Bruce and I spent two weeks in September hiking the Cotswolds in England. The Cotswolds is a rural area in central England known for its limestone buildings, thatched roofs, medieval churches, and neighborhood pubs. I found a company (
Cotswold Walks) that carries your luggage from inn to inn leaving you free to wander the countryside with just a little backpack.
We walked a 50 mile loop over 8 days starting and ending in Morton-in-Marsh. Each day we walked about 6-9 miles stopping here and there along the way to sight see. Some times we stayed in traditional B&Bs; sometimes we stayed in an inn (usually a room over a restaurant). One time we stayed in a tea room. I was bummed that they didn't serve scones for breakfast. But English breakfasts are a little different from ours. They usually eat baked beans and tomatoes with their scrambled eggs and bacon... different.
Hiking in the Cotswolds is very different than hiking in our state and national parks. For one thing, there aren't necessarily clearly-defined trails. We often walked through a herd of grazing animals or across some farmer's field.
We were given maps and a guidebook with directions on where to go, but often our "signpost" was something like an old tree stump in the middle of a field. I felt like I was interpreting a giant puzzle only Bruce and I were the playing pieces.
Since this was all rural countryside, we frequently had to climb over gates and stiles.
I had to Google some of the terminology used in our guidebook before we left, because I didn't know the difference between a dovecoat, a stile, a field gate and a kissing gate. This is a picture of a kissing gate. You swing the gate one way to get into that little box and then swing it the other way to go out the other side. It's supposed to be better about keeping animals from getting out, especially when hikers forget to close the regular gates.
We often stopped at a local pub for a late lunch, partly because there weren't a lot of restaurants in the little villages and partly because if there were restaurants, they always opened for just a few hours at lunch and then closed down until dinner time. The pub food in the UK is much heartier than ours - often bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) or steak & ale pie. Since the days were fairly cool (in the 50's and low 60's), these meals were always a good way to warm up.
We saw some interesting things along the way. In Stow-on-the-Wold, the kids got onto this double-decker school bus.
The UK has always been known for its red telephone boxes, but since everyone carries a cell phone nowadays. they've converted all the phone boxes to defibrillator stations - a bit weird, but I guess a handy thing to have since there aren't any hospitals in the rural areas.
A couple times we saw the old stocks where they would lock people up for public humiliation. I couldn't believe the number of people that were using it as a park bench.
We were able to see the Baker Arms Pub where they film the Netflix show "Father Brown." Unfortunately we were there at 9am, so it wasn't open yet for business.
We saw several castles while we were hiking, but one day we stopped and toured one that people were actually restoring and living in.
I think this part of the castle still needs a little work.
All in all, this was a really great trip with lots of gorgeous scenery, good food, and friendly people. Believe it or not, one day when we stopped for lunch someone noticed I had on my Cardinals shirt and said they were also from St Louis. What a small world.
