The Cotswolds

And so we were over in the Cotswolds for the weekend, a country side retreat, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It is a region in the midlands, with houses built from golden brown Cotswolds limestone with typical steep roofs, stone mullions and dormer windows. One of it's famous villages, Bourton-on-the-Water, has many traditional Cotswold houses that are apparently three to four hundred years old.

First destination on the itinerary was supposed to be Stow-on-the-Wold but we did not do a proper stopover as planned, we merely drove through as it was just a little village with mostly eclectic shops and pubs. We headed directly to Bourton-on-the-Water instead, which is approximately a 30 minute drive away. Bourton is often referred to as "the Venice of the Cotswolds" due to its six little bridges built across the River Windrush.



It has been voted as one of the prettiest villages in England and I can certainly vouch to that. The quaint and charming little cottages/pubs/ice cream parlours/eateries strewn by the river are ever so delightful.


Our first stop was the famed Only Cats shop, recommended by MIL; a shop that sells merchandise/souvenirs/paraphernalia relating to kitty tales + anecdotes and funny (no doubt famous too) feline quotes e.g. “I'm not asleep, I'm thinking” (har-har) printed on fridge magnets. A must-visit for cat-crazed people (like us!).

Then we moved on to have a bite; al fresco pub grub at a local pub seen in photograph below. Isn’t it just so pretty?


With happy tummies, we headed to the Bourton Model Railway Exhibition and Toy Shop specialising in model railways and accessories. It has over 500 square feet of model railway. Here, memories of playing with train models we each had as a kid came flooding back, but you can rest assure that it was nothing as big as this one!

We then made our way to the Model Village. This model village contains a 1/10 scale model of the village, a further scale model of the model village, and a final scale model of the scale model of the model village. Makes sense? Er, even I’m confused now.


Had a great time, strolling around in the Italian fashion, seeing and being seen, whilst being able to window shop too. Everything happened by the river though; there were families having picnics, people sun bathing, the young + old chatting and relaxing. It was a joy to see kiddies in their wellies, splashing about and wading in the river (the river was less than 1 feet deep). Even the doggies took the opportunity to cool themselves in the warm summer weather by taking a dip! Heck even we were tempted to jump in, the water was that enticing.

It was certainly a nice scenery change from Canary Wharf, where all things are new + made of steel vs. limestone quaint cottages with lots of shrubberies, trees and beautiful summer blooms. If only it weren't as far, I'd definitely make Bourton my weekend getaways.