London 2015 Day 8, July 7 Cotswolds tour

London 2015 Day 8, July 7 Cotswolds tour

Today we met our bus at the Citadines Hotel just around the corner from our hotel. But this coach took us to the Victoria Coach Station, from where we boarded another bus to continue on our tour of the Cotswolds region, stopping at four pretty villages, Burford, Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Stow-on-the-Wold. By the end of the day we were pretty confused about which was which. Our photos all look very similar, with small houses all built of the local yellow limestone, which looked grayish in the rain of the morning, but looked golden in the afternoon sunlight. There is a requirement now that anything newly built must be made of this local stone to keep a unified look.

We first went to Burford, a small town with one Main Street down the hill, and with shops lining each side of the road, and some hidden alleys with little houses. There was a fly fishing ship just for my brother but I didn't buy any flies! Here it was grey and misting for a little rain but we walked around anyhow.

Next we went back on the bus to Bibury, a tiny village with some historic weavers cottages. We walked around and made our way to the White Swan Hotel for lovely trout lunch. The village has a trout farm in the very clear waters. Lunch was fine and relaxing, then back to the bus to the next village.

Bourton-on-the-Water was as the name says right on a little brook running through it, with small stone bridges over the water. Very many tour buses here.

Lastly we stopped at Stow-on-the-Wold, a bigger town than the others, with a nice square, but full of parked cars. The market comes on Thursdays, but today is not Thursday! But here in this town is Huffkins Tea Shop, and boy were we ready for tea time as it was nearly 4pm by now!

A long bus ride back to London Victoria Coach Station and a short tube ride back to our hotel, changing from the District Line to the Northern Line formCharing Cross.

At the end of the day we feasted on a sandwich for dinner with champagne provided by the hotel!