We’d visited Broadway on our last trip four years earlier, so to want to come back speaks volumes when it comes to my sightseeing urges.  I love to cover new ground - see new things - experience new sights and sounds.  Just the trip back to the Cotswolds, in general, was a huge thing for me.  I remembered our first trip as being akin to the "ultimate" vacation and to go BACK.  Well, the fear is, always, that any subsequent trips would be like stale leftovers.

Anyway… Broadway.  We were batting 1.000 so what the hey.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Broadway is named, probably, for that very broad street the runs down its middle.  Lovely little town.  Lots of cars in the public parking area but, amazingly, it wasn’t like a free-for-all walking up and down the broad way.

We wandered up and up and up Main Street so I could snap and snap and snap photos of doors and windows.  And then wandered down and down and down, to get snaps of the other side of the street.

Given that it had been two and half hours since our big Full English we thought it might be nice to stop for a cream tea to warm ourselves and rest from our uphill/downhill wander of Main Street.

Tisanes is a pretty little French Cafe that sells a very nice English cream tea.  We sat in a charming alcove at the back of the restaurant (unfortunately across from the kitchen and next to the restroom door) and rested.  And while we rested we had a lovely cream tea, snapped photos of our food and discussed the day’s events.  Like where in the world should we go next?

 

 

We had no idea, only the expectation of finding another charming village that presented excellent photo ops and, maybe, another tea room.

So this is where the meander comes into play in my "itineraries".  We had no clear destination, just the joyous realization that no matter which way we turned it would be hard to imagine going wrong.

Case in point… as we are sitting having our tea at Tisanes I say to Draw, "well what I’d really like to find are some really cool cemeteries".

And this is what we found less than five minutes after getting back into our car:

 

 

And as I’m popping a bit of clotted cream-laden scone in my mouth I say to Draw, "and I’d love to find some really neat doors".  "Duh", says Draw.

And these are what we found.  One across the road from the cemetery and one a hop skip and jump just before it:

 

 

Everything we did here on out was on the fly.  Look at the map… what about so and so… drive.  Look at the map… what about this and that… drive.  Over and over this plan worked amazingly well for us.  The Cotswolds is teeming with wonderful sights.  And forget the other 65 bucks worth of English travel guides - our $5 map investment paid off in spades.

So, now, let’s enjoy a few snaps of Broadway and then head on over to Snowshill (pronounced "snoze-ill" or "snozzle") the site of my first disappointment.  Truth be told,  Snowshill was the site of both of my two disappointments but they were fleeting as all ended up quite happily (more on that later).

 

Yes, indeed, this is a gen-u-ine deli looking like a doll’s house fixture.

An amazing window - actually, an amazing window canopy.

Another window of the quintessential variety… and my reflection.

An amazing doorknocker.

Are you still with me?  I thought I’d tie up the Snowshill visit in this post (peppered liberally with photos to help keep you awake)  because we also visited Stow-on-the-Wold on this particular day, along with another village.  Too much to include here so it looks like there’s going to be a Day Six Part III.

Snowhill… and is there a Lavender Farm

Snowshill is touted as one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds.  Oh, for Pete’s sakes they’re all pretty.  It’s like sensory overload when you take yourself away to the Cotswolds.

 

 

Snowshill is tiny, set on a sloping hill.  The few streets that do exist in this tiny village are quite narrow and the cottages that line the streets are perched right next to the road.  Which makes window-peeping perfectly natural and acceptable.  Though, unconsciously done, I assure you.

Let me take a quick moment to talk about window-peeping and window-fixations in general.  In a post several months ago I wrote about my fascination with windows.  There’s nothing like a good window and, in fact, the one I featured in that early post was found in the Cotwolds on our previous trip.  I honestly think that villages are missing the boat by not playing up the window/door angle with tourists : "Pretty village with amazingly old and quaint windows".  You tell me who, in their right mind, would pass up a visit to a village dripping in amazingly old and quaint windows.

This is right smack dab in the middle of the many reasons why I am so blown away by the Cotswolds.  Wooden windows, iron windows, oval windows, arched windows, cathedral windows, windows falling off their hinges, windows covered with flowers or canopied by vines… old and ancient windows that have been peered through over hundreds of years.  There is history in a window.  When I look at or through one of these old windows I am sharing space with hundreds of years of people who did the very same thing. 

The particular delight of the Snowshill windows is that you absolutely have to look into them since they’re set so close to the road.  And with the windows come the windowsills that are particulary deep and used to display pretty little statues, and bowls of potpourri and candeholders, and and and.

