Blogs from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Well, I crashed into bed at about 8.30pm last night and slept just about straight through until the alarm went off at 7.25am this morning. Ah, sleep, it is a truly wondrous thing that enables the body to rest and repair itself. I felt so much better after a good night’s sleep. Apart from suffering something of a moral crisis that is. Bernie has been quite prepared to ignore the fact that he has had respiratory symptoms and just carry on regardless. This morning I am in a moral dilemma, should I go downstairs and confess to Kathleen that I have respiratory symptoms and ask her if she would prefer to put our breakfast on a tray for us to eat in our room??? I checked the UK’s COVID website. Hmn, it seems that under the ... read more

Today we headed south from Cirencester on the A429. As we passed the airfield at Kemble we caught a glimpse of some seriously large aircraft. In the glimpses that we had through the hedgerows we also saw some bunkers? Large Nissan-hut shaped lumps with turfed roofs. That had us thinking that the airfield is probably a former air-force base so it probably has some long runways for BA’s larger aircraft to land on for maintenance? We arrived in Castle Combe around 10.00am so it wasn’t too busy. We parked in the public parking area above the village and walked down through a tree-shaded valley into Castle Combe. The castle that it was named for, built by Sir Walter de Dunstaville in the 13th-century, is long gone and all that remains is a pretty little village beside ... read more

Today it was time to leave Portugal behind us and fly to the UK. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Portugal and have seen some stunning sites and sights. Porto has a rail connection to the airport (unlike Melbourne!) so we ‘could’ have taken the train to the airport. We decided to do it the easy way though and booked an Uber. Without luggage the train would be fine, but with suitcases and cobbled streets it’s a bit difficult. Our Uber driver arrived within a couple of minutes of booking him and had us out to the airport in good time. We allowed time for traffic problems but had a smooth run out arriving well before check-in opened. We weren’t first there though! We lined up behind the people who were already waiting for the ... read more

3 September 2019, Tuesday Day 18 of travel, day 2 on Thames Path, Ewen to Crichlade. After breakfast at the Thames Head Inn we took the taxi to Ewen, where we started our walk along the Thames Path. This is where we had left off yesterday. The walk was across grassy meadows and fields, dodging left and right, as the the river snaked its way through the valley. We passed by some stately Cotswold stone homes and fences. This stone is a creamy yellow colour. There are beautiful flowers in the gardens and along the path. The river through here is only a small ripple of water and pools. We came to our first mini weir and several groups of swans. The partially cloudy sky provided some great reflection of the trees and clouds where the ... read more

Hi everyone We spent the final four nights of our trip around Cirencester, UK. We've spent the last few days with the Willows: Floss, Bess and Chris at Ampney Crucis. It's been delightful seeing them again. Bess goes to school now and is so grown up. We had our usual shopping expedition and Bessie is now ready for her party season with a floaty dress, shoes, bag and accompanying accessories. All the walking around was a bit hard on Floss who is 8 months pregnant. We all perked up again with a feast of Turkish Delight at the end of the shopping spree. Peter and Chris did a double flight of real ales, at the pub where Daniel O'Brien and Peter did the same thing two and a half years ago. Most enjoyable and different ales. ... read more