"Here comes the sun, her comes the sun, and I say, it's all right," the Beatles sang. I never had the slightest idea how profound those words were until I started cycling through the Cotswolds. Today the sun came out, and I too say, "It's all right." This was our last day in the Cotswolds, and I was so happy it ended with such perfect weather.
After breakfast we took our final bike ride. We headed south from Winchcombe and went through some of the most rural countryside we have seen so far. There is definitely real farming going on in this part of the country - not just rich people and cash-out retirees pretending to be farmers - and some of the farms are pretty large. As you can see, the day was beautiful. Here's a view of Winchcombe from the top of a hill.
The sun seemed to bring out all kinds of life everywhere. I thought this picture was one of John's best so far.
But after three hours of riding we were back in town. We still had a while before we our bicycles and our luggage would be collected and our Cotswold adventure would be over. We walked around Winchcombe and John took some pictures of places and people. This was my favorite shop. After all, if someone were to butcher my family, I would want them to be "high-class".
John found some kids playing with a door knocker. It did not take too much effort to get them to pose.
But finally it was time. Ian came by and put the bikes on the back of the station wagon. He drove us back to their farm where we said goodbye to Julia and collected our car.
We drove on to Stow-on-the-Wold, one of the towns we had missed on our rainy days. It's a lot more touristy than either Chipping Campden or Winchcombe. I thought it reminded me most of Sausalito without the water. We did Rick Steve's little walking tour of the town. He said that one of the doors of the parish church was supposedly the inspiration for the picture of Jesus knocking on the door. John could not resist a little tableau vivant here.
After leaving Stow-on-the-Wold, Ken, our Australian GPS guy, guided us toward Stratford-upon-Avon. (I used to think that all this "this-on-that" names were just pretentious, but I have learned that there are other places which would otherwise have the same name. For example, there is a Stratford, England which is actually a really poor and dangerous section of East London. It's so awful, in fact, that the UK government decided to place the Olympics there as an excuse more or less to raze the place.)
We had picked out our hotel before we left Los Angeles. We found we got the best deal by staying a little out of town. This is our hotel tonight. Looks pretty posh, doesn't it? Actually, it is a Best Western and we got it for less than 75 dollars a night including tax. Sometimes I just love Travelocity.
Tomorrow we have adventures in Shakespeareland including a performance of Julius Caesar by the RSC.
