Cotswolds

This morning we got up early and headed out to the Cotswolds to have a tour of some of the pretty little villages that i have been hearing so much about. We took some little country roads to get away from traffic a bit and to have the time to appreciate the scenery, and ended up stumbling across the prettiest town that we saw, Bibury. We then went on to the more well-known Bourton-on-the-water, Stow-on-the-wold, and the Slaughters (my personal favourite, purely because of the name).

We did a bit of window shopping in Bourton, but once again were a bit stuck about how to transport any delicate and breakable christmas decorations home. The Slaughters didnt have much in the way of shopping, except for the Mill shop, and we didnt stop for long in Stow as it was much larger and busier than we expected, and didnt really still have the quaint feel of the other little villages. So we decided to head out and move on to Blenheim Palace before we had to get the car back to Reading.

Blenheim Palace was gigantic and pretty awe-inspiring (the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, for those not in the know). It was all decorated for Christmas, which was lovely, and the State rooms had the most amazing and decadent furniture and ceilings (no photography allowed inside of course so i cant show you those sorry). After wandering around inside we took in a little of the garden, but at this stage it was starting to get dark so we didnt have time to do much more than have a quick look around the formal gardens at the back of the palace.

Then it was time to head into Reading to drop off the car. The streets of Reading on a Friday night at rush hour were a bit of an education, but we managed to make it to the Hertz office on time and unscathed (although we nearly got into an altercation with an %^&*$# that pulled in front of us at the service station, but thats another story).

The Hertz manager put us onto a good thing with the Hotel Ibis in Reading, just around the corner from the train station, so after checking in there we did a little late friday shopping. The decorations at the Oracle mall were beautiful, i think Mum is planning to do something along the same lines when she gets home. :)

Then we splashed out and took some Burger King (most expensive Burger King i have had in my life) back to the Hotel and settled in for the night.

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Part of trip: Big European Adventure

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