UK had a bank holiday on the Monday after the coronation of King Charles, so we used that day to head off to Stonehenge and Cotswolds with our London-based friends.
Stonehenge
We were making bets as to whether or not Chu would be able to wake up early enough to make it for this trip, but he showed up bright and early at Chi’s doorstep. Bravo!
Stonehenge is around 2 hours away from London, so I’m glad my friends had cars so we didn’t need to book a tour for it. They had all been there except for me and Chu, so this was incredibly nice of them! When we got there, everyone else parked themselves in the cafe while only Chu and I went inside. We had bought tickets in advance for an 11 am entrance.
Before you get to the actual Stonehenge monument, there is a Stonehenge Visitor Centre, a museum which explains some of the history of the Stonehenge, and even includes a prehistoric skeleton of a man that was unearthed near Stonehenge.
After exiting the museum, they also showed stone blocks that made them up and recreated Neolithic houses. The Neolithic houses help to reconnect the ancient stones with the people that lived and worked in the Stonehenge landscape. Visitors can step through the door of these houses and get a real sense of what everyday life might have been like when Stonehenge was built.
Finally, we rode a bus that dropped us off at the stone circle. When we got there, a huge busload of people had just arrived, but we somehow managed to take pictures that made it look as though we were the only ones there. Also it was extremely cold and windy, so below is the best picture where my hair is the least messed up.
It was kinda mesmerizing to be in the face of something so old. Chu was so transfixed that he asked to take a moment.
Cotswolds
After Stonehenge, a lot of people go to Bath, but our friends thought that Cotswolds would be a better destination, so we headed to Bourton-on-the-Water, a village in the rural Cotswolds area of south central England. I had been to Cotswolds with AA the last time I was in UK when we went on an English Bus Tour to Oxford, Stratford and Cotswolds, but that was a different part of Cotswolds.
Our first stop was a pretty restaurant called Maxi’s. It looked like a tent and looked magical on the inside! We ordered a lot of stuff on their menu and they were all pretty good.
We then explored the area near the water that the place is named after. It was such a cute village so we had to take a bajillion photos.
We learned some lessons in photography while here. Like, for example – how not to take a picture in a picturesque village when it’s raining.
AA also taught us about the “Gen Z selfie” which is a way of taking a selfie with your phone using the back-facing camera, so that you can capture more by putting it on 0.5 zoom. We put it to practice whenever we could.
We wanted to have scones and coffee (I know the British prefer tea but we are not British, OK?), so we walked around to look for a place to have them, and sure enough, there was a cute cafe that said “coffee & pastries.” Yay! We were happy that they had a table big enough to seat all of us, and that they had good scones and coffee.
The Trough
Think of somewhere you can relax and gaze across stunning views of the beautiful rolling Somerset countryside, enjoy great food, and decompress with a drink alfresco on a sun trap patio. That was our last stop, a place called The Trough. It’s a farm with a shop that sells organic groceries and home stuff, and also has a Michelin starred restaurant.
We were actually just there to buy groceries but when we saw that the restaurant was empty, we decided to have dinner even though we were not yet hungry. 😅 The food and drinks were good and so was the ambiance.
I was very grateful that my friends went out of their way to go on long drives just to give us a great tour of the UK countryside! I was very happy to share this moment with everyone together. Thanks for the bank holiday, King Charles!
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