Blogs from Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Out of England for a couple of days arriving in south Wales after a quite nice stop at a Costco just before crossing the border purchasing the cheapest gas in the area for 1.7 pounds per liter or $8.40 a gallon. Also a few items from inside. Only pics we can show are of a very impressive bridge and Cardiff Castle, so we'll combine these with some from Cotswolds. Must note, here like most places we visit, the Romans arrived a bit before us. They constructed a fortress at the very site of Cardiff Castle. Unfortunately, like much of Britain, Cardiff being something of an outpost, the construction was not as substantial as on the continent and nothing remains. Ah shucks. Arrived at Stow-on-the Wold, which is our base in the Cotswolds, on Monday afternoon. The ... read more

Geo: 51.9301, -1.72382 We got up in sunny old London and took a few pics before getting a ride to the airport. We picked up our car, actually an SUV. They said we could take any car from zone 2, but when we got out there, there were no cars in zone 2. A manager came over and said to take the SUV from zone 3 instead. Wow, an upgrade. It is a Nissan compact SUV, a diesel. It seems nice. I drove around the parking lot a few times and then we were off. We drove out to Highclere Castle, which is where Downton Abby was filmed. It was closed and no vehicles were allowed inside. Oh well, you can't win them all. So we headed toward our next stop for the night. We wanted ... read more

Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is situated between Moreton-in-Marsh and Boreton-on-the-Water, and it is accessible by bus No.801 and 855. The charming village has several B& B hotels, cafes, restaurants, and original shops, e.g. Cotswolds furniture emporium, porcelain shop, delicatessen, and fudge shop. At the edge of High Street, you will find an amazing toy shop adjacent to the toy museum (admission charge £2) which displays an enormous collection of teddy bears, French dolls, toys of troops, helicopters, ambulance and cosmetic items, all of which were interestingly collected by one person! Broadwell There are several short walks around Stow-on-the-Wold. The nearest village is Broadwell, which can be reached via Monarch Way. The footpath starts from the curved road opposite to the bus terminal, western edge of Market Square. The Monarch Way goes through the woodland trail, viewp... read more

Travel Day from Bath to the Cotswolds Today was a travel day. I hate travel days. You have to pack your bags and drive to the next B&B, and try to see something touristy along the way so you don’t waste your time. It usually adds up to a lot of stress and fatigue. But not today, because we were going to stop at the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff on our way to the Cotswolds! Doctor Who Lives in Cardiff It didn’t take much cajoling from Alyssa to convince me to visit the Doctor Who museum. I have loved the show ever since I was a kid, and some would say I am still a kid at heart. We drove through endless traffic and roundabouts to reach Cardiff and had difficulty finding the exhibition on ... read more

Today was not a very fun day. We loaded up the coach in Stratford and drove to Stow-on-Wold. When we arrived at the hostel, I went inside to check things out. After five minutes, I suddenly realized my writing notebooks were missing—doubly not good since I made them by hand before the trip and they had three weeks’ worth of writing. And my first essay, which is due today, is in there, and there’s no way I’m rewriting it. I knew I had them on the coach, so we called the bus company and asked them to search for them. They called back a few minutes later saying they weren’t there. Well, this was not an ideal state of affairs—losing all of what I had come here to do. John was leading some people out on ... read more