Weds, 27 May 2015
Experiencing England's countryside!
Visits | Windsor Castle, Bourton on the Water
Eats| Wagamama
We started our journey in the morning and stopped at Windsor Castle before going to Cotswolds. Thank you very much for my ah yi and ah gu because they purposely stop here to let me visit the castle. *gratitude x100000*.
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| They have video guide for everyone as well! It's included in the entrance fee. |
It cost £17.50 for students and £19.20 for adults. The queue wasn't that bad I think because they have a lot of ticket counters, we just waited around 30 mins or so. They have enough guides but weirdly enough, limited earphones. I left mine in the car so I have to make do with the loudspeaker, which is not really pleasant. I advice people who are visiting this place to bring their own earphones so that you'll be more comfortable during the audio tour.
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| St. George Chapel |
We only had 2 hours to visit the place which I think was enough. The only area we explored are Queen Mary's Dollhouse, The State Apartments, and St. George Chapel. The castle looks very big on the outside, but only a small part is open to the public. So, don't expect too much. From this trip, I only remembered I learnt some histories of the Battle of Waterloo and about the Napolean Bonaparte War Time. However, I find it kind of uninteresting after a few rooms in the State Apartments. You'll mostly find yourself surrounded by portraits. Room after room. No photography is allowed inside the buildings by the way.
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| ... I'm quite curious on how they keep watch. Won't their bearskin hat get in the way? |
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| Very cute puppy from the souvenirs shop's window |
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| Tempted to buy this keychain, but didn't in the end. Haha.. I'm just not into buying souvenirs. |
No food pictures! Hahaha. I was very hungry, so I didn't bother to take any. It was not bad I guess. I ordered beef curry with eggplant and sweet potato. Kind of tasteless but maybe it's just this branch's quality is not that good. I heard the ones in London are better.
Resumed our journey to Cotswolds. FYI, Cotswolds is the name of the area we are heading, it's not a town name. Cotswolds consists of many small villages and towns. I'm not sure how to classify countryside, because in Malaysia, it's usually just palm tree oils, rubber trees, mountains and hills. In Germany, it's just houses, castles, vineyards, and grass. As for England, it's quite hilly, the roads are really narrow but they look magical (with tree tunnels), and the lands are filled with flowers (mostly buttercups), sheeps, cows, and horses. Very different sceneries.
We stayed for 3 nights in
Coach and Horses near Bourton on the Water. A very comfortable and cosy B&B, they even gave us varieties of tea bags, coffee, instant hot chocolate and cookies!
Moving on now.. The day is still young! We walked to the nearest village center.
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| Pathway to Bourton on the Water |
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| Made it. Really like this silhouette inspired sign. |
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| Creepy dolls... |
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Somehow, I wish my future home looks like this. One with the nature. Looks like a white witch house. |
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| The dog enjoying a good splash |
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| Let sleeping ducks lie |
Since we still had some time before dinner time, we went to explore around the vicinity.
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| Signs telling visitors which footpath they can take. |
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| Witnessed wool harvesting along the way. |
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| *breaks into a song and dance around with squirrels and birds* |
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| We also discovered this field which was filled with buttercups! |
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| Shun shun swimming in the sea of yellow flowers |
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Tried Pimms for the first time. A must try drink if you're in England (not sure if it applies to the whole UK though).
Even though it's sweet (because of the ale), I didn't really like it. LOL. Because I'm not a fan of soda and alcohol. |
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| Traditional English food |
And of course, what a better way to start off the countryside journey with a plate of the classic Fish & Chips. I haven't had one for a long time. Only ate the fish with tartare sauce. Left the chips and peas alone. I'm such a wasteful person. Hohoho. But the fillet was really huge!
Thurs, 28 May 2015
Feels like I'm in wonderland.
Visits | Lower Slaughter, Upper Slaughter, Burford, Bibury, Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate
Eats| English foooooddssss
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| Had the very common English breakfast set at the B&B. |
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| Then, we are off to Lower and Upper Slaughter |
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| Bah bah black sheep... |
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| Bedstraws |
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| Arrived at Lower Slaughter first |
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| Not sure what this flower's name is.. |
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| The well-known old mill in the village |
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| A lot of very nice handcrafted wooden tools sold inside the shop next to the mill |
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| Got some duck feeds there too! |
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| Like I said, they are really good at making wooden crafts. |
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| A peak in the residence area |
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| Spring |
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| Moving on to the village of Upper Slaughter |
It's very common to see these small "gates" everywhere in all the villages. I'm not really sure what it is for but my guess is to keep animals away.
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| and we're here |
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| Found a bridge that we could sit on and chill while enjoying the sceneries and fresh air during snack time |
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| Apparently, not only people occupies the walkway. Make way for them horses. |
We walked our way back to the B&B, got on the car and drove to Burford town for lunch.
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Pork Apple Cider Pie. The reason I ordered this because of the pastry. :P
The pie ain't that good anyway. At least I had some dough. |
After lunch, we just walk about the town and window-shopped.
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| on display in a Candy shop |
On to the village of Bibury!
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| Just a random cottage we stumbled upon. Something about the gate just attracts me to it. |
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| and of course, took plenty of pictures at the famous postcard view of Arlington Row. |
The reason for me to include in the picture above is to tell you that the home-made ice cream is worth a try. I would definitely recommend Welsh Gold with Honeycomb! Toffee Crunch is not bad either.
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| Spotted a black swan too before we departed! |
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| Scary-looking mansion |
We just randomly stopped by at Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate. Okay, at first we didn't even know the name because we didn't know where we were either. Its just the view is amazing from there. The mansion (idk what's the real term is, so I'll go with mansion) is kind of creepy though. At first, we thought it was abandoned but through the power of internet, it was just closed and only opens on Friday till Sunday.
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| Tunnel |
This was taken in front of the gate. Okay, first of all, people please do not attempt what I did. It is actually very dangerous to stand in the middle of the countryside road. People drive crazy fast there and they could have not seen you. I took a risky move to get this shot.
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| Excuse my awkward stance, I just didn't want to fall over to the other side of the wall. |
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| Our little own "buffet" |
We had a pretty late lunch so we weren't hungry during dinner time. So, me and Michelle went to the mini-market to buy some bell peppers, hummus, fruits (technically speaking, tomato is a fruit too), and yogurt. Then, we went to da pao (for those non-Malaysian, this word simply means "take-away". Now you know a Cantonese word!) some pies and fried shrimps in a Fish & Chips shop. Was tempted to order fish and chips since they are famous for it, pies sounds good at that time. They were very delicious, and I didn't regret ordering them. We went back to our room and had a very filling supper. Didn't even manage to consume the yogurt.
We were suppose to buy two ciders back to enjoy too but UK is very strict about selling alcoholic beverage to legal age people and I happen to left out my ID in the B&B room. Even though it was Michelle who had hers with her, the cashier needed to see both of our IDs. No cider that night, instead we were accompanied by tea. It was all well.
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