Not Knowing Where You’re Going Is The Best Way To Get To Someplace You’ve Never Been

The words above I paraphrased from an episode of Seinfeld, where the character J. Peterman meets a lost and bewildered Elaine Benes. However, it really does describe how Carrie and I are traveling right now. We don’t have any firm itinerary, just a mental list of places we want to see and the freedom to make changes on a moments notice. We had planned to fly to London, see the sights and then hop a train to some of the other spots we’ve had on our radar. After that, who knows.

Midway through our stay in London we were joined by our good friend Renae, who was already exploring parts of Europe on her own. Together we traveled to ancient Bath, the natural spa that was popular with the Romans and then to the Cotswolds, the tiny hamlets that were frozen in time and remain just as they were centuries ago.

Bath was established as a must see destination for the Romans, who built a complex of temples and baths for the wealthy to enjoy. Centuries later it was brought in to relevance again for the same reasons, but this time entrepreneurs built majestic homes for their spa goers to enjoy as well.

Jane Austen, the famed author of novels such as Sense and Sensibility once lived in Bath. She is celebrated every year by a festival in her name where hundreds of revellers, wearing period attire, host several balls and events throughout Bath. This years shindig starts next week.

After a few days in Bath we tried to make our way to the Cotswolds, the collection of villages frozen in time. Getting there was not easy! We knew it would take a combination of buses, trains and maybe taxis to get to our destination, Stow-on-the-Wold, but we didn’t realize how difficult and time consuming it would be. But one train and two different bus lines brought us to this idyllic town.

At St. Edwards it is said that J R R Tolkien took inspiration from this tree that seems to be part of the structure of the door.

Burton-on-the-Water, sometimes called the Venice of the Cotswolds, is another picturesque village near Stow. The River Windrush divides the town with walkways on either side. There are numerous pedestrian bridges for the hordes of tourists to cross or stop on to pose for pictures.

Another treat was at the Old New Inn where they have a museum which features a miniature mock up of the entire town. It was incredibly realistic.