After the wedding we spent three days in the Cotswolds. I’ve actually been working on this blog post for two evenings because I don’t really want to sound like a travelogue, especially since that involves reading Wikipedia articles on the Cotswolds or the Thames Head and trying not to plagiarize as I paraphrase their contents here, because my knowledge of this area really is limited to a few articles I’ve read and my experiences over a very short time.
So, the highlights (with Wikipedia links just in case) —
I had never stayed in a bed and breakfast before. As an introvert the idea always really intimidated me, to be honest – would I have to make small talk with the hosts? Would I have to make small talk with people in the breakfast room? Small talk is not a strong suit of mine, and generally when I’m on vacation I don’t like to intentionally put myself in uncomfortable situations. However, I decided to get over myself this time and booked us into two different B&Bs during this trip. I’m glad I did! The first B&B was called Well Cottage and it was completely lovely. I quickly got over feeling awkward and warmed to the entire experience. By the end I was nattering away in the breakfast room with anyone I could make eye contact with.
When booking our room in Well Cottage we found out that the Thames Path runs through the town of Ewen and only a mile or so down the path we could find the Thames Head. This was very exciting for us because Chris and I are big fans of the Rivers of London urban fantasy book series by Ben Aaronovitch. The series is mainly about magical crime fighting in London, but the world the characters inhabit is one in which all the rivers in England and most likely the whole world are actually gods and goddesses. and the upper reaches of the Thames are the where the very powerful Father Thames resides.
After our pilgrimage to the Thames Head we felt it necessary to have dinner at the Thames Head Inn (note the likeness of Father Thames in the signage!) — Bangers and Mash for me and Bubble and Squeak for Chris.
Day two of our Cotswolds adventure was spent in Bath – post to come tomorrow.
xoxo