As many know, Brandon and I have wanted to start a family for years now. While we are still anxiously waiting we've decided to take advantage of our childless state and take up traveling, agreeing to take one big trip a year until we're happily pinned down by little ones. First stop: England.
Our England trip was divided among four places: Oxford/Cotswolds, Lake District, York, and London.
Determined to explore the quaint cottages of the Cotswolds we stumbled upon a rail pass called the Cotswolds Discoverer that covered both rail and bus lines to/from/throughout the Cotswolds for a day. We explored Moreton in Marsh where we had a delicious light lunch at Martha's Cafe, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Bourton on the Water.
After we toured the Cotswolds we had just enough time to grab a drink at the famous Eagle and Child in Oxford.
The next day we boarded the train for Windermere in the Lake District. The Lake District was my favorite place with a nice mix of cute small towns and beautiful hikes.
We stayed at the best B&B called the briscoe lodge hosted by a young energetic family who had great suggestions about things to do and hikes to take. Speaking of hikes, we decided to spontaneously hike Fairfield Horseshoe, a mere 10.5 mile mountain route that we were ill-prepared for. However, we did get to see some amazing views, hear about a million sheep, and pat ourselves on our sunburned backs.
Muscles quivering after the hike, we wandered around the town of Ambleside for something to eat only to soon realize with dismay that we missed our last bus back to Windermere. Oh well. What's another five miles added to our total? The day after our ridiculous hike we were glad to be sitting on our butts for an all-day Mountain Goat Bus Tour of the Lake District. We were joined by a mother and daughter pair from Taiwan, and an English couple. The husband's name was Neville. How British.
We saw some amazing views.
We went on a boat ride on Derwent Water.
We even crashed a wedding photo session at a place called Surprise View. The bride and groom must have been surprised by the descent of a bunch of DSLR-wearing, tennis shoe-sporting, snap happy tourists.
After our paparazzi stalking, we went to Castlerigg Stone Circle, one of Britain's oldest sites.
One of the highlights of the bus tour was sampling the famous gingerbread from the original gingerbread shop in Grasmere.
Next I'll be writing about our time in York and London!
No comments:
Post a Comment