A day trip to the Cotswolds

September 15, 2026September 15, 2026 / edebock / 6 Comments

We set off bright and early Monday morning to join this small group tour of four Cotswold villages. It was a delightful day with a driver/guide who was both entertaining and knowledgeable. I took well over 100 photos, but I won’t subject you to all of those!

Buildings in the Cotswolds are primarily made from Cotswold Stone, a honey-coloured limestone that is quarried locally. Many of them are more than 1000 years old and new construction is required to fit the historical look.

Our first stop was Burford. Known as the gateway to the Cotswolds, Burford has a population of about 1700 people. We started our visit there at St John the Baptist Church, an active evangelical Anglican church where we had the privilege of chatting about the church and the community with a gent who volunteers there.

One of the things that I liked about this particular tour was the fact that our guide gave us lots of information about each village before we arrived and then we were free to explore on our own. Rather than staying only on the main shopping streets, hubby and I also ventured into less touristy spots. So, come explore Burford with us.

Our next stop was tiny Bibury. Getting there was an adventure. Due to a bridge being closed for maintenance, our driver had to find an alternate route, one he’d never used before! As a result, we traveled some very narrow backroads through idyllic countryside that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Bibury was the quietest of the villages that we visited, not full of tourists like the other three. Likely some tours bypassed it because of the bridge closure, but our driver was determined that we not miss it.

Located on the quiet River Coln, Bibury is famous for Arlington Row, a picturesque row of 17th-century cottages that is one of the most photographed sights in England. These historic buildings started as a wool store in about 1380 and were turned into weavers’ cottages during the 17th century to house handloom weavers who supplied cloth to the nearby Arlington Mill. The main industry in the Cotswolds in the past was the sheep and wool trade.

The doors in these cottages were unusually short, perhaps to retain heat or maybe because people in the medieval period were generally shorter than they are today.

Bibury is also home to The Swan Hotel, an ivy-clad 17th-century coaching inn that is still in use today. Fittingly, a lovely swan posed for us in the reedy edge of the tranquil river just across the road.

Known as “Venice of the Cotswolds” for the shallow River Windrush running through its centre and spanned by numerous low arched stone bridges, Bourton-on-the-Water was our third and longest stop giving us time to find lunch and eat it by the river. With a population of approximately 4300 people, Bourton-on-the-Water was the biggest and the busiest of the villages that we visited. Come explore with us!

Our final stop was Stow-on-the-Wold, a jumble of inns and antique shops situated around an ancient market square. Stow has been a centre of trade in the Cotswolds for centuries and was the location of the last battle of the English Civil War in 1646. It’s also the location of The Porch House, believed to be England’s oldest pub. Parts of it date back to 947 AD.

Although most of the roofs in the Cotswolds are made of tiles cut from the Cotswold Stone, there are still a few thatched roofs. Our driver stopped before we left the area so that we could take photos of this one. He also explained that having a thatched roof is very expensive because they have to be replaced every 20 to 25 years and there are very few craftsmen left who do thatching.

Nine and a half hours after boarding the bus, we were back where we started having thoroughly enjoyed a day to remember.

Second day in London

September 14, 2026 / edebock / 4 Comments

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who wished us a Happy 50th Anniversary on social media after reading yesterday’s post! We definitely felt the love!

Today was another very full day. We woke up to drizzly rain, but it was hard to feel bad about it considering the fact that England has suffered extreme drought this summer and desperately needs the moisture.

We started our day by attending the 11:15 AM Sung Eucharist service at Westminster Abbey, the historic Gothic church in central London that has hosted every British coronation since 1066. We arrived almost an hour before the service was to begin securing a place near the front of the line and as a result, we ended up sitting in the second row of chairs at the front of the sanctuary! The service was very formal and liturgical, but also very meaningful. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the church, but photos wouldn’t have captured the sound of the magnificent pipe organ or the voices of the Abbey Choir.

When we exited Westminster station prior to walking the short distance to the abbey, I knew that Big Ben was supposed to be right in front of us, but I didn’t see it at first. Why? Because it was so much bigger than I expected! At 96 metres (approximately 315 feet) it was towering over us and it wasn’t until I looked way up that I realized it was there!

Many of today’s photos didn’t turn out very well because of the gloomy weather, but I decided not to take one that I had planned on. Several of London’s old red phone booths have been strategically placed across the street in such a way that a person can have their photo taken beside one of them with Big Ben in the background. While that would have been a fun picture to have, I wasn’t willing to stand in one of the long lines of people waiting for a turn to take the coveted photo. Instead, we went around the corner where hubby took this one which I think is quite delightful even without Big Ben in the background.

