I forget which management guru it was who coined the phrase used in today’s title, but it is appropriate for our “orientation strategy” in the Cotswolds. Today we “wandered around” again, with our main destination Gloucester, which sits in the northwest corner of the area. There were two reasons for this, first, to see the magnificent cathedral and second, to learn how to correctly pronounce the name. No, it’s not GLOWCHESTER, it’s GLOSTER.
After a lovely back roads drive of about an hour, we arrived at the bustling city of Gloucester (say it right). I bit of a shock after a few days in the boonies where a town consists of High Street and a few alley ways to the left and right. But after maneuvering through a dozen or so roundabouts, we found a car park within sight of the church. Alas, coins only. Now everyone knows that real men do not carry coins. Women carry lots of coins, but Cindi’s quarters would mysteriously not tote up in the machine. Hey it’s a Bank Holiday anyway (who knew that the British take off four days for Easter?), so maybe we will get lucky and not get a ticket (we didn’t).
Suffice to say the Cathedral is magnificent. My pictures do not do it justice as there was no way to get far enough away from it to give the full impact of the size and grandeur. There has been a religious site here since the 700’s and the current building dates from the 1200’s. To me the most impressive were the stained glass and the cloisters alongside the church itself.
Some of the stained glass
The Cloisters with many famous tombs on the floor
The Church was free, but a very inventive way of soliciting donations was more than successful.
After touring the Cathedral we headed out to the adjacent old town (Gloucester was founded by the Romans in 97 AD) in search of a good pub for lunch. However, being a Bank Holiday and due to a kitchen power outage, we had do do with a couple of brews.
Don’t know if you can read it, but the Fountain Inn was at stage coach road house in the 1500’s. People were shorter then, as the bumps on my head will attest.
Back on the road to Bourton on the Water, which some of the Healey crowd will remember we visited in 2013 (the Motor Museum and the little stream through the center of the village being the highlights). You might also recall a great little sheepskin store there, my granddaughter will. Well Cindi conveniently forgot her house shoes, so is now the proud owner of some warm and fuzzy new ones (although the sheep is no longer so warm and fuzzy).
Alas, back in the village of Bledington and getting ready to tuck in for the night. Still can’t get the fire to light due to a lack of kindling and not likely to find any dry stuff in the backyard.
Tomorrow morning it’s off to the local gym for a much needed workout. Stopped by today. It’s in an old barn (really not much more than a shed), but enough proper equipment and not likely to be overwhelmed by Newport Beach trophy wives, so it will do.
Not sure this daily pace will continue, but we have another adventure planned for tomorrow.
