The Cotswolds

What is ubiquitous in the Cotswolds: dogs, sticky toffee pudding, and hyphenated names. We are currently in Moreton-in-Marsh which we chose because it has decent bus service to other towns and a launderette. We have washing machines in two of the cottages but no dryers. The machines are expensive--5 or 6 pounds a load and they take just some coins, like a 20 Pence coin for soap. The dryers were 1 pound for 6 minutes. We had enough coins for 18 and had to take the wet clothes home and hang them around the cottage.

Sunday  we went to Stow-on-the-Wold which is a short bus ride away. In both these towns, you can take dogs into stores and restaurants. It seems a business has to post "no dogs allowed" or it's assumed dogs are welcome.  Everyone owns a dog. And these dogs apparently love to travel. 

There is sticky toffee pudding in every restaurant. We had an authentic one in Stratford and a coffee sticky pudding at an Italian restaurant in Moreton. It was terrible; who woulda thought? Tonight, back in Moreton-in-Marsh we just had the best pudding ever. The pudding/cake wasn't cakey like many. It melts in your mouth. Everyone seems to serve ice cream of all kinds with it which is wrong but this ice cream was made from clotted cream. There was a light butterscotch sauce at the bottom of the bowl. Sounds weird but the cake was definitely like the one we had in Ireland many years ago which set us on the quest to recreate the experience.  

J.R.R. Tolkien is mentioned everywhere. He often visited his brother at the Bell Inn in Morton. That is a known fact;  other places he visited are speculations. Many areas are mentioned as possible inspirations for his work. For example, this door at the back of St. Edwards in Stow. It's believed it was the inspiration for the Doors of Durin. I don't know his work very well but seems plausible. 

The buildings in all the towns are built with a yellow brick called Cotswolds stone which is Jurassic oolitic limestone, whatever that means. 

Today we went to Bourton-on-the-Water, known as the Venice of the Cotswolds. Windrush river runs through the town. It's narrow and probably 6 inches deep. There's small bridges over it. Like Amsterdam, in miniature but it's adorable. Our favorite town so far. We went to Birdland which we expected to be small and uninteresting but it's huge, featuring birds from all over the world. Interesting information. The chickens were exotic but I still didn't like them. 

The other big attraction in this town is a model town. I had read that you might think it's corny but it's really interesting so we went. It was the first model village in England. It was built from 1936 to 1940 and is a replica of the town. Really interesting.

Sidewalks in all these towns are narrow; it's good to be here off season but even still, it's crowded enough with people and dogs of all sizes.