Today Cynthia met her friends for some seafood cookout feast while I arranged to meet May to go to the Cotswold villages! Typical english countryside, voted one of the most beautiful regions in England. I woke up really early to do some research on where to go and seems like it is much better if you drove coz many beautiful "ulu" villages are not accessible by train from London. Well, so in the end, I decided we could take the train to Moreton-in-Marsh, north Cotswold region and perhaps from there were could take some buses.
Moreton-in-Marsh is really an unbelievably small town, and nothing much really. A local told us that it is a good base for people to travel to other Cotswold towns since it is one of the few towns with a train station. Wow, ok so we thought we would just venture out from here. But first, lunch first! Many tea houses in Cotswold, so pretty and makes you wanna go in every tea houses for the traditional English tea.
Above: The Bell Inn; Me with the pink ice-cream girl. She gets more "business" with photograph reqests instead of her ice-cream? When we went near her, she asked smiling, "You wanna take a photo with me right?"
After our hearty lunch, we took the bus (£1) and visited Stow-on-the-Wold, an even unbelievably small town, but very pretty. We literally just stepped back in time, can't imagine 2h out of London will be so different. It was a 10min ride here. We walked around the town and completed the central part in less than one hour. Many tea houses around here too, and we couldn't resist and so we bought a Venetian finger cookie and then went to one al-fresco tea house for a drink. ahh, pure enjoyment :) such a relaxing and wonderful day.. yea small village but still took quite a bit of photos.
Above: In and around Stow
We took the bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh and thought we could walk around here too but shops including the info centre was closed (all close at 5pm) and the town was dead. Only the continuous clanging of the church bell was heard. Managed to grab a local and asked for directions to walk around and he looked at us incredously saying "but there's nothing here to see!" haha whoa.. ok so in the end, we decided to buy dinner (Fish n Chips, very British!), complete with dessert and coke (from Tesco Express) and eat in the train on the way back to London. Mmm.. another fulfilling day =)
This takeaway is really massive, think the chips are like from 3 big potatoes?? And the fish is huge too so we could share. Seriously, the massive chunks of fries are one of the more disgusting fries I've seen... but they taste yummy leh! haha full of oil man. omg so unhealthy hor. We didn't finish them actually.. felt more and more oily inside me.. and forced May to "quicccckkk keep them away before I eat somemoreeee!!"
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Digress a bit.. Today is the last day where people can drink alcohol on the Tube, a new rule set by the new London Mayor, and so many people in London are gearing up for a last day huge booze party starting from Liverpool Street Station on the Circle line.. *hehe the things people do here* Anyways we were out of London so didn't affect us much. Read in the news yesterday that more police will be on "stand-by" at Liverpool St Station in case situation gets out of hand.
On the way back at Paddington Station in London, we saw some people drinking in the Tube and when the driver announced this train ain't stopping at Liverpool Street (prevent more people partying..) people started booing loudly.. haha it was quite funny.
btw... Still sorting our Norway pics.. WIP.
Moreton-in-Marsh is really an unbelievably small town, and nothing much really. A local told us that it is a good base for people to travel to other Cotswold towns since it is one of the few towns with a train station. Wow, ok so we thought we would just venture out from here. But first, lunch first! Many tea houses in Cotswold, so pretty and makes you wanna go in every tea houses for the traditional English tea.
Above: That's us in the Tillys Tea Room, with my Moreton Lunch Set, complete with Earl Grey of course :)
After our hearty lunch, we took the bus (£1) and visited Stow-on-the-Wold, an even unbelievably small town, but very pretty. We literally just stepped back in time, can't imagine 2h out of London will be so different. It was a 10min ride here. We walked around the town and completed the central part in less than one hour. Many tea houses around here too, and we couldn't resist and so we bought a Venetian finger cookie and then went to one al-fresco tea house for a drink. ahh, pure enjoyment :) such a relaxing and wonderful day.. yea small village but still took quite a bit of photos.
Above: Jars of Sweets. Sweet!
Us in town centre.
Above: The bakery which we bought our Viennese finger cookie; al-fresco at our second tea house.
Above: In and around Stow
Done with Stow-on-the-Wold, we took the same bus and travelled another 10-15min and reached another village called Bourton-on-the-Water (cute names they have eh.. long names too). This is known as the Venice of the Cotswold, simply because there is a river that runs through this village. Great sunshine and people were literally just sitting around on the grass beside the small river. We walked around too, took some photos and saw a farm with sheep (first time so close to them) so yea we had to "quick, take some pics of 'meh-mehsss'! "
Above: See what I mean, people all gathering the river in Bourton, which was nice coz it made the village more lively.
Above: Picturesque houses during our walk around the village
Above: A horse appearing out of nowhere, and no, she is not the police or anything.
and of course, our cute "meh-mehhhsss"!
We took the bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh and thought we could walk around here too but shops including the info centre was closed (all close at 5pm) and the town was dead. Only the continuous clanging of the church bell was heard. Managed to grab a local and asked for directions to walk around and he looked at us incredously saying "but there's nothing here to see!" haha whoa.. ok so in the end, we decided to buy dinner (Fish n Chips, very British!), complete with dessert and coke (from Tesco Express) and eat in the train on the way back to London. Mmm.. another fulfilling day =)
_______________________
Digress a bit.. Today is the last day where people can drink alcohol on the Tube, a new rule set by the new London Mayor, and so many people in London are gearing up for a last day huge booze party starting from Liverpool Street Station on the Circle line.. *hehe the things people do here* Anyways we were out of London so didn't affect us much. Read in the news yesterday that more police will be on "stand-by" at Liverpool St Station in case situation gets out of hand.
On the way back at Paddington Station in London, we saw some people drinking in the Tube and when the driver announced this train ain't stopping at Liverpool Street (prevent more people partying..) people started booing loudly.. haha it was quite funny.
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btw... Still sorting our Norway pics.. WIP.
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