Sunday 26 Aug 2018 London – Moreton-in-Marsh

We had a late afternoon train, so we booked a tour of the state rooms at Buckingham Palace. Tours are not allowed when the Queen is in residence. August is the time she spends in Scotland at Balmoral, so…our tour. “Our” tour was with several hundred others! The palace is truly spectacular. No pictures are allowed, but we saw many places that have been part of the series, “The Crown.” The art and furnishings are all museum quality. My favorite was the entrance hall, because it was so frequently shown on “The Crown” when the Prime Minister would come to report to Elizabeth.

Buckingham Palace from the rear

Moreton-in-Marsh is, as expected, a cute little village made even more cute and typical of what we think of England because of the light drizzle that had just stopped when we arrived. Our inn, the Redesdale Inn, (B&B) is comfortable. We ate with our travel companions, had a short walk then went back to the B&B’s pub for dessert - sticky toffee pudding, now our favorite.

Monday 27 Aug 2018 – Moreton-in-Marsh to Stow in the Wold

The day started out threatening, but in the end, 7-miles later, we were dry. It was actually great hiking weather. As expected, we were hiking across fields and through back yards. There were plenty of sheep and milk-cows. We missed most of the paddies!

Jai, Peter, Wynn, Barbara, Linda, Lauve

Stow is at the top of a hill, a small “market town.” Our B&B, the Sheep on Sheep Street, was fine. Dinner was Indian.

One of our primary trails - Heart of England Way

Sezincote - an Indian inspired country mansion

Tuesday 28 Aug 2018 – Stow to Bourton on the Water

This was a shorter day – 4-miles, but we added a couple by taking a side trip along the way. In Lower Slaughter we did an out and back to Upper Slaughter because we heard that it was less crowded, but then Lower wasn’t very crowded. Upper is frequently used as a movie set. We’ll look for it as we follow “The Crown” on PBS. The two towns are connected by the River Eye, which is more of a stream, but big enough to support a mill during the peak of the wool industry. “Slaughter” means muddy. I think it came from when sheep were brought to market the Eye got muddy in both Slaughters.

"Make my day, punk!"

After a light lunch at the Manor House Hotel in Lower Slaughter we were on to the short hike into Bourton on the Water and the Windrush River running through it. Our hotel was Chester House. The town was crowded with tourists.

Pub snack stop

Cottage garden

Church in Lower Slaughter

Manor House Hotel in Upper Slaughter

Windrush River through Bourton on the Water

Wednesday 29 Aug 2018 Bourton to Guiting Power

I have been mapping our daily course into the Garmin GPS using the paper map provided for the walk and the Garmin Connect computer app. This is a manual process and sometimes not so accurate, so we have been using a combination of the que sheet instructions and the GPS with occasional reference to the paper map. It is working without too much stopping and discussing which is the right way.

Linda & Wynn leaving "kissing gate"

Towards Naunton for pub lunch

Black  berries everywhere

We loaded up on pastry at the Bakery on the Water in Bourton to make sure we didn’t run short on the 6 mile walk along the Windrush River through sheep pastures and woods.. We had our pastry snack in the village of Naughton and arrived at the Hollow Bottom Hotel & Pub in Guiting Power at about 1:30. It was sunny most of the way. We found out the village was once totally owned by a Power family trust, thus the name. But because of increasing cost of maintaining the buildings and infrastructure, the trust is slowly selling off properties.

Garden in Guiting Power

The Hollow Bottom has been recommended by several friends and guide books. Based on the dinner, the recommendations have been correct. The dishes were all innovative, delicious and well presented.

Thursday 30 Aug 2018 Guiting to Winchcombe

This was a 5.9-mile rolling walk through farm fields and forests. One stretch was through Farmcote Estate. It took a while to figure out why we saw so many pheasants. Then we stared to see what looked like feeding stations, then gun shots.  Finally, it dawned – they were raising pheasants for hunting probably on the estate. Beautiful, big birds. Our hotel, White Hart Inn, is fine.

Approaching Winchcombe