I knew waking up in the Cotswolds would be beautiful and boy was I right! We, unfortunately, had to wake up early but I could just imagine how glorious it would be to sleep in and wake up to birds chirping and the sun shining through the windows. Okay, I just convinced myself that I need to go back and do exactly that. Although we woke up early, it was still so incredibly beautiful and peaceful to watch the sun rising over the beautiful green hills.
We quickly got ready because our host told us that driving back to Oxford in the morning on a weekday is a nightmare. My dad has always taught us that we always leave a place better than we found it, so I made sure our room was nice and tidy and stripped the sheets for our host. Let me just add in her review... "All too brief of a visit for this charming, sweet and polite young couple. They were excellent house guests and we only wish they stayed longer. They left their room in immaculate order as you’d expect from a military man." Hahahaha. Umm, excuse me? Trevor gets all the credit when he did nothing!? Haha, it made me laugh. She was a really nice host and gave us a lot of useful information. She told us she has a house in London and that she would be going there that day and if we ever needed anything that we could call her and she said that it's nice to have a fellow American to call when in need. So sweet!! I snapped a few photos and hit the road!
The views we had driving back were incredible! Next time I go back to the Cotswolds I want to stay two days. One day to sleep in and wake up naturally and peacefully and then one day to wake up early and wander around as the sun is rising. I can't imagine what this place is like in the summer.
Driving back wasn't as bad as we thought. There was definitely more traffic but we avoided highways for most of the drive so I think that helped. We did end up taking the freeway towards the end of our journey which I was nervous for but it actually seemed easier to drive on. Once we got into Oxford it was pretty hectic and full of traffic but luckily our rental place was right off the exit. Our car rental place gave us a ride back to the train station which was very nice! I was sad to leave Oxford feeling like I didn't get to see much of it which is a shame because if you've ever watched Endeavour, it looks amazing.
We took the train back to London on a super nice train. It had bathrooms! Hallelujah. Our train took us to Paddington Station and we lugged our suitcase to our hotel which thankfully they let us drop off before we could check in. This hotel we stayed in seemed like it was in a sketchy area but once we turned a corner it looked like a beautiful little square of apartments. I didn't take a photo so here is one I found from Google... So beautiful.
Once we dropped off our luggage (and feeling much lighter) we made our way to a bus stop and took the bus to Westminster. We quickly made our way to Westminster Abbey because I had booked us for afternoon tea at the Cellarium Cafe inside the Abbey. I was so excited because the pictures inside the cafe looked amazing. However, there are two parts to the cafe and one is in the traditional looking room on the ground floor and the other part is upstairs and looks newer and posh. It was a very unpleasant surprise when the waiter brought us upstairs. Oh well. At least we had a great view of the Abbey. For some reason, Trevor and I were dressed really casual this day. I had a sweatshirt on and Trevor was wearing a shirt that had ink stains on it. Please don't ask me why he decided to pack that shirt of all the shirts he had. We felt extremely out of place because when we looked around we realized everyone around us were wearing suits and business attire. Whoops.
The afternoon tea was a fun experience. It was definitely a bucket list experience, but one I probably wouldn't care to do again. They brought us our tea in a cute white teapot with a bowl of sugar cubes. Thankfully they had herbal tea so we ordered some chamomile. Then they brought the three tiered plates of food. We enjoyed the sweets but were creeped out by the savory items since we don't like seafood. We just wanted to have the traditional experience of afternoon tea so I thought what better place than Westminster Abbey! It was cool. Cool cool cool.
After we were done it was time to hit up the Abbey! Okay, I know I said this about everything but this genuinely was the place I was looking forward to the most and my most favorite location. I remember seeing Westminster Abbey when Kate and William got married and thinking it was so amazing! Walking inside is kind of shocking because it looks so much bigger inside than it looks on the outside. Oh my gosh is Westminster Abbey a TARDIS!? We took the phones and headphones for the guided tour and started walking around. The tombs and effigies were incredible. My eyes were flying everywhere trying to see every detail. So many famous people are buried here that it would take too long to name them all. The effigy that I was most excited to see was Elizabeth I's. She's definitely my favorite monarch so it was very surreal to look at her effigy and know that her actual body was just below me. That sounds so morbid but it was such an unreal experience. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed inside the abbey (click HERE for a virtual tour of the abbey) so here are some from Google...
We walked outside into the cloisters and sat for a while enjoying the peace and quiet. It was such a beautiful day and luckily we could take some photos in the cloisters.
We walked out of the Westminster Abbey grounds and into the Parliament Square area and were shocked to see lines and lines of black cabs. The whole square was full of them and the lines of them went far down the streets and they were all empty. We were so confused and a little scared! We started walking one way and these three ladies stopped us and asked us if we knew what was going on. They happened to be Americans, which surprisingly we didn't run into many of! So all five of us walked over to the cabs and asked one of the drivers standing next to his cab what was going on. He was super nice and told us that Parliament is trying to change the laws so that cab drivers can only drive on residential streets and that they won't be considered public transportation. Or something along those lines. So the cab drivers park their cars in Parliament Square as a demonstration two to three times a week and they stay for around four or five hours! It was so interesting to see.
