Oxford and the Cottswolds

Before leaving the UK we spent a couple of days driving through Oxford and the Cotswolds, a lovely part of the English countryside.

I (Clare) thought it would be nice to stay in a cute little country hotel with charm and character… little did I know that this usually means slightly out of date décor, and staff that really don’t care that much (think Fawlty Towers…!) So shortly after checking in to our hotel just outside Oxford we decided to duck into town to explore rather than enjoying the country ‘charm’.

We had been warned parking in Oxford was quite difficult, but given our hotel staff member’s inability to give any useful directions (she didn’t even know the name of the street we were on!) we thought we would just wing it. Eventually we found our way into town and discovered a multitude of disabled parking spots – in fact, the only free parking spots in town were disabled. So we parked in one, put Simon’s Australian permit on the windscreen, and headed up the street, only to bump into a parking inspector. We explained to him where we had parked and that we only had an Australian permit, and he said that would not be a problem. Great! Feeling confident we proceeded on our way and explored Oxford, seeing some amazing college grounds and then having a drink in the sunshine at a nice little pub on the river.

Upon returning to the car, we were mighty pleased to see a parking fine smacked on the windscreen. Thanks parking inspector. We have since written a letter and sent in this picture so we’ll see if we can get off it…

That night we had a meal included at our luxury hotel, which was surprisingly good although they seemed to think we could each manage a whole roast chicken to ourselves! We were told it was a baby chicken. We think perhaps they accidentally killed his parents.

The next day we spent driving through the Cotswolds, taking in the beautiful scenery and amazing old buildings.

And last but not least...

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