Sat, 02 Nov 2002

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:15 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Cotswolds ( all photos )

Towards London ( No photos )
We left Stow this morning in heavy fog, and attempted to go to the Motoring Museum in Burton-on-the-Water, another Cotswolds town. However, it was a total tourist town. We pulled into what we thought was the parking for the museum, only to be told that it was residents only. After a quick look up and down the street (no parking for miles), we decided to head towards Oxford and have a look around.
Once again, however, we were foiled by the weather. Traffic was also heavy, and we decided to have a quick run around the Ring Road (a fantastic British thing - a motorway all the way around the big cities, with exits a key points heading into town - highly recommended). Liz spotted in the road atlas that Legoland was not far away on the outskirts of London, on the way to the airport.
It was a reasonable drive into Legoland, however after a bit of reading we found that the entry price was about £18 ($55)!! Not quite worth it for an hour or two. Even the Lonely Planet guide took a dig at the prices.
So, we sat in the free parking (there was a Park-and-Ride - another great British thing where you park your car on the outskirts of a city and get a bus in) at Windsor reading our books from Hay-on-Wye until it was time to head into the airport in London.

author Tim	location Stow-on-the-Wold, The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England
posted 14:54 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Cotswolds ( all photos )

Wildlife Park ( 30 photos )

This morning we rose to take in a few of the attractions, but the weather has limited us to only one - The Cotswold Wildlife Park. We spent the morning there looking a just the right sized collection of animals, before the rain forced us to return to the car. We still got a good look around, only missing a few enclosures.
We are going to stay here again tonight, as it is only a couple of hours drive (touch wood) to the airport to pick up Margaret tomorrow. The hostel itself is quite nice - we're sitting in the kitchen at the moment because the rest of it is locked up during the day, but we are glad just to be out of the rain.

author Tim	location Stow-on-the-Wold, The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England
posted 14:54 GMT 01/11/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Cotswolds ( all photos )

The Cotswolds ( 9 photos )
(Continued from North Wales)
Back into England, the remainder of the day was spent driving towards Stow-on-the-Wold, where we are now. As usual, we were attracted by the presence of an open Youth Hostel, but soon found it is quite a nice little town in its own right. The drive took in The Golden Valley, which looked decidedly less golden since we last drove through it (very foggy now), Ross-on-Wye, and many other great little English towns.
We are now in the middle of The Cotswolds, a famous picturesque area we have looked around a little, but many things we wanted to do are now closed for the winter.
We had a good chat in the pub last night, before cooking a great pasta dish.

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