Day 10 - Stratford-on-the-Avon

Day 10 Monday April 29th

Mew and Liam had to go to work, so we headed outs early. It is a three hour drive to London, so we decided to break it up with a stop in Stratford-on-the-Avon. Birthplace of William Shakespeare.

This is a very touristy town. Everything  Shakespeare! We toured the house he was born in and walked a little of the “Shakespeare Journey “.

There were many tour busses and large tour groups. We tried to get off the beaten path and found a place to eat at the Old Hatch Tavern. This is the oldest thatched roof building in town. I ordered the mincemeat pie and it was delicious!

We booked a hotel near Heathrow so we could drop off the rental car and simply catch a shuttle to the airport in the morning. Our flight left at 5:00am, so we need to go to bed early.

Day 9 - Llandudno

Day 9 Sunday April 28th

Just north of Conwy is the coastal town of Llandudno. 

After checking out of our Airbnb, we drove north to check it out. This is a beautiful coastal town known for its beaches and pier with carnival rides. It has a Coney Island feel and would be wonderful to visit on a warm summer day. We had a sunny day, but it is April and the weather was a bit too cold to go swimming.  We walked the pier and rode the Ferris wheel. We even found an old Zoltar fortune telling machine.  

Then we drove up to the top of the Great Orme. The Great Orme is a limestone headland next to Llandudno. It is the largest prehistoric copper mine in the world. First worked during the Bronze Age, around 4000 years ago, the Great Orme was found to be rich in deposits of copper.

Liam did the driving as the road was narrow and winding. This also allowed us to enjoy the view. The views were fantastic with so many sheep everywhere!

We returned to Llandudno and found a tea house that had traditional English tea with clotted cream. The clotted cream is like a very thick whipped cream. You can add it to your tea or put it on a scone with jam. It was delicious.

I also continued my quest to try a Guinness in every country. (See my Guinness Around the World Blog). The Wales Guinness is much better than the American Guinness. I would rate it a solid 8.

Drove back to Shrewsbury where Mew and Liam took us out for a fabulous dinner. We spent the night in her apartment. It was so great seeing her all grown up and being an adult. What a joy!

Day 8 Wales Conwy Castle

Day 8 Saturday April 27th

Today was a lazy day. We toured Conwy Castle. Since our Airbnb is located within the walls of the city, we are a short walk to the castle. Built in 1283, the Castle is the most preserved medieval castle in Wales. 

Most of the wall that surrounds the city is still intact. After touring the castle, we walked part of the wall and stopped for a cocktail at the Bank of Conwy. This is a bank that was  converted to a bar in 2015. It has a great seating area in the vault in the basement. Mew and I tried many different type of gin and tonics. As expected, each one was garnished differently. 

We continued our walk along the wall until we reached our Airbnb. We had just returned when Mew’s boyfriend Liam arrived. He was not able to join us when we picked up Mew in Shrewsbury, so he drove separately to meet up with us in Conwy. 

Mew and Liam took us to Fisherman’s Fish & Chip shop for some award winning Fish and Chips. It was a little greasy, but tasted very good.

Day 7 - Wales, Penrhyn Castle

Day 7 Friday April 26th

Today we explored the castles of the north shore of Wales. There are more than 600 castles in Wales. We will only check out a few today.

The first castle we toured was Penrhyn Castle. It was a summer home for a family that made a fortune in slate mining. It was like asking on the set of Downton Abby. This family was the richest family in all of Wales. While it is not old, it was very impressive. All the rooms are staged to look like it would have when it was built. Each room had a bell line that when pulled would ring a bell in the servants quarters. The servants would then go to the room from which the bell was rung. The kitchen area was amazing. There were separate rooms for desserts, vegetables and meats. Since there was no refrigeration, the meat room was designed to stay cool with thick walls and no windows.

Queen Victoria once stayed there in 1859 when she visited North Wales. The owner commissioned a one ton slate bed to be made for the queen. Queen Victoria refused to sleep in it, saying it reminded her of a tomb.

Aberlleiniog Castle was next on our list. This castle is much older (1080) and is mostly in ruin now. It was a muddy hike, but well worth it.

We did not have time to drive to another castle as they all close at 5:00pm, so we drove to Lynas Lighthouse. It was built on a hillside, so it does not need a tower. It is also a functional lighthouse, but is automated, so it is a private house and holiday accomodations.

The back roads to get to these places are so narrow and usually only have one lane even though it is a two lane road. Several times we had to backup to a place where both cars could pass. 

Day 6 Stow-on-the-Wold & Shrewsbury

Day 6 Thursday April 25th

Started the day with a traditional English breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast. It consisted of eggs, “bacon”, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans and “bubble and Squeak”. The bacon is very different from what we have in the states, more of a slice of ham. The Bubble and Squeak is just potatoes with cabbage. I like it! However, I am not so sure about beans for breakfast.

Traditional English Breakfast at Lucy’s Tea Room

Since the town was pretty much closed when we arrived yesterday, we took the opportunity to walk around this morning. There was a farmers market with lots of fresh produce. The shops in town were amazing. Each was unique and charming. We stopped for lunch at the Talbot and got a window seat where we could watch the town activities. There appeared to be town volunteers cleaning the garbage cans located all over town. Most of the cans were covered in bird poop, and that is what they were cleaning. They did not stay clean long. After the garbage can in front of our window was cleaned, 3 birds arrived and made a mess again. There was a narrow alleyway right next to the restaurant, I think it was where the sheep were corralled into the town. It has a plaque indicating that it was used as an escape route for King Charles II in 1651. 

Parking is restricted in town and we needed to get moving to our next destination. We are on our way to Shrewsbury to meet up with one of our previous exchange students, Mew. On our way we stopped at Broadway Tower in Worcestershire. they wanted 20 pounds to go in, so we just drove by and took pictures, besides we were anxious to see Mew and did not want to delay.

Broadway Tower

Shrewsbury is the birthplace of Charles Darwin and a pretty good sized city for the English countryside. Mew had completed her masters program in London and decided not to return to Thailand.    

It was so great to see Mew again. We were surprised to see how she had not changed in 13 years. She is living in an old hospital that was converted to apartments. We only stopped in Shrewsbury to pick her up and take her with us to Wales.

We had a two hour drive to Conwy Wales. Plenty of time to get caught up with Mew. Conwy is a medieval walled town in North Wales.  After getting settled into our Airbnb, we walked about the harbor where we saw the smallest house in Great Britain. We also got a nice view of some of the wall as well as the castle. It was getting late, so we found a place to eat that Mew had recommended. Sandy tried the local mussels.

Day 5 The Cotswolds

Day 5 Wednesday April 24th

Today we head to the Cotswold area in England. On our way we stopped at The Old Prison Kitchen and Cafe for coffee and breakfast. This was an old prison built in the 1790’s that was converted into a restaurant and museum.You can tour the old prison cells and walk the grounds after eating. The grounds contain many old carriages that you can look at and you can view old prison cells. 

The roads in the Cotswold area are narrow with tall hedges on each side. It is very nerve racking when you are still adjusting to driving on the other side of the road!

Sandy found a gin distillery for us to tour, The Cotswolds Distillery. It was a small group tour where we saw the distilleries and storage areas where whiskey is aged. At the end of the tour we got to do a tasting. We could choose from any of the gins or whiskeys they made. Since Sandy was driving, she was not allowed to do the tasting, but was provided with a small bag of six bottles of her choosing to try later. 

I learned a few things as well. Our hostess asked me what a gin and tonic served in the states is garnished with. I told her it is usually a lime or a lemon if they are out of limes. She proceeded to tell me that was incorrect. Then she poured me a gin and tonic and garnished it with a bay leaf and grapefruit slice. It was fantastic. Then she explained that the garnish should match one of the herbs used to infuse the gin when it was made. After this experience, I started ordering gin and tonics in every bar. Each time (based on the gin ordered), it was garnished with something different. Sometimes cucumber, sometimes elderberries, each was unique and different. I also need to note that the gin selection in the bars of England is much larger than the vodka selection. 

We could not get into our next Airbnb until later in the afternoon, so we explored the countryside. We are so glad we did not rent a big car. These back roads are narrow and all lined with tall hedges. It was a little claustrophobic.

