Day 27: July 17th

We didn’t sleep that well but no fault of the room. Mike has a very heavy cold or sinus (definitely weak genes given he’s had an upset stomach, infected tooth, migraine and now cold/sinus in the last 10 days)!
I was scared I’d fall down the bathroom steps given my recent bathroom disaster.
We had a very nice breakfast of summer berries and yoghurt (me) and porridge with berries (Mike) followed by Salmon Benedict.
Mike decided he would stay in the hotel this morning rather than venturing out into the Cotswoldsso I set off for Chipping Campden to book for dinner and check out the village. All very cute with predominantly honey coloured houses and buildings. There are lots of nice cafes and boutique shops in the village which is a 10 minute drive away down some very narrow lanes that seem more like people’s driveways.

I had a good look around and booked dinner for 6pm at one of the places recommended by our hostess here. The options were 6pm and 8pm and given we are only eating twice daily, 6pm was the chosen option! After purchasing some nuts (so that Mike has some food to take his antibiotics with) I headed to Sudeley Castle which is nearby and has lovely gardens.
The journey was along more narrow and windy roads and was very pretty. It’s owned by a private family and the matriarch (Lady Ashcombe) still lives there and the rest of the family have holiday apartments in various parts. The castle was built in the 1400s, added to in the 1500s and 1600s and renovated in the early 1900s. The gardens were designed in the 1900s. Parts of the castle are very much ruin but there are quite large chunks between the towers that have intact rooms. Evidently Katherine Parr lived out her life there (what there was of it) after she remarried after Henry VIII’s death and she is buried in the chapel. Elizabeth I, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn all stayed there at various times.

The private apartments and exhibition rooms are mainly in the building to the left.

This was Anne Boleyn’s apartment but it got bombed by Oliver Cromwell. He did a lot of that all around the place.

There is some amazing needlework and lace on display as well as some valuable art that has been inherited by the family. It’s all very dark as they have the windows covered to protect the art (ironic as the morning room, for example, has large windows overlooking the courtyard specifically so that the lady of the house could enjoy morning sunshine).

Anne Boleyn worked on this lace. It’s 500 years old!

Apparently if you were royal enough you’d even have someone assigned to help you go to the loo and wipe your butt afterwards.

Beautiful stained glass windows from the early 1600s.

The gardens would be spectacular at the height of their flowering but it is that time in summer when the first blooms have finished and everything starts to look a bit overgrown. You can still get the impression of it though and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Unfortunately one of the large conifers got damaged in the wind during last week’s storm and they were doing some major tree surgery to it so had the chapel all cordoned off.

There’s a bloke up there working on the damaged tree.

There is a lot more farm traffic on roads in UK compared to NZ. It could be a tractor with a trailer, or a mower or just on its own. At home we’d expect most farm traffic to move on the farm’s own network but that doesn’t seem to happen here.

We went for a longer walk this afternoon. It was a really pleasant afternoon. Not hot but nice to be out and about in fresh air.

We drove to Chipping Campden for dinner at Michael’s Mediterranean. Very nice it was too.

Lamb tagine for me – although only the beans had gone anywhere near a tagine) and moussaka for Mike.

It’s essentially a Turkish restaurant with 6 tables inside and another 5 or 6 beside a courtyard out the back. On a lovely evening the courtyard tables would definitely be the most desirable but we were glad to be inside. Mike was outraged that the elderly couple beside us were actually feeding their dog (evidently a Bichon/Shih Tzu cross) bits of steak directly from the table (the dog was also on the chair beside the lady).

Evidently there is a walking path from Ebrington to Chipping Campden but it is an hour each way so not the best option for dinner. If we were here another few days (and both were well) it would be a good walk.
I’ve noticed that the most common vehicle around seems to be a Range Rover of some description. They are enormous on these roads. It’s not just here either. They are all over Cardiff, and in Ireland also. Having said that, I guess we’ve largely been in tourist spots where you find well heeled people. And of course it’s only well heeled people that drive on motorways with the price of fuel!