The Beautiful Cotswolds

I saved the best for last for our England trip! For me, anyway.  There is a little area North of Bristol and West of Oxford called the "Cotswolds" which I somehow heard about years ago.  I really don't know how I heard of this, it easily could have been from my grandpa or just from coming across pictures somewhere, but I always wanted to go. This is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've been!  I've realized that I'm not so much of a big city girl, and I absolutely love this little area of English countryside.  This is real England, people.  Doesn't get much more real than this.  Most of the buildings are from the 17th century, including the Unicorn Hotel where we stayed.  This area was built on the wool business, which is why you'll be seeing some sheep here in a minute.  Now this whole area is filled with huge homes and manors, mostly owned by rich people and celebrities, such as Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant.  If I were famous, this is the first place I'd hideaway. 

The towns we visited are : 

Bibury

Bourton-on-the-Water

Stow-on-the-Wold (where we stayed)

Upper & Lower Slaughter

Stanway

Broadway

Snowshill 

Chipping Campden

There's not really much to do in the Cotswolds, except for just kind of hang out, drive around, and soak up the beautiful scenery.  We picked a perfect time to go, since all the leaves were changing.  I of course wouldn't have made it without my trusty driver, who handled himself very well driving on the other side of the road!  I drove for about 20 minutes, and then pulled over before we hit the next roundabout, which would have been wayy too much to handle. 

We drove up from Bristol on Sunday, taking a little detour through South Wales and going up the coast, called the Severn.  We took a quick stop in a town called Chepstow, pretty much just so we could say we've been to Wales.

We visited Bourton-on-the-Water on Sunday afternoon, which was so pretty, and then headed up the Stow to check into our hotel.  I at first was going to stay in a hostel, but once I realized I was the ONLY person staying in a 400 year old house, I switched to my Dad's hotel on the second night. On Sunday night, we had to get our "Sunday Roast" which is a delicious meal usually consisting of a cut of roast beef, roast potatoes (or "chips" aka fries), vegetables, gravy and a roll.  We were lucky to find a great restaurant, the King's Arms, to get our roast. We liked it so much that we went back again on the second night in Stow!  

On Monday we visited pretty much every other town in the Cotswolds, took a little walk from Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter (well one of us walked, possibly the one that's 30 years younger), drove through Stanway and Snowshill, walked around in the little shopping town called Broadway, and ended the day in Chipping Campden, which was another old market town.  I loved every minute of it, but I have to admit that after a while they all kind of look the same.  I did however take about 200 pictures this day! 

After our King's Arms pub meal #2, we took a quick stop to the local grocery store to buy out their Cadbury chocolates, and called it a night.  

The next day we got up and headed back to Bourton-on-the-Water, because the car museum there had caught my Dad's attention.  We visited the museum, hung out, and had our last English meal together at a little tea room!  I really enjoyed English food, in spite of the fact that they stereotypically have bad food.  Compared to France, it seemed much more hearty and maybe a little bit American to me, which is probably why I loved it.  After that we drove back to Bristol, gave back our car DENT free, which was unexpected, and Dad headed back to London!

We really had a great trip, the more I think about it and the more I look at the pictures the more I'd really love to go back to England again one day!  Everyone was extremely friendly and nice, and we saw some beautiful places!  Thanks for coming to visit Dad, and thank you to my friend Samir for being such a great host :)

Bibury, Arlington Row

Bourton-on-the-Water

Lower Slaughter

hanging out with some sheep on my walk

upper Slaughter

Snowshill

Chipping Campden

Old taxi in the car museum

Bath

On Saturday morning we headed to Bath, a town not too far away from Bristol.  We went with my friend Samir, his roommate, and her Italian boyfriend.  Quite the odd group!

The first known documentation of this town was in the year 43 AD, by the Romans.  The reason that this town became so popular and famous is because it produces a natural hot spring that comes out of the Earth, which was turned into baths that the Romans used.  The water is literally up to 150 degrees. That's hot. The town was gradually built up around these famous baths.  After a while, the baths were buried during the 5th century and the city declined.  It wasn't until the 17th century that the town was built back up and became famous for it's baths again. It became a "party town" for all the aristocrats, and it became rumored that the baths were "healing" after an infertile queen became pregnant following her Bath visit. The baths that we visited were the ones which were built up in the 1600's and 1700's, and it's amazing that they are still so intact. 

