31/5/19 Heading from Bath to the Cotswolds

We just made it out of our place in Bath by 10am. We headed for Bourton on the Water, which had  been recommended. 

We enjoyed the patchwork of green divided by hedges as we drove along. 

 Bourton on the Water  has lovely old stone buildings, but there were lots of cars and some minor traffic jams.  It is mid term break this week and there were a lot of families with small kids in town . There were a lot of people in town everywhere of all ages, shapes and sizes. 

 The kids were having a wonderful time playing in the water, which runs through town with lots of little walking bridges over it.  The water is only about 15cm deep - enough to get a little boy's shorts wet if he is kicking around in it. Some kids had no shoes on, some had socks on  - this gave a really great "wet foot" effect on the paths when they came out of the water and ran around.

There seems to be a tradition of playing in the water.  We went into a church fete and found a picture on the wall of football being played in the water.  The explanation nearby said that each August Bank Holiday the players form Bourton Rovers FC and play a match in the river (some in fancy dress)  as a fund raiser.  

There were some lovely gardens backing on to the river  but I'm not sure I would like to live in such a busy place even with a nice garden. 

 Beautiful stone buildings

The dogs were enjoying the summer day.  There were a LOT of dogs around.

Some of us could not resist icecream.. Rhubarb crumble icecream (very Rhubarby)   and honeycomb were the choices of the day.

We had a nice lunch at one of the many eating places (boy were they busy) 

 Then we drove along beautiful country roads to our home for the next few days

We had to laugh at some of the names of places on the way.  The Hollow Bottom was a pub.

This grey house is our new home.


The sheep are our new friends,  They come in to our yard to visit and then have trouble getting out again over the grid.

A bit of a climb up the hill shows the views that we are overlooking. 

This seat doesn't get many people sitting on it.

We drive up this little lane (Rising Sun Lane) , over the grid and up the walking track to the left to get to our home. (to the right out of picture) which is right near Cleeve Hill.