Our Trip to the Cotswolds in Photos
Back in mid-May (13th-15th), the family took a trip to the Cotswolds for my uncle's 60th birthday. We arrived in a place called Merrymouth, located on the edge of the Oxfordshire countryside, at about 8pm on the Friday night, staying in a bed and breakfast with the most tranquil views and in a cosy little room.
It was a lovely little place to stay, run by the nicest people who couldn't have done enough for us. Either way, I'd be sure to go back as it's placed in the right area, being pretty central to almost everything there is worth seeing in the area, including a little model village!
Daylesford garden centre
Saturday morning started with a wonderful continental breakfast and a visit to Daylesford garden centre. It's situated not 20 minutes away from the place we were staying so it made absolute sense to go and have a look around. The setting was beautiful and it was beautifully decorated throughout, both outside and indoors. In fact, it's the garden centre Jeremy Clarkson visited in his Amazon Prime show; 'Clarkson's Farm'.
We bought a reed diffuser for the downstairs toilet that we've recently refurbished together with a coffee-to-go. We had a table booked at a little place in Bourton on the Water so we went back to the B&B and got changed, ready for a spot of celebratory lunch and a walk around the picturesque village.
Bourton on the Water
We went for a little mooch around and just enjoyed the surroundings this little village had to offer. From the most idyllic of streams to the prettiest of buildings, it's definitely somewhere I would recommend visiting if you're in the area. However, because the weather was absolutely glorious, it was extremely busy, so if you're looking to go for lunch or even an evening meal, I'd say to make sure you make a booking before venturing over.
For lunch, I had pan-fried sea bass on a bed of crushed new potatoes followed by tiramisu for pudding. The fish was delicious with loads of flavour, but the tiramisu was a lot to be desired by way of flavour as it was very bland and didn't really taste much like coffee or booze. Instead, it left a taste of cream in my mouth - something I hadn't experienced after eating tiramisu before. I can't actually remember the name of the place, but it was a restaurant within a hotel located in the heart of the village.
In the same place, I bought and sampled an ale that was brewed specifically for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and you know what, to say I'm not really an ale/lager/beer drinker, it was actually super tasty and I really enjoyed it. We sat out in the beer garden in the evening sun, just having a general chat and making some memories together.
The Diddly Squat Farm Shop
I won't say much about this and there's a reason why there are only a couple of pictures on here that shows you what it was like there and that's because I'm wanting to do a whole separate blog post about it, so watch this space if you're wanting a little more detail and a few more pictures.
But anyway, if you haven't heard of Diddly Squat Farm shop, that's probably because you haven't seen Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime. It's basically a series whereby Jeremy Clarkson sets up his own farm and runs it himself, largely over the coronavirus lockdown, all with the help of Kaleb, a 21-year-old farmer, a logistics manager dubbed 'Cheerful Charlie' and a dry stone waller who goes by the name of Gerald. The combination makes for a very amusing, entertaining watch, even if you aren't the biggest fan of Jeremy Clarkson.
One of his grand plans to make money included opening up his own farm shop and, it just so happens, it's located near Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds. Our B&B was only about 10 minutes away so we made the decision to go and have a look on the Sunday morning, even if we couldn't actually get in.
But as luck would have it, we managed to get a parking space in the actual car park he had built rather than having to park up one of the banks of the surrounding fields. Anyway, more about that in another blog post. We went, we enjoyed it and if you're interested in knowing more and seeing more, then keep your eyes peeled for a brand new blog post coming soon!
Stow village
After we visited the Diddly Squat Farm Shop, we carried on to a little place called Stow. There's quite a lot to see if you're looking to visit a quintessentially English village, but if you're looking for an entire day out somewhere, then I wouldn't recommend Stow as a place to spend more than a couple of hours in.
There are, however, some beautiful tea and coffee shops for you to enjoy as well as some traditional British sweet shops, a grand church with some quirky features and some wonderfully-presented independent homeware shops. It's worth a visit if you're just passing through and you can also give some small businesses a bit of support in the process.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments whether or not you've ever been to the Cotswolds and what you did there and I'll see you soon with a brand new blog post :)
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