Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday–Day 6 Broadway

Today was a rather unsatisfactory day. The trouble is, I am quite unable to shake off my present feeling of utter exhaustion and everything is a huge effort – it was also quite hot and humid today (conditions that tend to make me feel worse). It’s very frustrating, not just for me but for my hubby too. We decided to look at some villages this morning, and then visit Chastleton House (a beautiful Jacobean National Trust house) in the afternoon, but by the time we got there it still wasn’t open, and we hadn’t had any lunch. We had a terrible time trying to find somewhere for lunch. Chipping Norton, although an attractive enough town, seemed to offer nothing except light lunches, and we were in and out of the car with the wheelchair. Eventually we found a pub in Hook Norton (lovely name!) but they were about to host a large party and couldn’t accommodate us. They recommended another pub in the village which looked distinctly unprepossessing from the outside, but by this time we were desperate, and took our chances. The meals were very expensive on the menu, but we went for it and were most pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cooking and the presentation, and left well satisfied.

In the car I simply couldn’t keep awake and slept most of the day, and again when we decided to abandon the idea of returning to Chastleton House, and returned instead to our Bed and Breakfast.

It is now three days that I’ve been feeling like this, and it isn’t helped by sleeping badly, and having to be up for 8 a.m. breakfast each day. I really needed a few days’ complete rest before setting off on this holiday, but at least the first two days in Salisbury were quite wonderful for me, and I had a little window of more energy to enjoy it fully – probably too fully, and I’m now suffering the payback!

Anyway, here are the pics from today – mostly in Broadway, which is the nearest village of any size from where we are staying. Compared with Bourton-on-the-Water, there was absolutely no contest – Broadway wins hands down for quality and the tastefulness of the shops! We wandered around some very classy shops indeed, and loved the buildings and surroundings.

Chocolate heaven! How’s this for a choccie shop?

We came across a shop with footprints impressed in the plaster wall just inside the door. Nice texture!

There was a modern sign hanging from this most intriguing and obviously ancient bracket. It appears to depict a bishop poking at some snakes with his bishop’s crook. My hubby thought it might be a representation of St. Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland, but what the connection is with the Cotswolds is a mystery!

Here is a close-up of some of the glorious warm golden Cotswold stone. When new, it positively glows, and as it weathers, it goes all sorts of colours. I absolutely love it.

I love curved glass in windows. I knew someone once who had a shop with curved glass, and he said the insurance on those curved panes was more than the insurance on the whole of the rest of the building!

How vegetables should be sold!

Lovely to see people on horseback riding through the village. In the Cotswolds, they always seem to be very well turned out.

This is the entrance to Chastleton House, the National Trust property we’d originally intended to visit today.

Driving on a bit further, we caught a glimpse of this magnificent house through tall iron gates.

The church at Hook Norton, where we eventually had lunch.

Again, as I sign off, hoping for better things tomorrow health-wise!