Location: North Nibley near the knoll
Today had us on familiar ground, the Cotswold Way. As Al mentioned yesterday, we were here in 2006 with our kids.
Unlike yesterday, when we opted away from the CW, today we were on it most of the day. A lot of the sights were familiar from our walk with the kids. We saw the Somerset Monument near Hawkesbury Upton (I love the place names here) built to commemorate the 5th Duke of Beaufort's son's service at Waterloo.
And the Tyndale Monument near North Nibley, built to honour William Tyndale, who wrote an illegal English translation of the Bible in 1526 and was strangled, impaled and burned at the stake for it in 1536. Interestingly, in 1611 when the King James version was being written, most of it was taken from Tyndale's text.
The Cotswold Way is all about the fabulous vistas, so favoured by monument builders. From 500 feet up on the edge, we could see the bridges in Bristol that span the Severn and connect to Wales. The up side of the CW is that it's super easy to follow. Clearly worn paths with lots of signage.
The down side is that you're led to each and every spectacular vista, no matter how convoluted your path may be. So we did cheat a bit and bypassed one big loop leading to Wotton-under-Edge. And we will continue to amend the route in favour of more efficiently reaching Scotland.
It was neat to see places that we remember seeing with the kids.
This was taken on a bench high above Wotton-under-Edge and we have a picture of the kids on the exact same bench 6 years ago. They'll also remember both of the monuments, as well as North Nibley.
Tomorrow we're staying at the Falcon Inn at Painswick. The only place we're returning to from our 2006 visit. I hope they still have Banofee Pie on the menu!
Look out for stinging nettles. I remember finding a lot of those in England in the Cotswalds.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely pictures. Dawn, you look so fresh and cheerful in every photo! That walking and fresh air (and clotted cream and tea) certainly looks like it agrees with you and your youngin hubby! How fun to travel over a preworn trail. Bet you miss the kids. We had hail here today as well! It was a sun rain sun hail sun rain day here so I tried to work in the garden and gave up and instead invested my time in Downton Abby!! OH MY GOSH I'm so hooked! And I get your "Branson was busy driving Sybil" comment! He he. You two are a hoot. I belly laughed over and over about Al Blewit (and Bruce's follow up comment). Miss you here. Glad you're having a great time.
ReplyDeleteJulie P.S. I finished my mittens!
love the idea of a pic in the very same spot, years later. that'll be cool to have!
ReplyDeletethe other julie who is mitten-less!