I got nearly nine hours of sleep and woke feeling fully rested around 4 am. The songbirds were singing a symphony and dawn was beginning to crack. By 6 am we were both itching to get moving so we decided to walk the town before everyone else was up.
The night before we had decided to leave most of our belongings in the car and just bring in essentials for the night. That hadn’t included our rain gear and no more than a few blocks from our hotel, we realized that had been a mistake. We reversed course and made haste to the car to grab our raincoats and hats. We made it just before the showers turned into a legit downpour.
The weather here has been very reminiscent of home: don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. Bands of showers passing by with intermittent sun breaks. Nothing that will slow down two native Oregonians!
Our hotel stay included breakfast, which didn’t begin until 7:30. After our early morning walk, we set up camp in the hotel lobby until the breakfast room opened. The breakfast was very impressive, with toast and coffee delivered as we sat down. I ordered the full English breakfast while Pam opted for Eggs Benedict. While waiting for our orders, there was a table with a variety of juices and another with pastries and fresh fruit. We were going to need to do a lot of walking today to offset the intake!
Had we been walking to our next stop, our path would have been chosen for us – a twelve mile hike to Broadway. With the car, we had the freedom to take a less direct route and so we headed for Morton-on-Marsh. We arrived in the town about 9 am and walked its main street taking in many shops as they were opening.
After exploring the town, we backtracked to stop at the Batsford Aurboretum and Garden Centre. Located on a hillside, the 60 acre grounds features rare trees from around the world. We spent over two hours walking its trails and had just come back to the cafe in the Garden Centre when a microburst hit, dumping a torrent of rain and at a quarter inch of hail amidst thunder and wind gusts. Our timing could not have been more perfect!
We left the arboretum and headed for Broadway, our home for the next two nights. Our reservations were at the Crown & Trumpet Inn, a 16th Century pub with 5 guest rooms upstairs. Our room had been renovated so that it had a large, modern bathroom, but everything else about it screamed historic. That started with the skeleton key to unlock the door – which was barely tall enough for me to go through without ducking. I’m not sure there was a straight wall or level floor anywhere in the building – but it was very charming and we both agree we like this much better than the beautiful hotel in Chipping Camden.
We ate dinner downstairs in the pub and then ventured out for an evening walk. We found where the Cotswold way leaves town and decided to follow it for a bit. We cut through fields of grazing sheep and discovered how England has public path rights of way through farmland.
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