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Published: June 30th 2016
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Tuesday June 28 in Bourton on the Water
Moved to our new B&B in BOTW. Excellent hosts at Lansdowne Guest Villas. After a tea and discussion of routes etc. the 3 decided to hike a shorter version. They drove me to the end point and I was able to souse out the village of Lower Slaughter and take some cool photos, visit an art exhibition (small local one but interesting) and then sit with a cappuccino in a big red leather wingback chair beside one of those giant fireplaces. Did not do a sketch since it is rather difficult to do a watercolour in the rain. I'll make up for it another day. When the others arrived they talked about mud, rain and a few fields and I nodded in sympathy. We ate a great lunch and then headed back to BOTW. My feet got a good rest. Dinner was at the Mousetrap Pub only 3 houses from our B&B and we had excellent food and an entertaining waiter.
Steps: 2997
Floors: 8
Sticky Toffee Pudding: 8
Wednesday June 29
At morning breakfast they decided on another shortened walk from 12 miles down
to 7. I was dropped off in Stow-on- the-Wold around 9:15. Couldn't have been a better place to spend a lot of time. First found the church with tree bordered door (supposedly something to do with Tolkein - not sure if it was in one of the movies or not). I was ready to sit down and write a fairy tale right there. If my sister, Marilyn was with me we would have been there most of the day. It was sprinkling but I decided to so a sketch anyway. Headed through some more lanes and shops and then found a fantastic little coffee shop - best cappuccino since leaving Vancouver. Then wandered through all kinds of fun shops and bought a few little things I couldn't resist. Plus I found the amazing silicone gel toe caps. I have been trying to find them for 2 years. I bought the store's whole supply. I'll post a pic on the next blog. After a bit more wandering I headed to Lucy's Tea Room where I was to meet the hikers between 12:30 and 1pm according to Ross so I got there at 12:15 to be sure to get a table for
4. Nice big table for 4 and I sat and waited. At 1:00 I ordered a tea and kept my head down as people came in out of the rain looking for a place to sit. At 1:30 I ordered lunch, at 2 I ordered dessert (best choc ice cream). At 2:30 I decided to pay up and leave and figured they should charge me table rental. The owner and wait staff had been very polite and chatted and didn't seem to mind I had used their best table during lunch hour for almost 2.5 hours. As I opened the door and said good-bye to my newly made friends Lynn, Ian and Ross came in. They ordered lunch and I heard about the mud, the rain, the incorrect directions, also saw some more gorgeous pics as well. We went back to the B&B and they had baths and showers and rested up. Dinner was the Croft House. Best pudding yet.
Steps: 5008 (the others were hitting 25,000+)
Floors: 26
Sticky toffee pudding: 9.5
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Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0396s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Gwenda
non-member comment
At last!
I'm so glad that you've finally discovered how best to enjoy hiking, Diane! I think you'll deserve a lazy spa holiday when you get home.