It's also scary a place to drive as Manhattan or small Spanish villages. Not for the same reason though, but for a reason that is inconceivable. The main roads are winding, beautiful two lane roads. But a LOT of the roads are either two-way single track with the occasional pullover, or two-way one and a half track roads with very few pullovers.
So, driving in Cotswold is a white-knuckle affair, hoping as the other car passes that you will both be left dent-free and with your side view mirror intact. Believe it or not, even with driving on the wrong side of the road, the car never made contact with another vehicle, a hedgerow, or a deep ditch. I also managed to drive on the left side of the road without ever once turning into the right lane out of habit. So those are both huge wins.
The problem with Cotswold is that you really need a car to get around. There's not much in the way of trains to the region, and the bus system maybe extensive but infrequent. That all noted, the place really is stunningly beautiful.
In planning, I had the added advantage of my friend, Susan Eastoe from the Leeds-AU programme living there now. While she was in Croatia on holiday whilst we were there, she send me lengthy emails with great advice, as well as multiple good links to have, including the 50 Top Pubs in Cotswold as appearing in "Cotswold Gentleman" magazine.
(I guarantee there is no "Northern Virginia Gentleman" magazine, although, if there were, it would be full of real estate ads featuring expensive houses outside of NOVA and luxury car ads. So maybe there IS a market for "NOVA Gentleman.")
Anyhow, driving around Cotswold was quite an exercise in patience, between the narrow roads, hoping to slide by oncoming traffic, and have no real idea where we were going. At the same time, the rolling hills, the sheep, the cows, the horses, the bucolic villages with classic stone houses, pubs, and a classic country church.
(I'm pretty sure the word "bucolic" was invented by the Brits to describe Cotswold. It is a derivative of a Greek word that was coined by the British, so it well could be.)
There are walking paths everywhere in Cotswolds. I think you could walk a different path every day of the rest of your life and still not hike every trail there.
I had rented a cozy farm cottage for three nights in Kineton, which, as you no doubt know, is about halfway between Temple Guiting and Guiting Power. Our landlady, Sally-Anne Morrissey, is a wonderful host, but she didn't think an address on GPS would get us there. Following her written directions, we came to a closed road, so we had to wing it. I had to call her for directions from Temple Guiting, which mercifully was a short distance from Dairy Yard Cottage (DYC)and Kineton.
If you ever decide to go to Cotswold, DYC is a well-located, comfortable two bedroom, one and a half bath two-story comfortable cottage. You can walk throughout the beautiful gardens, play with the dogs and the cats (as much as cats actually play), and walk amongst the chickens. The cottage is one of four stone buildings on the property.
Our rental car at DYC.
Part of the gardens at the farm.
It doesn't get much more bucolic than
this, part of the gardens at the farm of DYC.
A view back up, with DYC in the background.
One of the four chickens on the property
(there might be more, I just remember
counting four different ones).
Best of all, the Half Way is a fantastic pub with great food and friendly publicans about 50 yards up the road, so you can imbibe a few pints, have a fantastic dinner, and walk back to your cottage safely instead of having to drive the crazy Cotswold roads.
By the way, IF you do stay at DYC, and you are driving to get there, or driving around to go hiking, visit other villages, etc., just put The Half Way at Kineton and it will get you with 50 yards of DYC.
So the night we checked in (after spending much of the afternoon at Blenheim Palace), we had dinner at the Hollow Bottom Pub about 1.5 miles away in Guiting Power. Sally-Anne kindly wrote out directions for a direct hike there, but after traveling from London, exploring the Palace, and then going to Cotswold, we were tired, so Carol won a 1-1 vote and we ended up driving to the pub. It was good, but we ended up liking The Half Way in Kineton a lot more. Not only was it more convenient and more convivial, but the food was better.
We did go to The Half Way for a before dinner drink, and again after dinner for a post-dinner drink. Loving the "walk to the pub" life!
Random quaint house in Guiting Power.
Hollow Bottom Pub.
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