London – Day Five

I am in love!

If I doubted the fact that I had absolutely and totally fallen in love with England there were no doubts after our day in the Cotswolds!

The Cotswolds is a hilly area in west-central England, sometimes called the “Heart of England.”  The  meaning of the word Cotswold is said to mean “sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides.” During the Middle Ages the area became very prosperous as a result of the sheep/wool industry.  The area is famous and known for its lovely homes and shops built from Cotswold stone which is a  yellow oolitic limestone.

Our tour took us to 3 Cotswold villages.  Our first stop was Burford.

There is a lovely little church and cemetery in the village.

I think I mentioned before I have a bit of a thing about cemeteries.  I love them!  I think it must be those family history genes my mother gave me!  I love reading the tombstones and imagining what the lives of those people must have been like.

OK, enough of the tombstones.  Just one more!

The church in the cemetery was quite lovely.

While in Europe I also began quite a love affair with doors.  Doors can be so mysterious.  What’s behind them?  Where do they lead?

From Burford we headed over to Bibury which was a very small but a VERY charming and picturesque village.  Probably my favorite of the three we went to.

I would take one of these pretty little cottages over Buckingham Palace any day!

I loved the beautiful flowers and found many of the same flowers I have at home in my garden.

And then there were some lovely little doors too

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We enjoyed lunch at a small little hotel in Bibury.  The main local business in the village today is perch farming so we were served perch for lunch which I decided I don’t really care for.  Besides the fact that it has a million bones it is a little too strong of a fish for me.  But the rhubarb crisp with clotted cream ice cream was yummy!

Such a pretty place!

Our next stop on the tour was to Burton on the Water a larger Cotswold Village.  There were lots of little shops and tea houses.

I found this darling little bakery and picked up a few goodies, including a jar of lemon curd and orange marmalade to bring home with me.

And then I found a few more doorways to take pictures of….

and fell in love with the streets.

Our final stop on the tour was Stratford Upon Avon which s the birthplace of Shakespeare,

Basically it is just one big tourist trap. It was full of loud tourists and after the loveliness of the Cotswold Villages I couldn’t wait to leave Stratford.

We arrived back in London in time to grab some fish and chips for dinner and head over to the West End to see Jersey Boys – a fun musical about the life and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

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London – Day Three

Day three began with yet another train ride.  The train ride out to Cambridge was about an hour or so outside of London.  Our main reason for wanting to visit Cambridge was that my son, Clark, had studied there last summer at Kings College and I wanted to see where he had been.

Our train left Kings Cross Station which is where they filmed Harry Potter and where they left for Hogwarts from.  Here I am at Platform 9 3/4.

Another reason I wanted to go to Cambridge is how often do you get a chance to visit the place where so many amazing things happened and were discovered, including DNA?  I felt smarter just because I visited.  And look at the fun outfits they wear!

People have been studying at Cambridge since the 13th Century!  Cambridge is actually made up of 31 colleges.  We were able to visit three of them.  Many were closed the day we were there because it was the last day of exams at Cambridge.  Let’s just say Cambridge was one big party that day!  There was a lot of celebrating going on.

I loved the streets of Cambridge.

I have one word to describe Cambridge – beautiful!

We began the day with a walking tour of Cambridge.  The tour started in this amazing, really old cemetery.

Is it too weird to fall in love with a cemetery?

We were able to tour part of St. John’s College. (oops, correction via Clark – this is King’s College!)

and Corpus Christi College.  We had a personal tour of this one by one of Clark’s professors.

At Trinity College they planted this apple tree in honor of Sir Isaac Newton who went to school there –  that’s his room’s window that overlooks the tree.

We enjoyed lunch at the famous Eagle Pub and I had my first English Fish and Chips.

Cali enjoyed a traditional Pub lunch.

And we couldn’t resist some Sticky Toffee Pudding with clotted cream ice cream for dessert – so good!

After lunch we were able to attend Evensong at King’s College Chapel.

King’s College Chapel which is said to be the most beautiful church in England.  I have to agree it is pretty spectacular.

We had front row seats thanks to the Reverend that Clark had gotten to know while he was at school there.  You can’t get much closer than this!!

The ceiling was amazing!!!

We couldn’t leave Cambridge without doing some punting.  Cambridge sits right on the Cam River.  Punting is a favorite past time in Cambridge and it was a happening place the day we were there because of all the celebrating.  We saw our first English skinny dipper!  Those Cambridge kids know how to have a good time!

Punting is done in a flat bottomed boat and it is maneuvered down the river by a pole-wielding university student.

The views were beautiful (I’m not referring to the skinny dipper!)

My favorite part of Cambridge?  These…..

There are hundreds of them.  This is the popular mode of transportation for students and professors.  They are everywhere and I want one!

We had an amazing day in Cambridge, rode the train back into London and had dinner at a pub and watched the World Cup.

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