COTSWOLDS

Another lovely day today, will be travelling back home tomorrow.  May find another route as the M6 from Junction 1 right through to about 20 I think is under roadworks and very slow.  We join it at junction 12 but even when we travelled down on a Sunday the route Northbound was pretty solid, so on a Thursday it will be worse.  Something for me to look at.

We went to Bourton-on-theWater today got there nice and early to avoid the crowds but we arrived exactly the same time as a coach full of Chinese Tourists.  The thing we've found with the Chinese tourists is that every single one of them either have mobile phones on extendable arms or tiny mini lightro cameras on sticks, and they will jump right in front of you when they want to take photos of themselves in each location!!!  Aah well I guess when they've come that far that just get very enthusiastic.

Bourton-on-the-Water is lovely but over commercialised.  We went round the Car Museum which was very pleasant and not crowded.  When we came out it was heaving.

We then left and went to Blockley - which is where they film the current series of Father Brown with Mark Williams, which I love.  Had a very nice lunch there and outside the church got chatting to a lady who lives in one of the houses in the church grounds and saw them filming only just over a week ago, when it was pouring with rain.  Poor things, they must have been frozen.  Glad they weren't filming today otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Then to Broadway Tower, the highest castle in the Cotswolds apparerntly!!! Well as the Cotswolds is only hilly that's not too difficult.  It was lovely though, got right to the top. They have exhibits on each floor and one very sad one about a World War II plane crash, which was very sad.

Then on to Bibury - the photo is of Arlington Row in Bibury and is the most photographed street in the area and one of the best known in the UK, it often features on chocolate boxes and is extremely picturesque but very very busy.  We managed to get round OK and I managed to get this photo without anyone in it, which is a minor miracle.  My photo is taken down the way as the majority of photos on the web and on chocolate boxes are taken up the way and are much much better than I can ever hope to achieve.

Arlington Row, Bibury
The picturesque Arlington Row cottages were built in 1380 as a monastic wool store. This was converted into a row of cottages for weavers in the seventeenth century. The cloth produced there was sent to Arlington Mill. Arlington Row is a popular visitor attraction, probably one of the most photographed Cotswold scenes, and was preserved by the Royal College of Arts. It has been used as a film and television location, most notably for the films Stardust and Bridget Jones's Diary.  However in 2017 the BBC reported that an "ugly" car parked by an elderly motorist had been vandalised, possibly by visitors who had repeatedly complained that it spoilt photographs.

I now have over 500 photos to process, but will do that over the coming weekend once we're at home.  I've managed a few and the blips ones but that is all.

Here are a few links to the various places mentioned today for those that want to know.

Bourton-on-the-Water
Blockley
BroadwayTower
Bibury

We've been so lucky with the weather.  Sunny, warm with a cool breeze when needed - a bit too hot in some places but not too bad.

Now to pack and then pop into Witney for some dinner.

See you all tomorrow, when hopefully we will be back home again.

I'm also putting this in for my Wide Wednesday entry as it was taken with my wide angle lens, two days in a row - yeah.  The theme is value/valued - well I've valued the time I've spent here with Hubby and the value of these tiny houses are astronomical due to its locations.