Oxford and the Cotswolds

Warwick Castle

Anne Hathaways Cottage

Stratford upon Avon

E&P at Stratford upon Avon

View of the Cotswolds from near Broadway Tower 

We left Maidstone later than normal (10am) on Sunday as our drive to Oxford was only about 100 miles. The drive was mainly on motorways so for once we did pretty good time.

Dave and Jill had planned a lunch with her cousins at Botley on the outskirts of Oxford  so we dropped them off and continued on into Oxford to see if we could book into our accommodation early. This was no problem and we were pleased with our room which, was just as well as we were staying 3 nights. Next on our agenda was our laundry and we spent the afternoon at the laundrette doing ours and Dave and Jill’s laundry. Luckily the locals are usually very helpful as each laundrette has different machines and it can be a bit confusing. We had a look around the area while we were there and selected options for our dinner. We walked down later and had a very good pizza.

Into the car again this morning and we drove to Warwick Castle. It’s an impressive looking castle with lovely grounds and is sort of a theme park nowadays for families with parts dedicated to shows such as Merlin and The Princess.  

Next stop was Anne Hathaway’s Cottage just outside Stratford upon Avon. Looks exactly like the pictures. We then went into Stratford and walked along the river Avon. Had a look in the Shakespeare Theatre Centre and then lunched in a pub across the road.

We then headed for the Cotswolds stopping off at Broadway Tower and enjoying the view. It is very pretty countryside. It was however blowing a gale (the end of a hurricane has come across the Atlantic causing extreme gale force winds across the UK). We then drove into Stow-on-the-Wold for a look around and some afternoon tea. It was a pretty tourist town but we preferred our next stop which was Burford.  Burford has a river running through it and the view from the bridge is lovely. It also has wider streets than normal and lovely architecture.

Time for home then and we drove the approximately 20 miles back to Oxford. Another day that has flown past. We have been here now for 28 days.