Raining cats and dogs!

Today was a day trip to the Cotswolds with International Friends with Liz. It was only the two of us from Elon, but I’m so glad we went! The Cotswolds is a rural, countryside part of England, and during our trip we went to 4 different villages (we had over an hour at each). Each village is so similar, but each also has its own flavor or personality.

First stop: Burford. We really just walked around High Street, and that’s about all there was to the village. Stone houses, pebble stone streets, and a cute little bakery and sweet shop. The buildings are all so ancient and quaint.

Second village: Stow-On-The-Wold. It was so windy here so we were freezing. We still walked around, found a sweet shop store and a chocolate kitchen, and walked around more. I have never seen so many tea rooms and coffee houses ever. So British.

Third village: Broadway. This village kind of got the short stick with us because it was raining during our visit, which is unfortunate since apparently it’s the most photographed village in Great Britain. Its unique flavor to me seemed to be the numerous amounts of art galleries. After getting wet from the rain we ducked into Tisanes Tea Room for lunch. Here I learned some fun British expressions such as ming (as in it’s so ming…not so great weather) or naft (really gross all around). I also learned the origin for the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs.” Apparently, thatched roofs would be water proofed so they would be slippery therefore all the cats and dogs that hid in the thatched roof would slide off when it rained. Hence, it’s raining cats and dogs. 

Fourth village: Burton On The Water. This village was my favorite, probably mainly because the sun came out and the sky was nice and blue. There was this gorgeous river in the village too with some stone bridges. Gorgeous. Once again, we found a sweet shop so I could buy more local fudge and toffee. I definitely spent my fare share of local sweets today, totally worth it though! 

 After two days of day trips, I’m ready for a lazy Sunday afternoon!