The Greenseids' Great Adventure

by Andrew

We burst through the far end of the tunnel under the English Channel and found ourselves in Merry Olde England. 30 minutes later we were in London and we had 2 hours to:

Astoundingly, we did it all with time to spare. Two hours later we were in Cheltenham, a medium-size, semi-historic town west of London and the largest town in the Cotswolds. We hired a cab to our AirBnb (a roomy but totally characterless 1950s terrace house), walked 5 minutes to Tesco, bought some food, made dinner, unpacked, and collapsed into bed. Wednesday was a long travel day, but at least the time only changed by an hour.

This road ain't big enough for the both of us!

The next day we picked up our rental car, a compact bright-blue 5-door Vauxhall Corsa, and drove on one of many scenic routes through the Cotswolds to a lovely village with the unfortunate name of Lower Slaughter. The driving here is beautiful, but crazy. In one morning we drove on a 4-lane highway, 2 lane highway, a road where there is just enough room for cars to pass (at 40-50 mph!) and a Single Track road where there is only room for 1 car and a very small car at that. The names of the towns are a bit unusual and very British: Bourbon-on-the-Water, Upper Slaughter, Chipping Camden, Stow-on-the-Wold. I feel like I'm in a novel.

The driving is generally good, but it gets a bit hairy on the small roads. Manual transmission is fine, driving on the left is fine, but judging how much room the car takes up on the left side is a bit tricky on the narrow roadways.

We had a terrific lunch outdoors at the Slaughters Inn on a lovely green by a stream. Lija and I shared two sandwiches: smoked salmon & creme fraiche and cheddar & chutney on granary bread. Arija had sausages, beans and whipped potatoes, Adam had an omelet and salad. With a pint and half of Hobgoblin ale between us, it was the perfect beginning to our stay in the UK.






We then drove to Stanton and walked a short route on the Cotswold Way, a Cotswold version of the Appalachian Trail. Our walk can be found here. The walk is laid out a bit like a scavenger hunt (turn at the lamp, go through 2 gates and then turn right) and we got a little lost, but after asking some fellow walkers for advice, we managed. It turns out that 'moderate difficulty' is walking up a very large hill. 80 degree weather is unusual for England, but fortunately we were a little used to it from France and very much used to walking after all the miles we trekked in Paris.

Adam and his first stile

The view was gorgeous! Farms, fields, sheep, square hay bales, round hay bales. The kids found walking sticks (Adam kept breaking his and getting a new one; Arija kept the same trusty stick the whole way) and we walked. We did the shorter route, but the hill made it enough for us.

Wildlife photographer in training

We got back to our car and vowed to stop for a drink at the next pub in the next town we found. This fortuitously happened to be the Saxon town of Winchcombe, which you will all recall as the final resting place of Catherine Parr, the sixth and sole surviving wife of Henry VIII, has a lovely and open inn called the White Hart Inn. The kids had cream tea, which is a scone, jam, clotted cream and tea, and Lija and I had a 1/2 pint each. Because it had been a good 4 hours since our last beer and we are in England.




While at the White Hart, I sent a text to my friend Russell, an renowned international dinner consultant, on how to make his famous Leeky Chicken. With a general outline of the recipe and ingredients, we headed home to make dinner.

As I near the end of this post, it's probably a good time to mention one of our greatest discoveries, Extra Thick Double Cream. So far it's been tried with: Leeky Chicken (great!), strawberries (made for it!), Scottish Oats (unctuous!), tea (not the best idea, in the interest of science...). Not sure if you can buy this treasure back in the states, but keep your eyes open for it and buy it if you see it.

Taking the guidelines from Russell, Lija made a delicious Leeky Chicken. He should be proud. And with that we called it a night!

G'nite!