Our Flat in Cheltenham

Cheltenham is a "Regency" style town, which means, among other things, that many of the buildings look like this. Relative to the rest of the U.K., Cheltenham is fairly young. Our building, pictured above is only about 200 years old. Our flat has the original woodwork, shutters, fire place and doors but as is evident in the rest of the photos, everything else has been redone and modernized.

This is the view from the kitchen looking out into the lounging area of the room.

This is one of two bed rooms each with a bath. It was our original room but then rumors of a very comfortable bed in the other room started to spread, so after Grandy and Grandpa left- we moved!

Another view of the sitting area- this shows the windows. The windows are close to 12 feet tall, there are three of them that open into the main room. The windows look out over gardens and large trees create a natural screen from the busy road.

This shows the kitchen fairly well, it is small but nice and we really have everything we need. The refrigerator is in the center island and next to it is the freezer. They are both slightly larger than dorm room size. Through the door at the right of the photo is a foyer, a hall and the entrance to the two bedrooms.

We are going to go around town and take pictures of the places we frequent and post them eventually.

Salisbury Cathedral on Good Friday

As soon as we get home I am going to re-read Pillars of the Earth. It has been speculated that Ken Follet was inspired by Salisbury Cathedral and used the cathedral as his model as he wove stories around history in his novels. My father in law and I were standing near the cathedral entrance looking across the great space of the side yard towards John and his mom who were off taking pictures of the cathedral. My father in law said, "look." I turned around to see where it was that I was supposed to be looking, I didn't see anything unusual, unless you count one the most magnificent cathedrals in the world as unusual....I turned back to him, "what, I don't see anything?" "There goes a monk." "A what?", I asked. "A monk, look." I followed his gaze to the back side of a Franciscan monk. Brown robe, rope belt, leather sandals. Wearing the same garments worn by his monastic brethren since the 13th century, this man was slowly walking away from me towards a gated courtyard at the side of the cathedral. Now Saint Francis has long been on my short list of people worthy of admiration. His relationship to birds and animals for starters as well as his uniquely open mind regarding prayer. The story goes that he went to Egypt and witnessed Muslims on their knees praying to Allah, and was so moved by this that he introduced Roman Catholics to this way of praying.

And then we went in the Cathedral. On the afternoon of Good Friday. The children's choir was preparing for an afternoon service. The choir has practice twice a day, every day. A young man stepped forward onto the alter, raised his eyes, his hands and his voice and sang. His beautiful voice echoed off the walls of the cathedral, and joined the ghosts of the hundreds of thousands of voices who have sung before him in this painfully lovely church. I felt silly standing by myself listening to him and crying, nearly choking back sobs until I saw John's mom who was in even worse shape and then I didn't feel so bad.

There are four copies of The Magna Carta in the world. One of the copies is in it's own special chapel at the Salisbury Cathedral. Prior to our visit to the cathedral I had heard the words Magna Carta, but I didn't know what they meant. News that The Magna Carta was a launch pad for our own Declaration of Independence has only just recently reached my ears. I find myself in a constant place of wonder that I am able to see things like a piece the paper that reduced the power of a King and made possible the creation of a powerful Parliament and some 500 years later became part of our very own Bill of Rights. We couldn't take any pictures of the Magna Carta what with it being old and fragile. We left the Cathedral and did what all good tourists do, we found a pub and drank beer.

Belas Knap Long Barrow

Belas Knap Long Barrow is an ancient burial mound near Humblebee Woods by Sudeley Castle at the top of a hill in Winchcomb. It is dated at about 3000 BC, or in a more precise scientific terms; a really long time ago. The barrow has long ago been excavated and the remains of some 38 humans and a couple of extra skulls were hauled off for examination so all that remains is the mound itself. There is a false entrance at the front, speculation is that this would fool would be looters and they might not notice the four other entrances and therefore leave the goods alone. The false entrance sort of looks like the front of a hobbit house. I don't think it is any coincidence that Tolkien called his woods The Shire. All of the areas where we have hiked; fields, woods, even paved paths have been written about and re -imagined by many. It is no wonder each place feels familiar, it nearly is.

