ever tried, the apple strudel was also delicious. We woke up fresh and recharged the next day. After, a gigantic English breakfast, our first stop was the Burford #burford tourist office where we found a list of places to visit. It included a church, an ivy-covered house and a bridge which was my favourite out of them all. We spent an hour roaming around the village and clicking pictures.
Next, we drove to Bourton-On-Water where we visited the “Dragonfly maze”. It was about finding clues and reaching the central room to find the hidden dragonfly. A little river called Windrush passes through the village and there are lots of cute bridges on the river. This is one of the more popular and touristy town in Cotswold and has lots of shops and restaurants along the river. There is also a model scaled village and a motoring museum which simply sells toy cars and rail sets.
We love hikes and trails so we found a route to walk to the village of Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter from Bourton-On-Water.
To make the walk more interesting, we took a detour through a forest stretch which was totally off the map but perfectly safe. From Lower Slaughter we continued to Upper Slaughter. Both these villages are very quiet and picture postcard-ish. On the way we crossed a field full of sheep and goats grazing. On our walk back we stopped at Lower Slaughter at an amazing scone and cake shop that was right next to the river, River Eye, that flows through the villages.
Here are some other places you can visit in Cotswold:
– Blenheim Palace – It belongs to the family of the famous British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill
– The Roman Baths
– Cotswold Wildlife Park and Centre
– Sudeley Castle
– Gloucester Cathedral
– Castle Combe
– And Various Little Pretty Villages
In my opinion Cotswold is a scenic place with beautiful parks and avenues that you can spend 2 or 3 days at easily.
So, go and enjoy Cotswold!
P.S.- Don’t forget your walking shoes.