 

 

In the middle of Snowshill is the church (with cemetery).  And off to one side of the church, the bright red phonebox in case you’re passing through and you don’t have a cell phone.  And across from the church the village message board advertising an IT entrepreneur’s services for the villagefolk experiencing computer woes.   Huh?  I thought we were in the 16th century.

 

 

Besides being very peaceful and quite lovely, Snowshill is also the home of Snowshill Lavender Farm.  I found this out the first night at our B&B when I washed my hands in our tiny but cute bathroom.  On the sink was a bottle of Snowshill Lavender Farm liquid soap.  A plain Jane little bottle holding the most delicious lavendar scented soap.

 

 

Since, along with windows and doors I am also a lavender freak, my other motive for wanting to find Snowshill was also to find that soap!  Even if it did cost $12 USD for 200mL.  And 200 mL is not like the big bottle of Pepsi, folks.  That big bottle of Pepsi is a Liter which is like a million mL whereas the bottle of soap was only 200.

So, disappointment number one of the two in the Cotswolds was that Snowshill Lavender Farm was closed.  No signs outside telling you when they might be open, just the sign telling you that they weren’t.  But I read that they were open everyday?

Except today.

Draw was quite sweet about it "we’re here three more days, we’ll come back tomorrow".  Awww… And there was still that almost full bottle of soap in our bathroom back at the B&B.  It wasn’t like I absolutely needed to wash my hands right then, anyways.

And thus ended our first visit (of THREE) to the lovely Snowshill.  With the level of the sun telling us we were burning daylight and should press on, we grabbed the map and decided Stow-on-Wold would be our next stop.

Day Six Part III coming up but in the meantime… Snowshill…  And for more photos please take a peek at Draw’s website.  He’s an awesome photographer.

 

An amazing blue, ivy-canopied Snowshill door.

 

An amazing weather-beaten Snowshill door.

 

An amazing cross from the ancient Snowshill cemetery.

Before I get into Day Six I thought I’d post a photo to provide you with a visual of our B&B in Chipping Campden (do you think it’s always Chipping Campden or do the locals abbreviate the name in some way: Chipping, ChipCampden, ChipCamp, CC…  I’ll call it CC).

So the lay of the CC lands in thumbnail view:

You can get a feel for how the homes/shops lined up with one another (note the sagging roof at Badger’s Hall.  This is normal).  The window in our room consisted of six leaded glass panels.  The two in the center opened out to the street on their rickety old hinges and hooked into place with this flat bar that you pushed out with the window. 

Did you know that England has no mosquitoes?  And the flies are quite tiny and extremely polite about not flying into open windows which seldom have screens.  It’s really neat to open a window to the air and not have to worry about being bombarded by nasty obnoxious bugs.

Alright then… on to Day Six…

Day Six started with a Full English, the breakfast part of Bed & Breakfast.  (Phillip made an interesting point on our next to the last morning at Badger’s Hall when I asked if we got breakfast after we checked out the next morning.  He felt sure that breakfast would be provided because, after all, it is a Bed & BREAKFAST and not a BREAKFAST & Bed.  Those English are so clever).

Guests at Badger’s Hall are treated to fresh berries (none of that god-awful canteloupe to make it seem as though you’re getting a lot of fresh fruit when in fact you’re getting a lot of canteloupe and just a bit of the good stuff).  Fresh berries as in strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  Cream for the berries and the granola cereal, yoghurt (not American yogurt that has a tendency to be too sweet) and coffee.  Tea was brought to your table in a little pot.

And then there was the "main" course which you would have selected the night before on this piece of paper titled "What would you like for breakfast: Full English, Haddock or Pancakes" (remember now, pancakes in England are not those fluffy things saturated with syrup, but flat, kind of rubbery, sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and squirted with a bit of lemon juice).

So, what’s a Full English?  Sausage, bacon (not American bacon, it’s thicker and more "hammy") potatoes, eggs (however you want them but if they’re scrambled you have to ask for ketchup), fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, toast.  When you’re on vacation and you’re in England you are allowed to have a Full English every morning. You gotta love vacation because there’s no such thing as a calorie.

After breakfast we (I) decided we should pop over to the tourist shop two doors down and augment our (my) stack of travel stuff with 70 bucks worth of more travel stuff.  All my travel stuff was bought in America - I wanted some English travel stuff that cost twice as much.

And then we decided to pop off to the CC library six doors down in the opposited direction because, yesssssss, the library had a computer with internet access available for patron use.

