Perfect day

Last year I found that I loved to meander on the little back roads of England, stopping in tiny villages to enjoy the peace and take pictures of the the most delightful scenes imaginable. After we had spent two days touring the Stratford area, we had one day left with Mom and Dad. I spent some time on Wednesday evening looking up small Cotswold villages online, and I picked three I wanted to see, which were just six miles or so off the road we were taking back to London: Chipping Campden, Broadway, and Bibury.

The church, graveyard, and market square are in Chipping Campden. The little main street with all the picturesque places of business is Broadway, and the lodge where we had lunch beside the river is Bibury. We didn’t even have time to see the most photographed area of Bibury, so added some pictures of it from the web. It has the row of weaver’s cottages beside the river, called Arlington Row.

All over you can find public footpaths, where hikers are allowed to walk across private property. When I was here twenty-five years ago, I went on a long hike by myself through the country, and it was great. I’d like to do that again some day.

Everywhere you turn, there’s something wonderful to see. The Cotswolds are a photographer’s dream. I need to spend a lot more time there! I’ve told Dale I’m coming back to England every year now. He said, firmly, “I forbid it.” And I said, “That’s so cute! You’re funny!”

Then we went to a museum at Cirencester that has amazing relics from Roman life in that location long ago. I can’t get over the way they allow people to just walk up and touch mosaics, for instance, that were from the floors of nice homes in Roman times. And can you believe the Romans had central heating 2000 years ago? They had chambers under the house and inside the walls, and heat from a fire was directed into the spaces, heating the walls and floors. Incredible. The system is called a hypocaust, and you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust.

Then it was time to head for Heathrow. Even though I felt very comfortable by that time driving on the left, I still did not want to brave the crazy drivers in London in order to take my parents back to their hotel. Those drivers are scary. Many London streets are narrow, and the oncoming drivers barrel toward you with no sign of slowing, passing at forty miles an hour within inches of your car. No thank you!

So we decided to take my parents to Heathrow, which was on our way back to David and Sandra’s, where they could catch the tube back to their hotel. That worked perfectly, and we said goodbye. They have plans for lots of things to do in London, and we’ll spend our last weekend with the Hynes. We had a great time touring the Cotswolds with Mom and Dad!

We don’t know what we’ll do yet for our last weekend here. Today we might go see the home where Darwin lived and studied and wrote for forty years. It’s about half an hour from here. And this weekend we’ll probably spend one day in the country and one day in the city. And then we’ll fly home on Monday and finally see the girls! We miss them! We’ve been able to keep in touch quite often, though, through emails, chats, and even video chats. It’s great to be able to see them and talk!