We stopped at the Hook Norton Brewery to get some lunch as we drove through Oxfordshire. The brewery was founded in 1849 and was designed as a “tower” brewery in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor. It is a cool looking building and they give tours if you want.

Hook Norton Brewery

Our drive took us to Stow-on-the-Wold. This is the name of the town where our Airbnb is located. Stow is Saxon word for religious meeting place and Wold means rolling hill. This town is the highest of all the towns in the Cotswold area and is at a point where several roads meet. This made it a great place for markets and trading. Wool was a big industry in the area and sheep were brought into town through special narrow alleys to keep the herd together as they were brought into town to be sold. 

The Airbnb we stayed at was called Lucy’s Tearoom. It is a small tearoom serving breakfast, lunch and tea during the day. Behind the tearoom is a small courtyard and a small two story building. That is the BB part of the business. We had the room in the upper half of the building. It was very unique in that you have to walk through the restaurant to get to the rooms in the back. The owners provided us with keys to the restaurant as well as keys to our room. We had to promise to lock the restaurant doors if we went out in the evening. People are very trusting here. 

After settling into our room we decided to do more exploring. The day was young,so we took a drive to a neighboring village called Bourbon-on-the-Water. This is a very charming Cotswold town with beautiful buildings made from local stone and a small river running through the center of town. 

We returned to Stow-on-the-Wold and parked the car to continue exploring the town by foot. It was getting late and most of the businesses were closed for the day, but we still had fun walking around this amazing charming town.

Day 4 Roman Baths

Day 4 Tuesday April 23rd. 

Sandy found that there are free tours of Bath provided by volunteers everyday. You just need to meet in the plaza in front of the Grand Pump Room at 10:00am. Very convenient since we are staying right in front of the meeting place. We got there at 9:45 and there were three guides. The crowd was divided into three groups and we all followed our guide for a two hour tour of Bath. 

The guide was very informative and took us to many impressive sights, like the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is single building consisting of 30 terraced houses laid out in a large crescent. It was built between 1767 and 1774. It is also the backdrop for may scenes in Bridgerton.

We walked the promenade that couples walk to talk to each other when they were courting, We also saw Kings Circus, a historic ring of large townhouses forming a circle with three entrances. Convinced that Bath was the principal center of Druid activity, the architect designed the townhouses to mimic the outer ring of Stonehenge. 

It was a lot of walking for us, so we found a pub and enjoyed a nice cold Cider and some lunch.

Back to the apartment for a quick nap, then we went to the main event. The Roman Baths! 

The Roman Bath Audio Tour is well worth it. You can stop and start the tour anytime and jump to any area you happen to be in. The geothermal bath house is very impressive. The tour provides all the information on the history, including the pre Roman history of the Celtics worshiping the goddess Sulis (Minerva), the Roman invasion, to 16th and 17th century royalty using the baths. Scale models of the original structure were also very cool to see. It was actually a spa and had many different work out rooms as well.

The evening was still young, so we hiked to the Pulteney Bridge. This Bridge spans the River Avon in Bath and is unique in that it has shops built across its full span on both sides. There is also an unusual weir (low-head dam) just below the bridge. It makes for a cool photo.

We ended the day at “The Dark Horse”, a subterranean cocktail den voted top 4 best new cocktail bars in the world in 2016. The drinks were overpriced and just ok, but the atmosphere was fantastic! 

Day 3 - Avebury & Bath

Day 3 Monday April 22nd

Grace had to fly back home for work since she had already taken time off for her trip to Barcelona. Sandy and I will continue the adventure on our own.

After dropping Grace off at the airport, we headed towards Bath. The country side was covered in yellow fields of flowering oilseed rape. The oil from this plant is used to make mayonnaise and margarine. It was very stunning.

Rapeseed fields in full bloom.

On the way to Bath, we stopped at Avebury to see the Avebury henge and stone circles. This henge is bigger  and more impressive than the famous Stonehenge. We were even able to walk into the circle and touch the stones (you cannot do this at Stonehenge). The circles for this are huge and you would need a drone to see them. It is the largest megalithic stone circle in the world.

We stopped at the Red Lion Pub located right next to the inner circle for lunch. There is lore of a ghost of two lovers that haunts the building.

