Day 7-Bath to Chipping Campden

We woke up from a good 7 hour slumber, put on some nicer clothes, our slippers and rushed downstairs to the dining hall for breakfast. We requested to have breakfast at 8:30 am so we could have enough time to see everything we wanted to in Bath before hopping the train to the Cotswolds. The table in the dining hall was set up so picturesquely that I wish I had taken a photo (my camera was in my room). It was all this mismatched china that made my heart swoon and do back flips with how pretty it was. We had our fresh english breakfast (I say fresh because the eggs were from the local market, along with the bacon. Nom nom nom. Best eggs and best bacon I have ever had.) We had tea as well. Such a yummy breakfast. After we finished eating, we packed up our things and checked out of the hotel, but since we had previously asked our host, we left our bags by the door till we returned from sight seeing. And it was off to explore Bath on a delightfully sunny (but very cold) Sunday morning!
We headed to the Roman Baths. I thought we were just going to be paying to stand in front of a green pool of water....I was wrong. We got our own personal audio guides (free of charge! Yippee!) and could move however fast or slow we wanted through the building. It was one of my favorite parts of the trips of all the museums we went to. Archeological museums (don't know if that's a phrase, but I just made it up, so ha.) are so interesting to me, like oooooh someone used to stand here 3000 years ago. Amaze. Love it. My sister found it creepy. I did not. The museum took about an hour and a half and I enjoyed every minute of it. There was even an old skeleton they had found which they believe to be the skeleton of a wealthy man, because he had honey markings of some sort on his teeth. So cool! I love bones. They.are.my.favorite.

After the museum we headed to the Bath Abbey for church. We were probably a good 30-45 min late, but they still were more than welcoming to me and my sister. They handed us hymnals and showed us to our seats. The Abbey was STUNNING. I wish I could have taken photos, but that wasn't allowed. Seriously, never seen a more beautiful church in my life. Wow.
The choral choir was present as well, which was a treat because again, wow. Their voices just echoed beautifully off the church walls. The pastor's sermon was hilarious (which I found shocking because the other church sermon's I have been to in England, the preachers were always so serious.) After about 15 min of being in church, the service was finished (so clearly we were very late) they invited everyone to join them after service for "SHERRY WITH FRIENDS". Hahaha! We didn't stay since we had a train to catch but, as we were leaving the pastor was greeting people as they were leaving, shaking hands with his left hand and holding a glass of sherry in the other. Priceless.
My sister and headed over to Waitrose after church to grab some food for the train ride. Then it was back to the B&B to grab our bags and head to the station.

 (Our B&B in Bath)

Somehow my bag gained another 20 lbs because lugging that thing around was not so fun. Annie ran over my toes 3 more times from the B&B to the station. Yay.
Our train arrived at 2pm, we hopped aboard a somewhat crowded train, luckily we found seats together. Plunked down and it was off to Morton and Marsh.

When we arrived at Morton and Marsh around 4 pm, we were greeted by our taxi driver, a robust and elderly man named Barry. He was so lovely!
He grew up in the Cotswolds and told us all about the area, pulling over whenever (and wherever...one time it was a field) we wanted to take a picture. He said the people we were staying with were wonderful and had a very charming B&B. So that was great to hear. As the road took the first turn into Chipping Campden my heart melted. It was the cutest, most charming-est town I had ever laid eyes upon. Thatched roof cottages, over grown gardens (in an intentional british way) and fields in the distance. Yep friends. I fell in love, and decided me and my husband are moving there when we retire.....with our 4 cats.

Barry showed us a 600 year old home in Chipping Campden. He also told us-FUN FACT-that all the buildings are built from Campden stone therefore, the darker the stone, the older the building is. He also said there was a 900 year old church on the hill. Wicked :) Then we turned into the driveway of our B&B. Such a cute home. I just was all around excited!

 (Our B&B in the Cotwolds, our room was on the top, on the other side.)

When we opened the door, we were greeted by our B&B host Sally. She said to us, "OH! What a refreshing glass of water! I was expecting two older women, but you two are so young! .....I should have told my son to stay!" Haha! But really Sally, you should have.
After that, Sally showed us to our room. Which was also delightful. We had a view of a field. Amazing. She told us all there was to do in Chipping Campden, which she said there isn't much to do, but it's a good place to wind down, which we told her that was why we picked Chipping Campden. She told us we had free range to any movie in the case downstairs, gave us a tour of our room, and then asked if we'd like tea or coffee. Tea of course! She let us unpack while she said she would "Get the kettle on." And we could "come down whenever we wanted." She was so welcoming and asked us all about our trip, what we had seen/done/etc, where we were from, our family, what it's like having sisters. Just good chit chat. She felt like an aunt to us. We had tea cakes and fruit as well as our black tea. It was so calming.
After a bit we went back upstairs, decided on which pub to go eat at and headed out. The sky was already dark, but Sally said it's a really safe town to walk around at night. SO that was good, since we had no car. We headed to a pub in the center of town. Once we got there we awkwardly walked around the building for 10 minutes before going in since we didn't want to be awkward and walk into the wrong building. Unfortunately, that made us awkward so bravo to us. When we finally went inside, we found a table and awkwardly sat there unsure if we were supposed to order at the bar or at the table. But the hosts could tell we were American and told us they were coming to us. I ordered a lamb shank with boiled veggies and fries (ahem chips.) and my sister got Potato Leek soup. Soooooo good. Oh we also order half pints of cider because, when in England....

 (Me with my dear friend mr.cider)

 (My lamb shank.)

 (Annie's Potato Leek soup. So good!)

 After stuffing our stomachs to the brim, we trekked back to the B&B for an early night. It was about 7pm. We grabbed Lord of the Rings out of the Dvd cabinet, and headed up to our room. Annie showered, we both put  on our pjs, and the handy dandy plush robes that came with the room, quick facetime catch up with our parents, a phone call from our friend David, I made us tea, and it was movie time. Such a relaxing evening. Just what we needed. We turned the movie off at about 9 pm, and fell asleep. Waking up 11 hours later, at 8 for breakfast and a day of wandering around the town. It was a perfect first day in Chipping Campden. And I miss it. A lot.

 (View from our room)