London Calling

Cotswolds Make Me Horny.

Brian told me I couldn't use this title, but hey - it's my blog entry right??? The runner-up title was "Liz Hurley's Lovely Wedding!!!"

Let me explain... Last week we both were feeling a little down. Life can be stressful sometimes you know? We knew that an escape from the city would be just what the nurse practitioner ordered. Both of our passports are tied up in Visa World so we had to stay in the United Kingdom. I emailed some friends for suggestions and started looking in to the Cotswolds.

The Cotswolds are a grouping of small hills that lie about 100 miles west of London. We read that they were known for their quaint villages and abundant hiking trails that span between Oxford and Bath. I was looking for something that was full of fresh air and not too touristy. We found a small town called Broadway and started looking at B&Bs.

And that's how we met Dick and Jane. They own and run the lovely Lowerfield Farm, located about two miles from the center of town. After submitting an internet request, Richard (his name's not really Dick) immediately called us at home. We booked a room and he agreed to pick us up at the train station on Saturday morning. He arrived with tweed trousers, a V-neck sweater and a cap. A true old English gentleman. We hopped in his car and he immediately started in about local history, his farm, and his heritage. I knew then that we had picked the perfect weekend reprieve. We learned that his farm supplies enough wheat for 50 million loaves of Warburton bread (probably the equivalent of Freihoffer's in the states).

When we arrived at the farm we were greeted by Maisie and Molly. Two very friendly, gorgeous labs. We were told that Maisie was particularly good for pheasant hunting. We were shown our room and given a cup of tea. After a nice chat with Dick (I mean Richard) and Jane we hopped back in the car and headed to Broadway. We strolled through town, checked out a 14th century church, and hiked two miles up to a lookout tower. (see pics)

We headed down from the tower around 3:30 and noticed a helicopter overhead. We assumed it must be the one-and-only Sir Elton John heading to Liz Hurley's wedding just 15 miles from Broadway. As we continued our stroll through town, we kept on the lookout for anyone famous. No luck.

Around 6pm we headed to another town called Chipping Camden for dinner. We ended up at a cozy Italian place with a bottle of wine.

All in all it was a perfect break from London.

On Sunday morning we woke up to rattling windows, heavy rain, and fierce wind. Hiking seemed to be out. We went downstairs for a full English farm breakfast and started discussing alternative plans. Turned out that Dick and Jane were driving in to London. They offered to drive us home but we weren't quite ready to end our weekend away. We asked them to drop us off in Oxford instead. The weather was still too crappy to walk around so we headed to an old pub called the Turf Tavern. It had a tented outdoor space with benches and an open fire pit. Brian read his newspaper and I settled in to my book.

A few hours later we decided to get a train back to London.

Both of us started this week feeling refreshed. So, perhaps it shouldn't be "Cotswolds Make Me Horny" but "Cotswolds Make Me Feel Human Again."

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Thursday, March 08, 2007