Before long, I was happy to leave that very congested part of the city behind us. We found lunch in a quiet cafe in the corner of nearby St James’s Park, one of London’s eight Royal Parks. We were happy to discover that we were able to walk most of the way to Buckingham Palace through the beautiful and peaceful park.

I have to admit that both of us were a bit underwhelmed by Buckingham Palace. The Victoria Monument in front seemed more impressive than the palace itself.

After all the amazing and enormous structures that we’ve seen over the past few days both here and in Istanbul, Buckingham Palace seemed rather plain. Of course, we were viewing it from outside the ornate iron fence and gates that are roughly 50 to 60 metres (160 to 200 feet) from the face of the building. I didn’t realize how big it actually was until I noticed how tiny the two palace guards looked!

I love my zoom lens!

I didn’t quite finish this post last evening as the internet in our little home away from home wasn’t cooperating, so I’ll finish up now…

Sometimes it’s the unexpected things that we discover quite by accident while seeing a city on foot that we find the most delightful. That was the case with Leicester Square somewhere between Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus in the middle of London’s entertainment district. With the William Shakespeare statue and fountain as its centrepiece, it was a relaxing spot to stop for a break.

We also met quite a few interesting characters in the square including Harry Potter…

Paddington…

And even Mr Bean!

First day in London

September 12, 2026September 13, 2026 / edebock / 3 Comments

On October 2, Richard and I will have been married for fifty years. 50! Fifty years of ups and downs, joys and sorrows. Seeing and experiencing new places and cultures has long been something that we’ve loved to do together. That’s why about a year ago when I started thinking about how we might celebrate this momentous milestone, it was obvious to me that it needed to involve travel. But where should we go? We considered everything from hiking in the Azores to a cruise down the Nile River, but before we settled on a definite plan, the possibility of another short term mission trip came to our attention. At first, we thought that we’d be returning to Armenia where we served in May/June of last year. Eventually, however, we learned that we’d be going to Istanbul, Türkiye just one month before our big anniversary. We started to look at how we might combine the two into one trip. As a result, here we are on our way home from Istanbul spending five days in London, England celebrating 50 years together a wee bit before the actual anniversary!

Our home away from home this week is an aparthotel in Notting Hill. After breakfast this morning, we head for Portobello Road Market, less than half a kilometre away. Stretching about a mile along Portobello Road, this is one of the world’s most famous and historical street markets offering antiques and collectables, vintage clothing, jewelry, artwork, fresh fruit and vegetables, a variety of street foods, and much, much more. Saturday is the market’s busiest day and I read that we should plan to arrive early to beat the crowds. That was definitely good advice! When we arrived shortly after 9:00 AM, some of the vendors were still setting up and the street was quiet, but within an hour or so, it was absolutely packed with people.

Of course, we had to pop into the souvenir shop that appeared as the fictional Travel Bookshop in the 1999 romatic comedy, Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

After leaving the market, next on our agenda was our first ride on the “Tube”, the world’s oldest subway system. Our destination was massive St Paul’s Cathedral. The original cathedral was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Construction on its replacement started nine years later in 1675 and it was completed in 1710. With its iconic dome, it was the tallest building in London for 250 years. The total height to the top of the cross on the dome is exactly 365 feet. The chief architect, Sir Christopher Wren, intentionally designed it that way to represent each day of the year. Apparently he also wanted there to be a 60 foot high stone pineapple on top of the dome as a symbol of peace, prosperity, and hospitality, but he settled for golden pineapples on top of the two western towers instead!

I was totally blown away by the sheer enormity of St Paul’s. To put it into perspective for those of you back home, the cathedral is significantly bigger than the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton!

In 1981, the cathedral hosted the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and it has been the location of massive state funerals for figures like Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

After enjoying coffee and tea in an outdoor cafe next to the cathedral, we walked about a mile to the Garden at 120, a free 15th floor rooftop garden in the heart of London’s financial district that offers 360-degree panoramic views of the city skyline.

From there, we caught our first glimpses of the River Thames, the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge.

Continuing our walk another half mile or so brought us to the Tower of London. Again, it was much more enormous and not at all what I expected. Named after its first building, the White Tower, which was built by William the Conqueror in the 1070s as a royal fortress, the Tower was also a palace with grand apartments where the king and queen could entertain and conduct business. As at St Paul’s, we chose to walk around and view the Tower from the outside rather than joining a tour that would take us inside.

In 1100, the Tower became an infamous prison where many prisoners including Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, and Sir Thomas More, who refused to recognize Henry’s separation from the Catholic church, were beheaded or hanged. Over its nearly 1000 year history, it has been adapted and repurposed for many different roles even including a zoo or royal menagerie from the 13th century until 1835.

By this time, we had done a lot of walking. Our feet and legs were tired and we had no intention of crossing the Tower Bridge, but suddenly we were there and Richard decided that we really should, so on we went!