Day 2: Bath: Taking a Cotswold Tour

It's my second day of travels, and the second day in Bath. Today, I did a Mad Max tour to the Cotswold (£35) and it was worth it. So, our tour started at 8:45 this morning and is a whole day tour ending at 17:15. We saw a lot but not all as the Cotswold is really big. Apparently, Bath sits at the edge of the Cotswold and lots of the residents sit on the hillside. Did you know: 'wold' means a range of hills. So the whole Cotswold area is just lots of hills with lots of limestone.

 There were 12 people doing the tour and I was the only Canadian everyone else was from the US.

  As we climbed up the hillside side of Bath, we enter the Cotswold on the east side. We first headed to Castle Combe where apparently the original 'Dr. Dolittle' was film and part of 'War Horse' as well. Castle Combe was a wool village and is well preserved after the village was abandoned due to the decreasing demand for wool. We were able to walk around of our own for a little while. Next, we drove through Cirencester and Badminton. Did you know: a 'cester' is a Roman fort, and the sport badminton was developed in Badminton House. Also, Badminton is famous for their three day horse trials. On our way, we did see the house where they filmed the Bennett House from 'Pride and Prejudice', the one with Colin Firth.

 After, we headed to Bibury where they have the most photographed street/row of cottages in2 England. And we did our duty and took photos of Arlington Row. We had a little walk around before heading off to lunch at Stow on the Wold at The Queen's Head and then had our little walk around. There was a French market in the square today so there was lots of food and yummy pastries. I didn't buy any since I was full from lunch.

 Next, we headed over to Upper Slaughter where we walked around the village and then had the option of walking down to Lower Slaughter. Lower Slaughter is about 20 minutes of easy walking down the public footpath. Lower Slaughter is very small and doesn't allow buses driving around so we had to walk out of the village to get to the bus. After, we headed back west to Tetbury. Prince Charles lives near Tetbury and owns a little store called Highgrove. The prices were high and they seem to sell royal souvenirs and garden stuff. Tetbury was our last stop before heading back to Bath. We did drive by Highgrove where Prince Charles lives but the house was situated behind a lot of trees.

  When I got back to Bath, I wanted to find this restaurant to have dinner at. It's called Wagamama. It's a popular franchise restaurant that sells pan Asian cuisine. Mostly, it looked like Japanese items on the menu but no sushi. Their tea is not Japanese tea just a regular green tea that you would get at a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant back home. So, anyways, I found the place and had the Yasai Katsu Curry. It's panko breaded deep fried veggies (eggplant and sweet potatoes) with rice and salad (not dressed) (£8.20).
I also ordered at coca Cola that came in a glass bottle that seem the best before day date was in Feb (£2.20). I didn't mentioned anything to the waitress. Pop is pop and I can't tell if it went bad, it certainly was not flat.

   After dinner I walked around some more, just around the City Centre again and scoping out more interesting places to eat tomorrow and then I walked around the neighborhoods surrounding the b&b. By that time it was already 20:00 and I am already tired by all the walking. So I retired to my room And started blogging :)

Tomorrow's agenda: free walking tour around Bath and another Mad Max tour, afternoon tour to Stonehenge and the village Lacock where some of Harry Potter was filmed.