Travel Tuesday: The Cotswolds

Sod Travel Thursdays - today is Travel Tuesday! (I suck at keeping to a weekly schedule.)

We headed out of the city to the Cotswolds over the weekend, which is an enormous area that includes six counties and 790 square miles. For Vancouverites, it would be a bit like going to the Okanagan—it's a general region, encompassing a few different cities, except in the case of the Cotswolds, it's only 90 minutes away and there are more villages and tiny towns than proper cities.

"Yay! Mini holiday!!!"

Some countryside colours on our walk from the tiny village of Ebrington to the tiny little village of Ilmington. 

A dirty sheep.

A hidden little frozen pond. I tried to get Elliot to walk across the ice but he was too chicken.

More countryside colours.

A derelict house (that was actually marked on our little hand-drawn map as the "derelict house").

Who ate this corn?

Roadside cattails.

After much walking (what should have taken about an hour took us more like 90 minutes), we found the Howard Arms pub, where we sat next to a fire and I thawed. It was deceptively cold outside!

And while we were inside the pub, all of this snow happened.

And I got very cold. And cranky. I reminded Elliot of my friend who dumped a guy she had been dating for a few weeks because he took her on a hike for her birthday present (her rationale = "he obviously didn't know me very well!").

So cranky, in fact, that I didn't take anymore photos until we went to dinner that night at the Ebrington Arms, a lovely country pub (and guest house) owned by a friend of a friend.

Mmmmm, rabbit, fish and chips, and ale. I've decided that I like ale the best. It's less fizzy so I feel much less bloated after a few pints!

Cool wall hanging. I would like one of these faux deer heads, please.

Not-so-faux, brilliantly taxidermied Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I would also like a few of these candleholders, please.

The next day, we drove to Blenheim Palace, where Winston Churchill was born.

A very impressive door.

Elliot played with the snow.

And played with the snow some more.

And then he threw snowballs into the half-frozen lake. And then we came home!

All in all, a very relaxing weekend spent in the English countryside.

Wheee!