Our walk included (again!) big climbs over a fairly short distance. We spent a very brief period right around Belas Knap walking on level ground. Our walk down was through some incredible woods. We watched two large crows wage a serious battle on a small hawk. Our local bird knowledge is easily exhausted, but a good comparison would be two large American Crows chasing one small Coopers Hawk. The crows were relentless in their pursuit and chased the hawk so far away we lost sight of them (and we were still near the top of the hill). While we were waiting to see how this drama would unfold another hawk flew out in front of us. Maybe the first one was sent out to lure the crows away from their nest and this one was going in for the kill...

As we came around a bend in our continued steep descent, there was a field off to the left. There had been some sort of a cross country race earlier that day or a training anyway and plastic flags were tied around posts and branches and fences to mark the trail for the runners. Two small black sheep were examining one of these flags with their teeth as we rounded the bend. We tried to be very quiet and cautious as we approached to take their picture but we startled them and they ran off to seek the comfort of their mother bleating and baaing all the while.

In the middle of the woods we came across some wild holly. I am sure it grows all over the place here, we just haven't seen it before. Moss grows incredibly thick on everything that stands still long enough, so old rocks and trees and fences are nearly carpeted with it.

The roads that meander through some of the small Cotswold villages are considered safe for two way traffic. There is an art to making this work and not knowing it keeps me safely out of the drivers seat and a screaming, swearing occupant of the the passengers seat. A typical ride leaves me with the feeling of safety I might enjoy if I were strapped to the hood of the car with a bungee cord.

We ended our six mile hike at a pub in Winchcomb. It was after 2pm, which is considered outside the norm for lunch so John had to charm the hostess into feeding us. We have learned to bring emergency rations in our pack, just in case.

First Day of Spring in Winchcomb

Our first spring ramble was great! Very scenic, fairly strenuous and quite muddy!






We crossed at least five streams and all of the low lying stiles, like the one below, were quite muddy as well.

Our route took us directly past this very cool old mill house in a tiny little place called Watershed. See the water to the right, that's where the water wheel was.

Just short of the halfway mark we encountered a rather large hill. There was considerable complaining by one team member and huffing & puffing by both. The view from the top was quite nice, see below. Funny thing was that after reaching the top of the hill we realized we were just wee bit off course and had we followed the correct path we might have cut off a good bit of the climb. One team member found this entertaining, the other did not.

The scenery was awesome start to finish. The view in the picture below was typical of the day, but this one had the horse in it as well. The Cotswold's probably have as many horses and sheep as people. The Cotswold's area economy has been based on the wool trade for centuries (cotton put the brakes on that) but still many towns and villages are named for their specific breed of sheep or type of wool they produce.

.... and more beautiful countryside ... we crossed a shallow clear babbling brook type of stream that was filled with small greens. Neither one of us has seen what watercress looks likes before it becomes part of a salad, but we are close to certain we might have seen it growing in this cold hilltop stream.

The ramble was excellent, seven miles in total. The only bad thing is it took us a little longer than planned and we missed Sunday Roast.

More from the Beehive

Saturday we awoke to rainy morning that eventually turned into an all day rain. Fortunately we made the call early that we would swap Rambling Day (Saturday) with Castle Day (Sunday) and we decided to head back to Wales to see Caerphilly Castle. We started for Caerphilly last weekend but were distracted by a Mothering Day Sunday dinner and never made it there.

Caerphilly Castle is yet another place that makes you realize just how serious people were about defending their turf 800 years ago. Not only did they build double walls around it, they put it plunk in the middle of a man made lake. Actually, it shows how serious the rulers were about protecting themselves from the other would-be rulers. Turns out in this case it was the Normans, again, “protecting themselves” from the Welsh …. more about Welsh/Norman (a.k.a. English) relations later.

