Easter in the Cotswolds AKA How Friggin' British is This??

So, Pete informs me last Monday that he has Good Friday and a Bank Holiday (also known to the Brits as a "boondoggle" of a day off) on the Monday after Easter. Understandably, I go into panic mode thinking "There is no friggin' way the 4 of us are staying in our flat for 4 days over the LONG weekend!" -- so I was off planning a little mini-break. The parameters were: semi-close by and drivable, so we picked the Cotswolds, just Northwest of London. We had heard all sorts of horror stories about traffic on Easter and always loads of traffic on a Bank Holiday. We decided to go for two nights and return on Easter in the afternoon. Knowing we could check in early to our pub/inn accommodations, we left on Friday morning around 10 AM and whipped our way up to the Cotswolds in just over an hour!

 Charlbury

 Sweet Shop #1

Burford Church

We checked into the Bull Inn in Charlbury and were quickly off to find lunch and stroll the town of Burford. To say the landscape was charming and idyllic is an understatement. The Cotswolds are famous for their rolling green pastures, their wool and their buildings made of limestone. Think light-colored buildings, overgrown with nearly-flowering, twisting wisteria, daffodils, tulips and newly-born lambs. Quaint and truly English. And overcast - which didn't bother us since, well, you know - we are from Seattle! We strolled and shopped with the masses and stopped in at the Mermaid at Burford for a pub lunch. We quickly decided that the tween/teen age acne years will not be kind to Henry if he continues to have fish and chips for every meal! Pete went full force for the bangers and mash with gravy, I wolfed down the Stilton and broccoli soup and May opted for the good old ham and cheese ploughman. More shopping, a stop into Orvis for some fly fishing tips for Pete, a stop into the Sweet Shop and the afternoon was complete. We drove to a little village, parked the car and went for a Death March (with Frisbee for Frisbee golf) through fields of blooming broccoli and yellow labs.

For evening entertainment, we ate dinner at our "inn" (we were the only guests staying there)...goat cheese and caramelized onions in phyllo dough, rabbit stew and rack of lamb with a nice glass of red...YUM! The Bull Inn is over 600 years old so you can imagine that Pete was on high alert to Mind his Head! After dinner we watched "Bend it like Beckham" - fun movie to watch in the UK!

The next morning we had a FULL English breakfast - tea, scrambled eggs, sausage and amazing bacon! Even May said that she needed to lay off the bacon...our stomachs were slowly starting to s-t-r-e-t-c-h! We needed to walk it off so we drove throughout the Cotswolds to the "Venice of the Cotswolds"...Burton on the Water. Charming town within a town, canals of creeks running everywhere and tourists galore! We needed to get out of there so  we set off on our 5 mile ramble to Lower and Upper Slaughter, through fields of horses, sheep/lambs and their new babies. May was in heaven!

 Lower Slaughter

 Lower Slaughter

 Upper Slaughter

 Bloomin' Broccoli

 Baby

 Wisteria taking over about to bloom

We made it back to Burton on the Water and were desperate for lunch. Everything was packed and there were people everywhere. We finally found a dumpy tea room that had surprisingly good food but no charm (shockingly the kids had BLTs)! A local Brit recommended we hit the Cotswold Animal Farm which is like a mini-Remlinger Farms without the rides. That was all May wanted to do-feed the baby lambs. Long story short, we got lost. Those damn narrow Cotswold's roads got us all turned around-picture a couple on the Amazing Race and that was Pete and I tersely discussing which was the right way to go. And we had our cell phones with mapping, as well as the navigation system in the car. We finally found it, but we had missed the bottle feeding and it was about an hour til closing so we bailed out and decided to go back the next day.

 Heaven on earth for May

 Future Streaky Rashers

 Pigley Butt

Pierced Piggy

We ate dinner at the Bull Inn again but wanted to go light...ha ha. So we ordered the cheese plate for an appy (usually served as dessert but we are American...we like our cheese first, thank you!)...there was a Cornish Blue which had been voted Best Blue Cheese in the "world" which we were highly suspicious of and had to try. I am happy to report that Pt. Reyes Blue is WAY better! Henry opted for lighter fare...smoked salmon and salmon mousse with crackers and a fish cake...that boy can eat!

Easter Sunday brought colder temps and a return to the Cotswold Animal Farm. Guess what? We got a little lost. But we eventually found it and May got her wish. She was in heaven and there were oodles of baby EVERYTHING...piglets, bunnies, guinea pigs, chicks, lambs, and calves. She could have stayed all day and we had to drag her out of there as we had bought tickets for Blenheim Palace. It was really well done we would go back there next Spring for the lambing in a heart beat.

Off to Blenheim Palace - Sir Winston Churchill's place of birth and home to the current Duke of Marlborough (who is now on his 4th wife FYI). Beautiful grounds and stunning inside. We did the self tour as the guided tour was jam-packed. The grounds were gorgeous and we would definitely go back on a sunny weekend day to scooter/bike and walk around...over 2000 acres! Spent some time in the Pleasure Garden (sounds naughty but it wasn't)...kids went through the hedge maze, in the Butterfly House and climbed all around on the ancient trees that dotted the parking lot! We zipped on home in under an hour and still had the entire evening to chill. Pete hooked up his new UK Xbox and we are able to watch quite a few US shows...so Mad Men Season 5!

 Blenheim Palace

Today was rainy and blustery-a perfect Bank Holiday to have a "lie-in" and chill (and write this detailed blog post). Quick trip into London via automobile to pick up my "new" Dyson vacuum I bought from an ex-pat moving back to the great state of Texas! Pete was a champ driving through Richmond (went right by your house Dina!) and we are now proud vacuum cleaner-owners! Just need a house now.

Cheerio!!