Exploring Bourton-On-The-Water, England

The one thing my mom wanted to do on our parents’ trip to visit me and Amanda in England was to explore the Cotswolds. Granted, there are about 800 square miles of land that make up the Cotswolds, but she did her research for weeks to find a town truest to the *English countryside aesthetic* that she’d been picturing–and man, did she pick a good spot.

Bourton-on-the-Water is the quaintest English town you could probably ever see. Our time there, though short, was filled with relaxing evenings out to dinner, mornings at the local bakery, and a long hike through fields and pastures. I’d love to explore more small towns throughout the Cotswolds eventually, because if they’re anything like Bourton, it’d be unforgettable.

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GETTING THERE

We left our Bath apartment early in the morning, grabbed some breakfast in front of the Abbey, and then hopped on a train to Gloucester. We stopped by the Gloucester Cathedral, just barely making it inside before a special mass was about to start. We only had about 30 minutes to walk around, and on our first trip we didn’t get to see the iconic cloisters (think Hogwarts hallways), so we actually returned on our way back from Bourton a few days later. I might make another short post about the Cathedral specifically soon, but for now, it was truly so impressive to see in person. The attention to detail in every aspect of the architecture was nothing short of jaw-dropping, and the stained glass was absolutely beautiful. Words really don’t do it justice, and I found myself wishing over and over that I had bought my film camera with me to capture the architecture in a special way.

After walking through the Cathedral, we made our way to the bus station and hopped on the next one going to Cheltenham. That journey took about an hour, and once we stopped, we had about 3 minutes to run from that bus stop over to the last 801 bus going to Bourton–we truly took “cutting it close” to a whole new level. Another hour long journey took us to the center of town where we enjoyed a nice walk to our Airbnb (which was extremely difficult to find based on the directions from our host AND Google Maps).

WHERE WE STAYED

Our Airbnb was on the main road, right next to a cute pub that was maybe a 5 minute walk from the center of town, and we had so much fun just walking down the streets, looking at all the little shops that closed super early, and taking in the scenes by the river. On our first night, we stopped at Smiths for dinner, and let me tell you–no burger I’ve ever gotten in the States has even come remotely close to these burgers. I love a restaurant that takes immense pride in their food regardless of what they serve, and it was truly awesome to see food that seems as simple as burgers in the US be turned into carefully crafted little masterpieces. I loved hearing about the backstory of the restaurant, too: it’s run by two brothers, Seb and Theo. Theo graduated from catering college, and Seb had traveled to the US to play football and found himself amazed by the burgers we all know and love–the two of them teamed up and dedicated their futures to creating an amazing restaurant that’s “passionate about patties” and truly lives up to its slogan.

You can see everything we ordered from Smiths in my blog post “What I Ate In Southwest England” - from the cocktails to the side dishes and everything in between, it was a truly perfect meal.

HIKING THROUGH THE SLAUGHTERS

Day two was the only full day we had in the Cotswolds, and my mom had planned a whole day of exploring the two nearest towns: Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. We headed out early in the morning and set off for Upper Slaughter, trekking through fields of flowers and hay, across wooded paths and along riverbanks until we reached the spot we knew we wanted to stop: St. Peter’s Church. The path we took led us to a beautiful, quaint, grassy area next to a ford in a small river. There was a tiny bridge crossing the river, which was shallow enough to walk around in (and we happily did, of course, after walking in the sun for a few hours). We had planned ahead and packed supplies for a picnic, so we set up shop on the grass right next to the water and had ourselves a feast of fresh bread, amazing cheeses, cured meats and jams, and of course, wine out of paper cups. It was an absolute perfect way to spend an hour or so in the middle of the Cotswolds, like a scene out of an English countryside storybook.

We packed up our picnic after a nice long rest, continuing our excursion through Lower Slaughter. While hiking through Upper was mostly woods and fields, Lower was a mix of little residential areas along with fields and long roads. We had to cross a busy street to get to a field, only to read a warning sign that told us the field contained adders, which are venomous snakes found in Europe. Needless to say, I booked it through that field feeling like I was going to explode from anxiety the whole time. We also passed by a pasture with some horses–one of which was feeling a little too brave when we went up to the fence to see if we could pet them. The vibes were off, and we were hidden in the woods, so we thought better of sticking our hands in his face (but I did get a good picture below). We made it back to our Airbnb in the late afternoon with just enough time to take a rest, freshen up, and head back to the center of town for dinner.

OUR LAST DAY

As our parents’ visit came to an end, the four of us headed back to Gloucester to see the Cathedral one more time and then catch our trains. The cloisters were amazing to see in person, and the Harry Potter nerd in me tried to do my research to see what exact spots were used in the movies–my attempts to get pictures in the right framing were terrible, especially for a photographer. I’m chalking it up to being on a time crunch and also being too excited. We had a quick breakfast at a nearby cafe before we went our separate ways: our parents back to London to catch their flight the next day, and myself and Amanda back to Leicester to finish the rest of our time in England.

MY TWO PENCE:

Bourton-on-the-Water is an amazing little town smack in the midst of the Cotswolds–it truly gave us the countryside atmosphere we were looking for, which was nice to experience after a few days in the busy city of London. Public transport there is a bit less abundant since it’s such a rural area, but it was quiet, quaint, and exactly what we had hoped. Gloucester is much more of a city (though less so than London), but the Cathedral was lovely to see up close. Other than that, we didn’t spend enough time there to gather thoughts about the area, but even so, I’d choose Bath or Bourton over the other cities we visited in England in a heartbeat.

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