Like most castles, Caerphilly has a lovely visitor’s center, complete with helpful staff and in this case the employee of the week award goes to Julian … helpful, friendly and entertaining. Being the tourists we are, we were not quite sure how to get past the simple chain fence between the visitor center and the castle entrance … should we step over, undo the link connected at the post or what? Julian suggested we could “ bust through like a bunch of renegades or use the door.”

So the castle was really cool and very impressive, like most of them we’ve seen. Not too worry, we’re a long way from tired of castletourism, much more to come.

After an hour or so at the castle we returned to our two favorite pastimes, pubtourism and foodtourism, both of which we pursued in a pub that occupies what was once the town court. It also happens that this pub sits directly adjacent to the castle, so we got a really good shot of the side door. (see below). Something pretty creepy about that side door and I’m thinking it was a lot better news if you were coming in or out of the front door, rather than the side door.

After lunch, a pint and watching Wales wale on Italy in the “Six nations Rugby Tournament” (30-13) we drove back to Cheltenham to watch more rugby at our favorite local establishment, The Beehive. We watched Scotland beat Ireland (16-13) due to a very late penalty and then we watched England lose to France in the last of the Six Nations games. France won the gold medal in the Six Nations competition going 5-0.

So, back to that funny Wales/England thing …. Watching the England vs France game at the Beehive four young gentlemen came into the pub fresh off the train from Cardiff (Wales) having watched the aforementioned Wales drubbing of Italy. Three of the four are native Welsh living in Cheltenham and in fact one of them even speaks Welsh. When the game ended with France winning, our four Welsh friends cheered! In fact they said when the US plays England in the World Cup in June they’re rooting for the US ….I’ll believe it when I see it! We had always understood there was a little animosity amongst the four countries of the United Kingdom, but we really had no idea it was quite that deep.

Alright, last thing to mention about Saturday, we saw the easiest to please dog in the world. He was some sort of shepard, maybe a Border Collie mix of some sort, and he was clearly a regular at the Beehive since he had his own personal water bowl next to the fireplace. The great thing about him was that he loved to play fetch with the patrons, the really great thing about him was that he liked to play it with a bottle cap, the really really great thing about him was that he like to rattle the cap around in his mouth clinking off his teeth as part of the obligatory tussle before the throw. We don't have any photos of the Beehive yet to post, we will have to do that and add them later. MB is convinced the floor there has not seen soap since 1801, give or take a century.

Mothering Day, Lambs and Mountains

It seems that the second Sunday in March is Mothering Day. That means extra special Sunday Roast to us! Mmmmm. In addition to our roasted meats, Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes we were served the following vegetables: Carrots, peas,cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips and roasted potatoes. Turnips taste great if you drown them in gravy and smash in some potatoes and carrots. Because it was Mothering Day dessert was included. John had Black Forest cake. I had spotted dick with custard. I had a difficult time ordering my dessert. I sort of whispered it. "...And for dessert I will have the spotted pspsps...". The actual dessert was a raisin bread pudding with warm vanilla custard. I understood the spotted part but the rest was and continues to be a mystery. Truthfully, it really didn't matter to me what it was, as soon as I saw it written on the menu, my choice was made. Of course we had to have a pint with our dinner, we are all about traditions. Coffee (John) and tea, (Beth) and then we were off to Wales in search of a castle.

It must have been in 8th grade right after we learned about the war of somethingorother when we (the 8th graders) were told that there are mountains in Wales. This little tidbit did NOT stick. So imagine our surprise when we came around a little bend in the road and real mountains with snow capped peaks appeared in the not so distant distance. We drove for miles and miles up and down tiny winding roads all around the mountains. The names of the towns are all in Welsh which is impossible to read, from the non-Welsh perspective so I have no idea where we were except to say we were in Southeast Wales, that much I know.

