The Cotswolds
(Stow-on-the-Wold)
A few calm days to recover from jet lag and ease into travel.
We decided to arrive a few days before the tour began, and Stow-on-the-Wold turned out to be the perfect place to do it. We settled into our little cottage, drank a lot of tea, ate a lot of cheese, and tried to adjust to being awake at all the wrong hours.
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Our main activity here was wandering the village and setting out on the many country walks nearby. Even while completely exhausted, those walks helped us shake off the travel fog and start to feel a little adventurous again.
Standout Moments
There just aren’t words for how charming these villages are.
Kids + jet lag is no joke. We were so glad we had given ourselves a few days to recover, because we needed all of them!
We followed several of Rick’s suggested walks along quiet country lanes to neighboring villages. The scenery was exactly what you imagine when you picture the English countryside, and the pubs at the end of the walk never hurt.
Not everyone experienced this moment the same way.
A very honest field report:
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“Went on a really long walk to town, got gross food, went to another town, got ice cream, got sunburnt, went home.” — from Juliet's journal
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"This is just grass. This is basically just our yard.” — Evelyn
Seeing some of the same flowers I grow at home in my aspirational “cottage garden” thriving here in real English cottage gardens was a small but very satisfying moment for this amateur gardener.
Tasting the Region
This was our introduction to British pub food and afternoon tea, and we loved both. Our afternoon tea was everything I had hoped for: tiny sandwiches (cheese and pickle, curried chicken), warm scones with clotted cream, and tea that I would absolutely describe as delicious— something I don’t usually say about tea. We also checked “fish and chips from a proper shop” off my personal food bucket list.
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Controversial opinion: we decided we all prefer American fries to British chips (sorry England!). It comes down to surface area: thinner fries mean more edges, and therefore more fried goodness.
FROM EVELYN
“Mom, everyone here sounds like they’re on the Bake-Off!”
