England 2017, Friday, 5/19/17

Another travel day coming up.  Arose at 6:00, showered and preliminary packing.  On to the restaurant to enjoy our final Full English at 8:00 AM and then back to final packing.  Our car and driver picked us up at 10:00 and we bid adieu to The Windermere Hotel for this trip.  Undoubtably we will return as it has become our London headquarters - we have been staying here off and on since at least 2002.

Out to Heathrow to pick up our rental vehicle - a large minivan to hold all our luggage easily and the four of us to travel in style.  We proceeded down the road to Oxford, parked the vehicle without incident, and then walked to the Ashmolean Museum, a part of Oxford University.  Entry is free, and the amount of material and information is amazing.  To properly do justice to the institution would take days and multiple visits. Truly a place not to miss.

We then proceeded to a pub around the corner - Three Goat Heads, for a snack and glass.  The establishment stops serving food at 3:00, but as it was only 3:15 and there was no one else in the pub, they offered to serve a meat pie (think chicken pot pie of incredible pastry with finesse) a dessert brownie with raspberry sauce and some wine and ale.  Amazingly good.  We then made an offhand derogatory comment regarding our President, which led into a long discussion of politics between the bartender, the cook and us; we covered both English and American political scenes.  Interesting and thought provoking as to the stance of both the young bartender/ philosophy student, and the older hilarious cockney cook.

We left Three Goats Heads refreshed and intrigued with our hosts.  Oxford is a quintessential college town and it was jam packed on a Friday afternoon.  We strolled the shopping area and stopped at a bookstore to pick up a few travel tomes for the areas we are about to visit.

Off then towards Colesbourne and the Colesbourne Inn near Cheltenham in the Cotswolds.  Weather is beginning to clear, but occasional showers.  The Countryside is beautiful, green, rolling, and charming.  Traffic is moderately heavy, clearing as we near our destination.  The Colesbourne Inn proves to be exquisitely charming.   We are housed in a newly remodeled former kitchen of the main house.  Brand new fittings and we are to be the first guests. 

Dinner proves to be problematic as the Inn is packed with locals and it doesn't appear that we can get a table until nearly 9:00.  However, a check of nearby eateries reveals that Friday night must be a major dining out evening, so we settle in front of the fireplace of the restaurant for a cocktail.  A table opened up earlier than expected and we sit down to a truly delicious meal: duck breast, a huge fish and chips, grilled rainbow trout, and a hearty vegetable barley soup.  Wonderful desserts also were served.  We retired around 10:30, tired, but happy to be on the road.