Keeping Up with Kimmy: A Little Taste of English Countryside

On Thursday morning of last week, I went with Hannah to pick her parents and brother up from Heathrow airport. They are here visiting for about eight days. They had planned to drive through the English countryside for the weekend, and they invited me along! So Friday morning, we rented a car from Heathrow airport and began our weekend journey. It was quite interesting starting out, since you have to drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car as well. To go along with that much of a change, there are also a million roundabouts to get through. We weren't very good at them to begin with, but I'd say we are pretty skilled now! It took all five of us to navigate where we were going, with Hannah's dad driving, but we always found our way.

First, we headed to the town of Windsor to see Windsor Castle. This is the Queen's favorite castle to stay at on the weekends. We took an audio tour through the castle, so we each had a set of headphones and got a narrative summary in each room we went through. We also walked through St. George's chapel. It is beautiful and contains so much detail. After spending the afternoon at the castle, we were back on the road and headed for Oxford. We got a hotel here for the night. We found a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. With the menu full of fancy words, I ordered the most basic pasta dish I could figure out. After dinner, we went across the street to a pub for a beer. We ended the night at a different pub called the "Eagle and Child." This is apparently Oxford's oldest pub and so we were determined to find it and check it out. Every pub is so unique and cozy in its own way. I even somehow managed to help bartend for a few customers; a very fun experience for me! After staying in Oxford for the night, we spent Saturday driving through the Cotswolds.

The Costwolds is an area of England known for gentle hillsides ('wolds'), sleepy villages, and for being so 'typically English.' We stopped in about six off the many little villages. Each was so cute with a different feel to each one. We had so much fun checking out the shops, cafes, bookstores, and history in each town. We ended in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. When we arrived it was beginning to snow. We got settled into our hotel and began walking around the streets of the town. Again, a very unique place with so many photo opps! (as you can see from below). We went to a pub for a beer before dinner. This was great because it got us out of the snow and the freezing cold. After warming up a bit there, we made our way back over to the Old Thatch Tavern. We had dinner here and it was something out of a movie. We had a candle lit meal with fireplaces burning, and as we ate and sipped on our beer, we watched the snow fall heavily outside the window. I wish I could go back to that moment. Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at another pub for one last drink.

Sunday, we got up and had breakfast at a cafe in Stratford before heading back to London. With the snow so thick, we figured we had to be done exploring the countryside and stay on main roads back to London. It was a great weekend with the Collman's and a one-of-a-kind experience!