It’s hard to choose poorly in the Cotswold’s – the whole area is completely charming and each little town offers something remarkable.

Some towns to look at: Asthall, Snowshill, Broadway, Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower Slaughter, Upper Slaughter, Painswick, Burford, Castle Combe and Stow-on-the-Wold are all great choices for lodging and basecamp.

We drove out to Sudeley Castle via a series of small roads that wound us through dozens of small villages and rolling farm lands bordered by stone fences and hedgerows. It was incredibly picturesque! At every turn we expected to see Emma and Mr. Knightly walking across the pastures.

As I was standing in the Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral with my mouth hanging open, another visitor popped out of a side entrance and paused – his mouth hanging open just as wide as mine. He met my eye, grinned and said, “Well, my gob has totally been smacked!”

She was really struck with one piece that was a tower of audio devices that started with a base of old radios and ended a the top with bluetooth speakers. As she walked away she said, “..it kind of freaks me out when I look at it, but I like it.”

Urged forward by a bitingly cold wind, we arrived just in the nick of time at the Globe where our gregarious actor/tour guide was laying the scene of London in the 1500’s. Seeing the Globe was fabulous, and our guide was funny, informative, and deeply invested. 

Room after room blew me away. Huge artifacts filled huge, seemingly endless, spaces. After many surprises startling me in ever room I started wondering if the next room would contain the Lost Tribe of Isreal, the UFO from the Roswell crash site, and maybe Napoleon’s mummified remains.

The ruins were in phenomenal shape. Dating from 60 AD and in use for 400 years – the extensive complex of pools fed from one of England’s only consistent hot springs.

There was a track that lead up the hill to a 5000 year old tomb that had contained 36 bodies. At some point up the track our teenaged daughter asked in a slightly sarcastic and dry tone, “Why are we walking up this hill to see a mound of dirt?”

If you stood in the midst of the boulevard of stones on the crest overlooking the approach to the great nested circles of stones sitting in a huge earthworks henge and looked north you’d spot the enormous Uffington White Horse decorating the distant hillside. If you looked to the south you’d see the Silbury Hill – one of the tallest man-made hills.

We got back to the village just in time for the pub to fire up the kitchen and the hearth. The fish and chips came with the ever notorious minted mashed peas. I kind of enjoyed it. Kinda.

The drive into The Cotswolds, through little tiny villages such as Birdlip, the Slough, and Stow were stunning! Perfect forests, old rustic stone buildings, handmade fences, and beautiful gardens were everywhere!

The novelty and panic of being on the ‘wrong side’ softened as we hit a huge M24 traffic jam which allowed me to slow down and ask, “How did this left handed driving thing happen anyway?!”

When we asked 13 year-old daughter what kinds of things she’d like to see and do in England – she replied, “I want to see the British version of Taco Bell, and Big Ben.”

We looked at each other and then kindly excused her from the planning committee. The mission to broaden her horizons was more critical than we had initially imagined!