We started off doing a free city tour, and learned a lot of interesting facts about the city, and about life back in the 17th and 18th centuries. We learned a lot of disgusting things actually, it's hard to imagine how horrible people's hygiene was back then. One thing that stuck with me was about how much they used lead during these times.  Supposedly lead was used for a lot of things back then, they even stored their beer and wine in barrels lined with lead.  So according to our tour leader, the reason that the baths made everyone feel "healed" was because they were actually flushing some of the lead out of their bodies when they went into the baths!  

After our city visit, we of course had to go inside the baths. They no longer are actually baths anymore, they're just a tourist attraction.  It was really interesting to see something so old and intact, and it was hard to imagine that we were standing in a place where people have been going for almost 2000 years.  

After our bath visit, we had our afternoon tea, which became one of my favorite things about England.  They serve a pot of tea, and biscuits or scones with a thick cream, called clotted cream, and jam.  Sooo tasty!

The Bath crescent on our city tour

making friends.

inside the baths

samir, our gracious host

all natural

what the baths used to look like while they were in use

the famous bridge in Bath, like a postcard

sally lunns, a famous place for tea

Tea Time! I love this tradition, tea, fresh scones and clotted cream, jam, sandwiches and cakes. mmmm.

Oxford/Mini Cooper tour

This year I was lucky to get a Fall break, on top of the other like 3 months of vacation that I get every year.  I decided to go visit my friend that lives in England for the week since I didn't have much going on around Reims.  I booked my tickets to his town, called Bristol, and started planning the trip.  Somehow along the line I got to talking to my Dad, and he decided to come along with me!  I was going to spend most of the trip by myself, so I was thrilled to have some company!

We arrived in Bristol on Wednesday, visited the city on Thursday, and on Friday we rented a car and headed up to Oxford.  It took a little while to get adjusted to driving on the other side of the road, but my Dad did a pretty good job! I can't imagine what would have happened if I was on my own. I took one loop around the parking lot and decided this whole right side of the car thing wasn't for me. Our first stop was the Mini Cooper plant located close to Oxford city. My Dad somehow found out about this place and we decided to book it online.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take cameras into the plant, and I can't even describe it all! The most amazing part for me was that most of the base of the car is done entirely with German robots.  Inside the plant it almost feels like you are in the future... there are robots doing hundreds of different things, and sparks flying while the cars are all assembled.  After the robot part ended we moved onto the part that is actually done by humans!  It's interesting to see how organized the plant is, every car is finished by hand with all of the different options that it might have, whether it's special wheels or stripes on the hood.  It's amazing what the computers know and how it's all organized! I'm not going to lie after visiting this place I really want a Mini Cooper, I wonder if that is their goal? Hmm

After the Mini plant, we headed to Oxford and grabbed a pub lunch.  After that we just walked around the town, and were very lucky to have absolutely beautiful weather!  It was blue skies all day.  Oxford is a nice town, with many universities.  By the early afternoon, we were exhausted from all the walking, and headed back to Bristol!  The next morning we woke up and headed to Bath... to be continued.

Austin Powers Mini

The Bridge of Sighs

tiny door

Mini

Weekend with the "fam"

This weekend I was so happy to be able to go back to my "home away from home" at Thibaut's parents house.  The weather all weekend was beautiful and I was happy to see the colored houses and flowers in the windows in their village.  Reims is okay but nothing will ever compare to the charm of the Alsatian villages!  I just feel lucky to be able to go back whenever I want!

hotel des clefs, a hotel where my grandpa stayed over 30 years ago

probably should be our Christmas card

umm can you imagine living here!?

thibs elementary school!

a re-do of one of the first pictures i took in Alsace...3 years ago!

You know you're in France when...

I have to say that I did miss seeing these miniature cars all over the place.  Seems practical for parking... but I'd rather live through an accident.  I'll stick to my Jeep!

Happy 800th to the cathedral

To celebrate the Reims Cathedral's 800th bday, there is a light show every weekend night around 11pm. I took Thibaut's parents when they came to visit over the weekend, and they loved it so much that we stayed for both shows.  Afterwards they were all like "ohh what a wonderful way to show the history of the cathedral!"  Not gonna lie, I thought I was just looking at pretty lights.  History or just some pretty lights,  either way it's a pretty awesome show.  Check these out: