| Jul 30, 2006 - Stratford and Cotswold towns
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 | | show all 8 | | Stratford-upon-Avon | | Avon river in Stratford | | rowing-upon-Avon | | |
| | Today Candi and I got up early and decided to head to Stratford Upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespere. We mainly went there to do laundry and Internet, as it's the closest place to do both (at least on a Sunday). We walked around the town but decided to miss seeing the touristy Shakespere sites as they were WAY too crowded, even though we got there early. We did rent a boat and row down the Avon, which was pretty fun. The town was cute, but very touristy, so around lunchtime we decided to head out just as more busloads of tourists began pouring in. It was another beautiful day, so decided to do a quick and dirty tour of some of the other Cotswold towns, having biked through a few of the smaller towns near Chipping Campden yesterday. First we headed to Moreton-in-Marsh, which is the least touristy of the towns. We had lunch, walked around for a while, then headed to Stow-on-the-Wold, which was probably the 'cutest' of the towns and definetly the most touristy. On the way back to Chipping Campden we drove through Stanway and Snowshill, both pretty small. Right outside of Snowshill there's a big field of lavender, which was being harvested as we drove by, so the air was thick with the smell of it, mmm-hmmm. All the Cotswold towns have a similar look to them, made of rows of yellow sandstone buildings and they were all at one time big wool centers. The main street in each town is called 'High Street' and is where they used to drive the sheep herds down to market. Looking at these towns today, all covered with flower boxes and tourist shops, I can only imagine what they looked like a few centuries ago when there were scores of sheep running through the towns instead of tourists. Unpaved streets choked with mud, animals, and lot's of sh**, the smell must have been unbearable. I bet they weren't quite so 'cute' back then. I think I prefer the modern version. We have enjoyed staying here and I'am glad we chose Chipping Campden as our home base, as it's good sized and doesn't have the tourist hordes as Stowe. Tomorrow I take the train to Bath and Candi is taking the car to Wales to meet some climbing friends. We will meet in Bath a few days and then head to London, where we will spend our last 4 days. |
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