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| Burford |
We left London on Boxing Day. After a little research, and even asking a few locals, it was determined that no one quite knows what Boxing Day stems from. There are a few theories, all quite nice, but in the end it is a bank holiday the day after Christmas used for shopping (similar to Black Friday for us)... which meant, for us, that a lot of stuff was closed.
No matter! We loaded our cars and headed west out of the city into the coutry toward the Cotswolds. It felt so good to get out of the city. London and Paris were fun, but were very busy. It was time to see some small, country towns and slow down a bit. Josh was driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and the car, like a natural, and gave an audible sigh as the road opened up on either side to green fields and we all relaxed a little.
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| The Mermaid lunch |
It was a grey day, but the sheep didn't mind. We drove through Cirencester, Bibury where they were having their annual duck race, and on to Burford. Here we got out and checked out the town. We stopped at a fantastic, picturesque restaurant for lunch, The Mermaid at Burford (lower left above). House made foi gras, served with pickles and onions started us off (I swear, I had this every where I could on this trip. Recipes were different but it was all delish!). Fresh, local sausages over mash for me, a classic steak & ale pie for Josh and of course tea. Now, here it should be noted that when you order hot tea in England it will more often than not be a
pot of tea. This makes this tea lover very happy. Oh! and it's good tea. None of the faux junk so often served State-side. The whole restaurant was just lovely, the service was great. Very happy families. We walked on down the High Street, checked out a few shops that were open and wandered north to Burton-on-the-Water.
This was an absolutely a gorgeous little town, and I'd love to come back and see it in spring or summer when everything is blooming and covered in flowers. There are lots of little stone bridges criss crossing the small, shallow river that runs through the village. We found some lovely people, a fun candy shop and explored an antique shop or two. The kids found fun hedge rows that must have felt like a maze to the little guys. They loved running around and getting "lost" around the bend. The seniors who were passing by from their bus tour thought the boys were adorable as they giggled and ran down the alley at full speed.
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| Burton-on-the-Water |
I was so used to telling the boys to "Stop that. Settle down." at this point that it was nice to be reminded by strangers that "boys being boys" was ok. It made me soften a little for a moment and just let 'em run and smile.
These few towns broke up a pretty long trek north to York, our next overnight destination. We drove through Stratford-upon-Avon on our way north, but the kids were exhausted so we didn't stop. Figured we'd save it for the next trip, for when the boys are older and have
read some Shakespeare.
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