Our last day in Cotswold turned out to be the best. We didn't hike, which ended up freeing up time to do four really great things, and one kind of great.
After breakfast and bidding farewell to the Morrisseysm to Dairy Yard Cottage, and to the dogs, we headed to Bourton on Water. The village is one of the most popular in Cotswold, and can get quite crowded with bus people eager to ravage the shops and cafes of a truly quaint Cotswoldian village.
We figured going after breakfast on a Monday morning was the smart thing to do, and as it turns out, we were right! We were able to park right across from the River Windrush.
(Editor: "Windrush" would be a great name for a 70's soft rock cover band. Writer: "Tonight at the Birchmere, America's Legendary Music Hall: Windrush, playing the best Yacht Rock songs! Editor: You know, we are kind of funny together. Writer: Yeah, when you're not be a supercilious. . .oh never mind.)
We did a Bourton on Water what I thought we would actually do a lot more of in Cotswold. That is, wander around the town, taking pictures, walking into cute shops and pubs. We really didn't do as much of that as I expected, but Bourton On Water is quite picturesque. Between the river, the village, the ducks, the weeping willows hanging over the river, the War Memorial, the church, the pubs and cafes, it's quite the place. The village also might have the highest number of ice cream shoppes per capita in the world, and there are quite a few competitors for that title!
Looking back on driving through various villages while in Cotswold, I do regret not pulling over sometimes for photos of beautiful houses, ponds, views, villages and more. Now, to be fair to me, a bunch of places where I wish I had taken photos there were not suitable places to pull over. But there certainly were some.
Cotswold, in the words of the great Mark Knopfler song, "is like a storybook story."
We popped into a Christmas shoppe, and purchased a very cool, well, Christmas-y thingie. The shopkeeper could not have been nicer, as we chatted a while after checking out. I can't think of a conversation as lengthy or friendly as that one. By the way, it's not always the shopkeeper's fault. A lot of times I'm paying and going off to the next thing. This was a friendly, lengthy, conversation. It doesn't happen often enough.
Anyhow, we wandered up and down the streets of Bourton on Water, along the river and over the many old pedestrian bridges. Quite a beautiful village, and we went at the right time on the right day.
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