The Cotswolds

The next goal was to get to Burton-on-the-Water and a restaurant/pub called the Lamb located in the Cotswolds (they had excellent reviews on Google).

The highway numbering system is interesting in this part of England.  Suppose you are driving on highway 4 and turn off on a smaller highway.  That might be highway 42.  A smaller road that comes off of that might be called 423.  Each time you turn off onto a smaller road they add another digit to the number.  We saw a couple of interesting sites on our way to the Cotswolds.  The first was Waggon and Horses Pub which was frequented by Charles Dickens.  We also drove past Silbury Hill, the largest man-made hill in prehistoric Europe and the Cherhill white horse.

The Waggon and Horses pub was a popular spot with Charles Dickens.  It served as the inspiration for a pub in Great Expectations.

We took a wrong turn and ended up at a recycling facility.  Finally we found ourselves driving past Avebury.  Avebury has a large stone circle much larger than Stonehenge and it also is a quaint village.  It cost money to see the garden.  Laurie went in and Matt and I went out to see the stone circle.

An interesting building in Avebury.

Part of the Avebury mound

This large barn with a thatched roof is located in Avebury.

The estate gardens in Avebury.  Laurie went in to see the gardens.

Some topiary at Avebury.

The gardens at Avebury

Inside the house was pretty bare.

These are some of the Avebury stones they are arranged in a couple large circles and there is a mound arranged in a circle.

Some of the stones had been used for stone for the village.  Others were carved down into posts in the past.

The Avebury mounds and trenches.  Did they use these for defense?

Avebury was a great stop.  We saw some people playing cricket there.

Cricket game in progress at Avebury June 26, 2010

After Avebury we continued towards the Cotswolds.  We were doing fine until we got to Swindon.  I tried to follow the highway to by-pass Swindon but ended up taking a wrong turn and we ended up driving around Swindon for about an hour.  We finally went to a grocery store to look at a map.  From the map it appeared to me that we would have to go back through town to get on the right road.  

We were about to give up on the Cotswolds but I went to a gas station (noticed my car was the only one facing the opposite direction compared to the other 15 or so cars at the gas station) to ask for directions.  The attendant told me to just follow the road and keep taking the round-abouts to the right and we we be on the right road.  I started to pick up on the accent after talking to her for a bit.  We dubiously followed her directions and amazingly ended up in the Cotswolds, an area of picturesque hills and quaint villages where people had become wealthy raising sheep.  Finally got to Burton-on-the-Water around 6:30-7:00 PM & parked at a parking lot for 2 L.

Typical buildings in the Cotswolds

The world cup was going on and Laurie thought it was strange to have signs on the church.

Walked through the quaint village for a bit, then continued on to the Lamb.  I had found the reference to the Lamb by searching Google and looking at recommendations.  This was the highest rated restaurant in the Cotswolds.  There was a single lane road going to the site of the restaurant.  Laurie had fish, I had ostrich steak and Matt had chicken.  The food was very good.  This was our 18th wedding anniversary dinner June 26, 2010.

The Lamb turned out to be the best meal of our entire trip in Europe

We drove back to Bath without further incident after dark and spent our third night at the Y in Bath.