The Red Lion Pub

Then we were off to Bath. The Airbnb we rented was located right in the center of town where no cars were allowed. It took awhile to find a place to park the car, then walk to the apartment. Our apartment overlooked the Abbey Courtyard where you can see the Abbey cathedral and the Grand Pump Room of the Roman Baths. 

The view from our apartment.

We explored the immediate area and found some areas where Bridgestone was filmed. The Bridgestone Modiste dress shop was only a block away from us. Nearby, we found a great little basement bar called the Hideout. They had a great menu with fun drinks named after hip hop artists like Cisco Kid and Mondrian to Bach Ke. The drinks were great and so was the bartender.

It is a fun area to walk around. Many small side streets with archways and twists and turns. We ended the night at The Bath Distillery Gin Bar. This is my happy place as I do love Gin!

Back to the apartment to rest and prepare for the next day.

Day 2 Hampton Court

Day 2 Sunday April 21st 

Today we are going to Hampton Court. The place where Henry VIII and many of his wives lived. We took the self-guided audio tour. The tour took us through the great kitchens, dining halls, wine cellar and more. There was a separate entrance that the horses would come in to drop off the food. The number of fireplaces was astounding. You could walk into them. There were separate rooms to store meat, bread, vegetables and fish. The servants had to climb a set of stairs holding huge trays of food to bring up to the king. The original worn stairs are still there. Grace got separated from us, but we found her again later as we were going through the castle. 

King Henrys wine cellar.

Since it was spring, there was a presentation on the history of tulips in the area. Queen Mary II loved her gardens and was instrumental in introducing tulips to the area in 1636. This was the “Tulip Mania” period, when tulips were more expensive than diamonds. Many people made and lost fortunes as the tulip mania only lasted a year. Then prices went back to normal.

Tulips in one of the side gardens.

This castle today is featured in many shows and movies such as Bridgerton, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tudors. You can take a separate audio tour movie locations if you want.

                                               Hampton Court Hedge Maze

We found the center of the maze!

After the audio- tour we went to the famous Hampton Court Maze. This is UK’s oldest surviving maze. It is also the first puzzle maze with twists turns and dead ends. Prior to the creation of the Hampton Court Maze, unicursal or single path mazes were the most popular  form of maze in the UK. In like a puzzle maze, the single path maze had one path winding to the center point. 

Day 1 Windsor

Day 1 Saturday April 20th 2024

Flew into Heathrow, rented a car and drove to Windsor. Driving on the left side of the road from the left side of the car is always a bit challenging, but we adjusted pretty quickly.

We stayed at an Airbnb near Windsor Castle. We rented a three bedroom house as Grace will be joining us. She was in Barcelona and is staying with her friend Georgia in London. Grace will be taking the train out to meet us in Windsor and travel with us for a few days. She had initially got tickets for us to see the Chelsea’s women soccer team play in Kings Meadow, but the game got canceled and moved to another location on a different day. Our exchange student Antonio was going to meet up with us as well, but forgot that England left the EU and he did not have a valid passport to come to England to visit us. So we had lots of room. 

We arrived early and were able to get into our Airbnb early by paying an extra fee over the phone. Grace was not arriving at the train station until later in the day, so we took a short nap to adjust to the time change. Then we decided to explore the area and walk towards Windsor Castle.

We found The Piper Art Bar. It had an interesting menu with Haggis Balls listed at the top of the page for snacks. The waitress caught me googling Haggis and warned me not to do that. I agreed that it is better to not know somethings. We ended up ordering the Loaded Fries. These are skinny fries topped with haggis, black pudding, red onion and Monterey Jack cheese. The fries were fantastic! I even enjoyed the haggis and the black pudding.

Found a small bodega on our way back to the apartment and picked up some wine.

Next we needed to pick up Grace from the train station. Apple Maps did not give good directions to the train station, but we eventually found it. There is literally no parking in this part of town, so Sandy dropped me off and I walked to get Grace then had Sandy drive around and pick us up again. Then back to the apartment.

Grace was starving when she arrived, so we went straight to a restaurant that was right across from our apartment. The Prince Arthur Pub. It was a nice little pub where we ordered our first Fish and Chips of the trip.The food was good and the beer was better. The Wisteria was blooming and so beautiful.