We woke up Monday morning to a beautiful sunny day once again. It didn’t take us long to pack our bags, eat a quick breakfast and check out from our place. Our first stop was Bibury, in the middle of Cotswolds. Cotswolds, in short, is a beautiful area of rolling hills and pastures with picturesque villages scattered all around. It is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (a few areas throughout the UK are AONB).
Our GPS must be crazy-haha. It took us through the tiniest roads that are supposed to be two-way roads. It is definitely nerve wrecking as you are driving and hoping that the next vehicle that will want to pass you will be a small sedan.
So I read a lot about Bibury, a famous village in the Cotswolds. We found it with no problem, and so did about two hundred Japanese tourists-haha. We were very lucky to find a great parking spot near the village school since it was school break. The village basically lives for tourists (I am not sure who goes to that village school) but it is still a very quiet place to visit. Not many touristy shops, just a nice walk by the river and near Arlington row of houses.
This what an Arlington Row of houses is—cottages built in 1380 as a monastic wool store and converted into weavers' cottages in the 17th century.
We kept wondering if people actually live there still.
Probably says “No Trout Sushi Here”, since there is a big trout farm across the street. But seriously, don’t know what it says, apparently it was needed there because of the number of Japanese tourists in the village.
The weather was gorgeous, so we spent some time just walking around.
…And taking pictures.
From Bibury, we headed to Chedsworth Roman Villa—a National Trust sight (so free for us), home of some of the most rich people in the country in the 4th century.
If we had just walked through the sight and just took a look at each room for a moment, we’d be done in ten minutes. Because we had audio guides again, we were able to spend an hour or so at this place, marveling AGAIN (haha) at the way the Romans built their bathhouses and toilets, mosaic appliques and even under floor heating.
Mark was playing with some “artifacts” from Roman times.
This is one of the rooms where you could take a bath. Apparently, it was considered a thing of status to be able to spend a whole day soaking in a bath. If you are in a bath, then someone must be doing all the work for you, which means you have slaves.
The audio guide told us about every room in the villa. It was incredible to imagine that many centuries ago something so substantial stood on these grounds. There are several Roman villas in the area, some smaller in size, as it seems that the Romans really liked that area of England. Again, everything was completely destroyed after the Romans left as the Celts didn’t know how to take care of such “complex” structures.
Pictures we took don’t show much of what is left of the building. We were busy following the audio guide, I guess. There is a lot of excavating still to be done and new artifacts are found to this day. A very educational sight for our kids.
The drive home was very peaceful. Lots of sheep.
And beautiful blue sky over yellow fields.
We were so stuffed from our late lunch, that when we got home around 6 pm, no one was hungry. We just had a few snacks and put the kids to bed.
Although it feels like it was such a quick trip, we saw a lot. I know that most British just laugh at us for driving so far and staying for just a couple of nights, but that’s the way it’s gonna have to be if we want to see many places. We have been here for almost ten months now! Time is ticking away.
Our next trip—next week for three nights in Belgium. It should be interesting since this time we are going to cross the channel on the ferry (Robert is already bracing himself;).
Good night.
Lyana.
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