Day 11

The Cotswolds area of England is by far the prettiest, most gorgeous span of land I’ve ever seen. While we were making the drive out there today on the coach (bus), the first glimpse I caught of the rolling hills made me feel like I was in a movie. This is an area of England that is visited by thousands and thousands of tourists from around the world every year simply for its beauty and typically “English” ambiance.





We went to three different villages within the Cotswolds region on the tour. The first was Stow-on-the-Wold, where we did a lot of sight-seeing, shopping and basically just enjoying the beauty of the area. This village is the highest in terms of Altitude in the Cotswolds. It was sunny today as well, so it made the trip all that much more worth it! When we left there we headed for Bourton-on-the-Water. This is the main tourist destination in the Cotswolds because it’s a picturesque stone village with the Windrush River flowing through its center. The river also has four or five stone foot-bridges going across it that date back to 1756!



We LOVED this place! I regret to say that even seeing the pictures does not compare to being there…I was literally kind of sad to go. We had lunch there on the river at a restaurant called the Windrush Garden Café.



I had fish and chips that weren’t bad at all, and home-made apple juice from local apples that was delicious! Then we shopped some more and took pictures before heading back, sadly, to the bus to venture on to our final stop. Burford was also, of course, lovely. When we got there, we visited a huge parish church that was originally Norman, but restored in the 15th Century.



There were musicians playing, and it was really spectacular on the inside – like most of the old churches around here. There was also an unusual monument there to Henry VIII’s barber. It had carvings of Amazon Indians on it, which is considered to be the first representation of Native American Indians in Britain.

Overall, the general word for today was…lovely. Yes, that’s very fitting. Everywhere we went seemed like a dream because it was so unbelievably beautiful. Our tour guide told us that many celebrities and royalty have homes in the Cotswolds as well, such as Kate Winslet and Prince Charles.

When we got back to London earlier tonight, the three of us decided to go into King’s Cross Train Station. (For those that don’t know, this is the train station that Harry Potter goes to so he can find Platform 9 ¾ to get to Hogwarts. It’s true, we’re really big dorks but we wanted to see if we could find the platform). Well, after a little searching we asked someone and they lead us right to it! There was literally a line of people waiting to take pictures underneath the “Platform 9 3/4” sign. They even had half of a basket sticking out of the wall to make it look like you were going through the brick.



After that adventure, we headed back to Camden, stopped and got pizza and came to the flat and ate it. They do have Pizza Hut here, and it was nice to eat something familiar.
Tomorrow is Monday already. I don’t have class on Mondays, but I am still a student while I’m here in the midst of all my site-seeing. I’m probably going to spend some time at Hyde Park tomorrow and work on some homework. :D