Return to The Cotswolds

Our weekend away in the Cotswold's was a bit of a sequel to a break we took a couple of years back to Stratford-upon-Avon. This time we stayed at an olde worlde pub in the village of Chipping Campden called the Eight Bells Inn.

Let me rewind a bit... I have an issue with our sat nav. Namely the bloody thing is blatantly untrustworthy. Don't get me wrong, generally it gets us to our desired destination, however occasionally it seems to throw a curved ball and sends us on weird routes. Also it seems to struggle with certain sections of major highways and the map simply disappears. Of course this is what happened this time and then when the bloody thing got back to normal it decided it wanted to take us an even more long winded course. After taking a switchback cross country journey through snow and sleet we arrived at Chipping Campden (why are there so many places in England called Chipping something?)

The Eight Bells Inn was a very old establishment and our room was situated in the annex. It was comfortable if a little bit on the small side and bizarrely featured one of those old style clockwork alarm clocks which of course I promptly wound up and then regretted it because it ticked rather loudly.

We took a stroll along the main boulevard of downtown Chipping Campden, taking in the ambiance of the place - this took all of 15 minutes or so and then wandered back to the inn for a pint of Old Hookey and a glass of wine! Dinner was superb at the Eight Bells and we both had steak which was cooked to perfection. Of course N was delighted that she was sitting right next to the open fire place.

Friday, we ate a hearty breakfast and set off for our first port of call which was Anne Hathaway's Cottage, which is situated on the outskirts of Stratford. Like the Shakespeare Birthplace there is a guide in the room who describes what life was like in the house (however this time they weren't in costume). The sheer tedium of repeating the same descriptions, anecdotes, jokes etc. every few minutes to a different group of visitors astounds me. Anyway it was well worth the visit and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Bard and Mrs. Bard.

Our second place to visit was Warwick Castle... to be honest I had some misgivings about visiting the castle as Tripadvisor had criticised it as being geared for kids (if memory serves me it has been taken over by the Tussauds Group). As it turned out we wouldn't get to find out! The entrance to the castle car park was coned off and guarded by an elderly monkey-brained retard who could only grunt words to the effect the car park was full and he didn't know anywhere else where there was parking. Good to see at a major tourist attraction great customer service eh? We didn't bother looking...

We decided instead to re-visit Stratford-upon-Avon... and after the sat nav decided it was two hours away (or only 8 miles if you looked at the road signs) and tried to direct us 180 degrees away from the town centre we eventually got there. We retraced our steps from two years ago and bought some chips near to the theatre which is still in the process of being revamped.

Back to Chipping Campden and this time we decided to have dinner at Hicks Brasserie... but before that we simply had to watch the live edition of EastEnders to see who had murdered Archie Mitchell. The meal at Hicks Brasserie wasn't as good as the previous night's at the Eight Bells but was not too bad. Toulouse sausages... whatever that is? Afterwards we trod our weary way back to bed!

And that was it... another full English for brekkie the next day (this morning as I write/type) and yet a different route back home.