Sheep were absolutely everywhere. Hills were dotted with them, fields full of them. White, black, brown, auburn (my favorite), and their LAMBS! New, sweet, beautiful, chubby, bleating lambs!



Eventually we found ourselves at Skenfrith, another Castle ruin. In 1187 King Henry 11 (that is 2nd, not 11th), had the castle remade into stone, prior to that is was wood and stone and details of its original erection are sketchy. Skenfrith is unusual in that it is low lying. It had once been a fortified castle, but was now reduced to the outside walls, and a few small towers.

The First Ramble

When the movie Babe (the one about the pig) came to the theaters I might have been first in line to see it. I am assuming Ben and Brittany were along, maybe Susie but for sure my mom was there because I remember asking her if places like the thatched roofed farm setting where Babe lived existed. "Yes, she said. "In England". That is correct.

A while ago we attempted to go to Broadway to see the tower but fog prohibited seeing anything so we had a different adventure which is documented in another blog entry. The second attempt proved well worth the wait. We were blessed with a bright and clear Saturday morning, new hiking boots and a map of the rambling trails. Broadway is in the Cotswold's about a twenty minute winding road ride from Cheltenham. John found some information on a trail (footpath) that would take us through Broadway, across some fields of sheep and horses and up to the tower. Let's just take a moment and pause on the word "up", shall we. Up, as it straight up. We were prepared for this in that we have a small day pack, water, GREAT outer gear and perfect water & mud proof boots and a map so detailed that by squinting we can see small dots that represent our own movements.

Thanks to the good work of Beatrix Potter and the National Trust, there is public access in the form of footpaths all over the UK. I cannot express here the intense beauty of this place. Walking across a farmers field, next to his sheep, opening and closing the squeaky gates, stepping over small creeks, walking through densely wooded paths, around piles of horse manure, and through ankle deep mud just doesn't seem like the makings of the realization of a life long dream...but it was. It is.

The "up" part of our ramble was a challenge but a worthy endeavor to be sure. I want to tell about my favorite parts of the walk and the day but the day has so many favorites! I wish I could take some out and save them for another day that needs improvement.

John is good with maps and has a built in sense of direction. We had just passed some nice sheep enjoying a generous stack of hay and saw we were following an older couple up the hill. They were natives, obvious by the way they had their hands clasped behind their backs as they leaned forward in their walk up the hill. We were upon them quickly, said "hello"and meant to keep going but the man stopped John and asked for directions. They laughed when they heard him speak; an American giving them directions in their own country! When we finally crested the hill which turns out is AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD we were approached by another group of ramblers who also asked John for directions and as a group laughed out loud when this "North American" told them which way was the best way to get back into town.

Before we went on to the tower we stopped and had lunch at a small restaurant/shop right near the tower. The patrons were all ramblers or visitors to the tower and the proprietors seemed to understand that mostly everyone would bring in boot fulls of mud and dogs. While we were eating our lunch a man walked in and approached the counter. This is what he said to the employee: "If you happen to see a dog wandering about would you please ask him to report back to his family?"

Dogs are welcome nearly everywhere. Restaurants, pubs, shops, everywhere. Parts of the footpaths are divided by gates. Some of the gates are opened, some are climbed. The gates that are intended to be climbed over have a special accommodation for a dog. Their gates lift up. The owner pulls up on the top of the rail, the gate lifts, the dog goes under and the person goes over. The dogs all seem to know how this is done and without exception get to the gates before their owners and wait to be admitted to the next section of the path. I really love how much the English people include their dogs in their every day activities.

The Broadway Tower was interesting. It is 1024 feet above sea level. It is a Saxon tower designed to resemble a castle. It is described as a Gothic folly; that is pretending to look as though it was built in the Gothic period. The view from the tower is stunning. You can see as many as thirteen counties on a clear day. James Wyatt built it for his wife, Lady Coventry in 1794 as a birthday gift. "What would you like for your birthday my love?" "A tower."