The library is only open from 10am til noon three or four days a week and we were hot-footin’ it over there so we’d be at the door when the librarian unlocked it.  When you have an email addiction and you’ve been away from the internet for more than a day or two, innocent pedestrians and old librarians had better stand clear of you.  I was fully prepared to push through the crowd at the door, if need be.

Amazingly, the only people drooling at the library door at 10am were Draw and I.  Of course, the mystery was soon solved as to why, when we attempted to access Gmail.  I had no idea there was an internet connection slower than 56k.  You know the connection had to be abysmally slow when two email geeks throw their hands up in exasperation and walk out without checking message one.

Opening up one of our new maps, we decided to head to Broadway, a lovely little town, named, quite probably, because the main drag running through town is very broad.

But before we continue, let’s look at a few photos… maybe a door… perhaps a window… let us admire the general splendour of Chipping Campden.

The Chipping Campden Market Hall built in 1627.  You can see, through one of the arches, Badger’s Hall Tea Room and B&B (red door).

An enticing view of the warm welcome that awaits you at Badger’s Hall.  Door is open all day long.

The windows of many of the shops in Chipping Campden are beyond eye candy.  This is the Bakery.

And it would only make sense that the Chipping Campden roses would be second to none…

So with that… I vote "tea time".  A little break before we head on over to the lovely and quaint Broadway and other adventures.  Please stay tuned.

Where the heck have I been?  But enough about me… let’s finish Day Five.

When all was said and done, including the stop in Aylesbury and the 15 or so miles of getting lost, it only took us six or seven hours to make the two and a half hour drive from Matfield to Chipping Campden.  I was quite happy with that time but then I’m American.  We’re used to driving six or seven hours in one clip.  Whereas for the English a three-hour drive requires an overnight stay halfway through the trip.  It’s a given that a six or seven hour drive should be scheduled over the course of the week.

This is what an Englishman looks like after a six or seven hour drive.  Similar
to the happy, excited, energetic face but… not.

Let’s take a moment to talk about accommodations.  Once the decision was made to visit the Cotswolds, the next step was to find our room.  As far as I’m concerned this is one of the most important parts of anyone’s trip.  If your accommodations suck it isn’t going to matter what you’re doing or what you’re looking at during the day - you still have to go back to your sucky hotel/motel/B&B in the evening.

Hence my painstaking search for *the* perfect place to lay our heads at night and my love affair with TripAdvisor.  I start with the travel websites, go to the travel books and then cap it all off with a visit to TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor has all those wonderful candid reviews written by travelers who aren’t trying to sell you a bill of goods.  They’re just giving you the inside skinny on the "do’s and don’ts" and the "where to’s and where not’s".

I would hazard a guess that I spent no less than three weeks looking for the perfect B&B in the Cotswolds.  The one among many standouts that would be our home away from home for the next five nights.

And so we arrived at Badger’s Hall and a warm welcome after our six (or seven) hour journey.  And believe it or not, there are B&B’s out there that will not give you a warm welcome - I found one in my searchings that stated on their website that what they offered was exactly what it said: a bed and a breakfast.  In other words, once you’ve had your breakfast, scram.  No hanging around during the day getting on everyone’s nerves.

Our room at Badger’s Hall was specifically chosen from the photos I found on TripAdvisor, and it did not disappoint.  It was very charming and very quaint.  No mistaking this room for one at the Best Western.

(NOT a Best Western)

(No WAY does a Best Western have this)

Our room faced the main street running through Chipping Campden, which I liked.  I liked the activity, though very mild by most standards, and the sounds.  We were right across from the Market Square which seemed to be the evening gathering place for the town teens.  We enjoyed listening to them through our open windows while we watched movies and chomped away on our nightcap of string cheese, pork pies and sundry snacks from the Co-op next door (you can take the American out of the country but you can’t take the American out of the American - or however that goes).

Chipping Campden, itself, is superb.  I think the whole town is on the National Register.  Along the main street the buildings are attached to one another like a long row house that is occasionally bisected by a side street.  Homes and shops are jumbled together and each is unique, different from it’s neighbor on either side.

So, the first day, the rest of Sunday, was to enjoy a wonderful real cream tea compliments of our hosts at Badger’s Hall (did I mention that the B&B was over a tea room?) to stroll Main Street getting the lay of the Chipping lands and breathe in the Cotswoldsian air.  And if Cotswoldsian isn’t actually a word yet then you heard it here first, folks.

And that’s the end of Day Five, two months later…  And a few more snaps just for kicks.  Of doors, of course.

(The Green Dragon.  How quaint)

(And a bit of whimsy)

 

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