Matt's Visit

Several weeks ago, a friend from CMU visited me as part of a ten-day trip through Europe. The first weekend, we toured London: On Saturday, we walked south across Tower Bridge, along the South Bank, then back over to St Pauls Cathedral and the West End. We came back up to Angel for dinner at the Narrow Boat along the canal, before crashing for the evening.

That Sunday, we met a few others for brunch in Angel, before heading off to the Shoreditch Music Festival and then onward to the Proms. Talk about two different experiences! The Shoreditch festival was a large outdoor venue with all the normal fried foods, expensive drinks and the like, occasional rain, a university-aged crowd and music that was a bit too edgy for all of us, I think. Afterward, Matt, Christie and I met John and Laura at the Royal Albert Hall, where Laura performed with the BBC National Orchestra in the evening’s Proms concert. We got last-minute, £5 tickets for standing immediately in front of the orchestra… definitely a different way of experiencing it, and a great time!

Matt was back for the following weekend and had suggested doing something outside of London to get a taste of “the rest of England.” On Friday that week, I saw someone on the DLR with a copy of The Times, featuring the 100 best walks in the UK. I found that article online and found one of the hikes in the Cotswolds, about 60 miles north from London.

I’d committed to meet Matt at Heathrow when he landed early Saturday afternoon, but needed to finalize a plan beforehand. At about noon Saturday, I picked up Rick Steves’ UK travel book and started calling down the list of B&Bs in the Cotswolds. The first five places I called said they were booked for the night. I was starting to think through other possible alternatives when one of the women I’d called ended up calling me back. She said she “just remembered” that they had space for the night, if we were interested.

Matt and I met at Heathrow, picked up a rental car and drove up into the Cotswolds. We showed up at the B&B in the late afternoon, then went back to the “Ducking of the Mayor” in a nearby town. We’d seen a huge banner sign over a pub on the way through the town earlier and wanted to see what we were missing! By the time we got there, we’d missed whatever the ceremony was… apparently it’s an annual festival where a mock mayor is selected from the village elders and dunked (yet it’s the “ducking” of the mayor… don’t ask) into the river that runs through town. We stayed for a bit as a band started the evening’s entertainment, then headed back to the town near our B&B for dinner and an early night.

Sunday, we did an 11-mile hike through the rolling countryside. We had a few challenges at first understanding that yes, it really is okay to walk over the steps near fences, to walk past sheep and other livestock in active fields, and to open gates as long as they weren’t actually padlocked.

The original Times article is here.
As we deviated slightly from the intended course, we mapped our our actual route on MayMyRun here after returning to my place that evening.

It was great to get away and see a bit more of England, outside of the cities… definitely a weekend we couldn’t have experienced as fully without a car and willingness to venture off the motorways!