South Wales to the Cotswolds

5/4/18 – 12/4/18

We finally woke up to a full day of sunshine and no rain, which had been a very rare event. We traveled through some very pretty south Wales country side on our way to Stratford Upon Avon, made famous by being William Shakespeare’s home town.

The Brecon Beacon National Park in Wales

We stopped at the village of Brecon, where we once again went for a walk along the canal. There were many boats, including Kayaks. It was lovely to be walking in the warm sunshine

Brecon South Wales

Hay-on the Wye, a small market town we passed through

We arrived at Stratford Upon Avon, where Deb & I had previously visited on a trip in 2013 when we had my brother Paul travelling with us.

It was the home of William Shakespeare and we visited most of the historic sites dedicated to him including the house he was born in, in 1564. It is also a very pretty canal town. Unlike Europe the English canal systems are not linked together, but are single water ways going from A to B. In Europe you can travel from one river to another by interconnecting canals. So you are free to travel great distances in a boat which is not possible in England

The small photo on the right is Shakespeare’s birthplace and above is his grave inside the local church

Ann Hathaway’s Cottage

After a couple of nights in Stratford we traveled to Cheltenham via Ann Hathaway’s cottage (Shakespeare’s wife’s childhood home) then onto Broadway the first of the famous Cotswold villages. The Cotswolds are one of the prettiest parts of England and the quaint villages are built from cotswold yellow stone and slate roofs.

At Broadway we visited a tower built in 1798, built as a folly on Beacon Hill.

We spent four days in the Cotswolds, based at Cheltenham. Other places we visited there were

Bourton-on the water, we visited the motor museum and a large model train display

Lower Slaughter,

Tetbury home of Prince Charles Highgrove house,

Malmesbury and its ancient Abbey and supposed oldest Hotel in England

We visited Sudeley Castle at Winchcombe. Sudely Castle was partly demolished and left in ruins for 200 years by the Parliamentarians at the end of the English civil war because its owner backed the losing side (The King). It was rebuilt in the 1800,s. Prior to the civil war it was owned by Richard the third, Henry the 8th and Elizabeth the first. Henry’s last surviving wife Katherine Parr is buried there.