We were trying to get a bus to our next destination but that was out of the question now. So we walked up to Oxford Street because we were dying to get back to Primark. We spent way too much money and way too much time in there. Worth it, though. We got some really great stuff! The rest of the day we just walked around and shopped. We decided to eat at the Flat Iron again because it was so good! The steaks are kind of small so we got three, one for each of us and one to share. Ugh, it's so good. This place is open tabled so we were sat between two different people and the people who got sat next to us were from California! Two nice guys in London on business. They were really helpful and gave us some good information!
Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed! I should mention our beds ended up being two twins! Haha, Trevor was not too happy about it but I slept so great! Hahaha! Which is good because the next day we walked 11 miles!
The views we had driving back were incredible! Next time I go back to the Cotswolds I want to stay two days. One day to sleep in and wake up naturally and peacefully and then one day to wake up early and wander around as the sun is rising. I can't imagine what this place is like in the summer.
Driving back wasn't as bad as we thought. There was definitely more traffic but we avoided highways for most of the drive so I think that helped. We did end up taking the freeway towards the end of our journey which I was nervous for but it actually seemed easier to drive on. Once we got into Oxford it was pretty hectic and full of traffic but luckily our rental place was right off the exit. Our car rental place gave us a ride back to the train station which was very nice! I was sad to leave Oxford feeling like I didn't get to see much of it which is a shame because if you've ever watched Endeavour, it looks amazing.
We took the train back to London on a super nice train. It had bathrooms! Hallelujah. Our train took us to Paddington Station and we lugged our suitcase to our hotel which thankfully they let us drop off before we could check in. This hotel we stayed in seemed like it was in a sketchy area but once we turned a corner it looked like a beautiful little square of apartments. I didn't take a photo so here is one I found from Google... So beautiful.
Once we dropped off our luggage (and feeling much lighter) we made our way to a bus stop and took the bus to Westminster. We quickly made our way to Westminster Abbey because I had booked us for afternoon tea at the Cellarium Cafe inside the Abbey. I was so excited because the pictures inside the cafe looked amazing. However, there are two parts to the cafe and one is in the traditional looking room on the ground floor and the other part is upstairs and looks newer and posh. It was a very unpleasant surprise when the waiter brought us upstairs. Oh well. At least we had a great view of the Abbey. For some reason, Trevor and I were dressed really casual this day. I had a sweatshirt on and Trevor was wearing a shirt that had ink stains on it. Please don't ask me why he decided to pack that shirt of all the shirts he had. We felt extremely out of place because when we looked around we realized everyone around us were wearing suits and business attire. Whoops.
The afternoon tea was a fun experience. It was definitely a bucket list experience, but one I probably wouldn't care to do again. They brought us our tea in a cute white teapot with a bowl of sugar cubes. Thankfully they had herbal tea so we ordered some chamomile. Then they brought the three tiered plates of food. We enjoyed the sweets but were creeped out by the savory items since we don't like seafood. We just wanted to have the traditional experience of afternoon tea so I thought what better place than Westminster Abbey! It was cool. Cool cool cool.
After we were done it was time to hit up the Abbey! Okay, I know I said this about everything but this genuinely was the place I was looking forward to the most and my most favorite location. I remember seeing Westminster Abbey when Kate and William got married and thinking it was so amazing! Walking inside is kind of shocking because it looks so much bigger inside than it looks on the outside. Oh my gosh is Westminster Abbey a TARDIS!? We took the phones and headphones for the guided tour and started walking around. The tombs and effigies were incredible. My eyes were flying everywhere trying to see every detail. So many famous people are buried here that it would take too long to name them all. The effigy that I was most excited to see was Elizabeth I's. She's definitely my favorite monarch so it was very surreal to look at her effigy and know that her actual body was just below me. That sounds so morbid but it was such an unreal experience. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed inside the abbey (click HERE for a virtual tour of the abbey) so here are some from Google...
Elizabeth I's effigy.
We walked outside into the cloisters and sat for a while enjoying the peace and quiet. It was such a beautiful day and luckily we could take some photos in the cloisters.
We walked out of the Westminster Abbey grounds and into the Parliament Square area and were shocked to see lines and lines of black cabs. The whole square was full of them and the lines of them went far down the streets and they were all empty. We were so confused and a little scared! We started walking one way and these three ladies stopped us and asked us if we knew what was going on. They happened to be Americans, which surprisingly we didn't run into many of! So all five of us walked over to the cabs and asked one of the drivers standing next to his cab what was going on. He was super nice and told us that Parliament is trying to change the laws so that cab drivers can only drive on residential streets and that they won't be considered public transportation. Or something along those lines. So the cab drivers park their cars in Parliament Square as a demonstration two to three times a week and they stay for around four or five hours! It was so interesting to see.
We were trying to get a bus to our next destination but that was out of the question now. So we walked up to Oxford Street because we were dying to get back to Primark. We spent way too much money and way too much time in there. Worth it, though. We got some really great stuff! The rest of the day we just walked around and shopped. We decided to eat at the Flat Iron again because it was so good! The steaks are kind of small so we got three, one for each of us and one to share. Ugh, it's so good. This place is open tabled so we were sat between two different people and the people who got sat next to us were from California! Two nice guys in London on business. They were really helpful and gave us some good information!
Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed! I should mention our beds ended up being two twins! Haha, Trevor was not too happy about it but I slept so great! Hahaha! Which is good because the next day we walked 11 miles!
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