Tour de Cotswolds (aka Dora the explorer)

Howdy!

More about Dora later!

This little blog piece is dedicated to our recent sojourn around the Cotswolds on 2 wheels (the type you have to pedal!). It was fun for all over 3 days up hill and not so much down as it rained on us every day! However, we had a great time and we should both now fit into our gear for the wedding!

It all started with an early start to lug our overloaded luggage down the stairs of our "hotel" in West Kensington and heading across town to catch up with the bear at Paddington Station. he must've had a big night the night before because he wasn't saying much!!

Onto the train - packed with people heading to Oxford for the day. Feeling a bit peckish, so Jeff went to have a chat to Precious at the buffet on board and came back with some muffins and tea - she had her paper cups this time round!

A couple of hours later and we made it to Moreton in Marsh, where we were being picked up by Julia, the lady who runs these cycling trips. I will say it now, in case you don't get to the end of this piece - she runs a great business and nothing is too much for her - well recommended!

Into Chipping Campden and to our accommodation, which is deadset the home of some Lady (as in with the title)...Lady Jane is her name and she has slaves and everything (I mean workers!). Beautiful old house on a nice estate and only 50 metres to the closest pub and the town as a whole. Now it was time to lug the gear upstairs! Quick change, curtsy to the lady and we were off to Julia's house in the countryside to pick up the bikes and start riding! First, of course, is lunch and ten cups of tea! Here we met Julia's husband and all the pets!

Onto the bikes, with all the necessary gear and up the hill - the first of many. First stop was a place called Hidcote gardens, the type of place you might see on tv if you're ever lucky enough to come across Antiques Roadshow! No such luck for us today, but it was a nice place to visit, even if it was to just drop the average age of the visitor from 70 down abit! Oh, and we had a hit of croquet too, despite not knowing the rules, so we played hockey instead!

And so continued our 1st day of cycling..we felt good and decided to go for the 50 kilometre option of cycling - it's not so daunting in miles! Was a lovely ride through back roads and country lanes and then we hit the A4, where Jeff decided riding into a hedge and being pushed onto the road was a good idea!

We found a nice little pub - the Fox and Goose - you can work out who is the Fox and who is the Goose! This is where we hit trouble with the weather trning bad and the cider tasting good! After this little break, Stacey hit the wall, pining for the comforts of the pub and another pint. Luckily Jeff pulled out his Biggest Loser motivational talk and encouragement along the remaining 20ks.. words that cannot be repeated here! We sailed back home and hit the pub for dinner. Day 1 complete.

Day 2 and Stacey's chest infection had worsened - probably something to do with the summery weatlher of pouring rain and 10 degrees! A day exploring the shops was on the cards for stacey, whilst Jeff thought he'd better keep riding and headed off to the Slaughters for another 50 k ride. He took this one a lot slower and felt the effects near the end of the ride, but it was all worth it for both the beautiful countryside and the last downhill into town that was like riding down Ousley! Unfortunately, there were no beheadings that day in either Upper or Lower Slaughter, just a gentle runnning stream and some old mills! Not sure why they call them that then! Oh, not to mention he went the wrong way down one big hill earlier in the day which meant he had to turn around and ride up it!

The Volunteer Inn and the Indian restaurant attached made for one happy cold rider at the end of the day.

The 3rd day and Stacey was back on the bike! She had the Lady of the Manor concerned about her health but still soldiered on! This time a shorter ride was in order, to Snowshill and Broadway. Beautiful little villages and towns, a lavender farm that served clotted cream teas and a few good downhills and one killer uphill with trucks to defend against!

Off back to Julia's farm at the end of the day, for another cuppa and to change before heading off back to London. Made it to our hotel in Paddington only to find out we left 2 jumpers at Julia's house and Jeff another on the train!! The best thing about that is that it helped us with our bag weight for the flight with BMI to Ireland...but Ireland and the Wedding of the Year is for another blog!

Oh - As for Dora - for some reason when we finished riding each day, the little Dora jingle of "We did it x 3, Hooray" came into our head and became the motivational theme song!

Cheers to you all...till next time.