Join us on our latest adventure as 5 Americans try their best to give each round-about a second look while driving and take a good 10 minutes to figure out how to pop the trunk on the rental car. We landed in London early in the morning with cousins Stella and John and Will’s mom, Lorraine. We knew driving on the wrong side of the road was going to be a challenge and driving to our first stop of Windsor Castle took us much longer than the 20 minutes predicted by the GPS. We decided to take a tour before heading to our stop for the night in Bath as it would be some time before we could check in.
We braved the off and on rain showers at Windsor and enjoyed taking in the castle and its grounds. Then it was back in the car to see if our driving and navigating skills had improved. We heard on the radio that the Queen was not doing well. By the time we checked-in and took a much-needed nap, we heard that she had passed. Without knowing, we had picked a historic time to start our trip in England.
We had a nice dinner that night at the Aqua Walcott restaurant, which happened to be just a short walk from our accommodations.
The walking tour, we had thought about doing the next day was cancelled in respect to the Queen. So, we went to tour the Roman Baths, where Bath gets its name. The Roman Baths aren’t open for bathing, but the history of how they were uncovered and refurbished for tours is fascinating. It was a nice kicked back day.
That night was the Mavericks concert. So, the Mavericks are a group out of Miami and yes, they were just playing in Albuquerque a few months ago. But hey, while in Bath, why not. They put on a great show, and it was interesting to see how big of a following they have in the UK.
The next morning, we got up and headed out to Stonehenge to see the rocks. I had been there almost 12 years ago on a layover tour from Heathrow airport. This time the weather was great. It was sunny and a little windy, but not bad. We also were there for their gun salute to King Charles.
Pull!! 
We left the lovely town of Bath and headed to Cheddar. This is where cheddar cheese originally came from. This area contains a gorge and some caves where the cheese was matured for a number of months. Cheddar is a cute little town and is famous for the Cheddar Gorge as well as being the original birthplace of cheddar cheese. We found a parking lot at the top of the Gorge and it was a short walk to the lookout tower and the top of Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob’s Ladder is 274 stairs that lead down to the main village. It’s free to walk down, but there is a nominal fee that you need to pay to walk up. We found a nice little place for lunch and then headed to the visitor center to see how the cheese is made. They have a video going about the process and a few windows to see the cheese maker in action. They have also started maturing some batches of their cheese in the cave again, which gives it another unique flavor.
The Cheddar Food and Drink Festival was also going on, so, we sampled our way through the vendors and decided to head out to Chipping Campden our home for the next couple of nights.
We had rented Jasmine Cottage, which is a really cute 3-bedroom place close to High Street. We really liked this place and it was a very comfortable place for all of us.
We walked on down to the Eight Bells Inn for dinner and a “proper pint”. The food was good, and the inn has a lot of history.
The next morning, we were back to driving the narrow country roads and checking out some of the little villages in the Cotswold area.
And of course, we went to Bourton on the Water. It’s billed as the “Venice of England”. Well, there is a canal and cute bridges to walk over, but other than that… It was a cute town, and the kids and dogs were enjoying splashing in the water on a hot day and the automobile museum was nice.
