Time to put a few thoughts into words and let you know how the house swap went for us. Firstly a big thankyou for allowing us to try swapping for the first time - how wonderful to get home after a long day and not have to eat out, buy takeaways, dress up or do any of the many other things that holiday living usually entails.
1. The house. We found the directions easy and found the house easy enough using the reference of the 7 foot wall. We only went past it once so we considered that pretty good. It was comfortable and lovely and we were all quite happy staying there - although I have decided never to buy a play station after Zoe and Dave were so glued to it. We too loved your kitchen range and decided that it is for ‘the next house’!
2. Dursley itself was interesting and we appreciated it much more after reading the book on Dursley about the architecture etc. We also thought Uley was underrated and thought it was really quite a lovely village. Sadly for us the walks and various ‘Houses’ for us were closed so we probably went further afield than we may otherwise had. Beware the video shop that made me leave a 50 pound deposit after 20 minutes of convincing them we would return the video!
3. Painswick, Nailsworth, Horsley, Leighterton - We made it a mission to find the pub, church, graveyard and antique shops (if any) in each of these towns and had a wonderful time. Luckily for us each town was deserted of tourists and we had a wonderful time. Favourite was Painswick and the 99 Yew tree churchyard (with the excellent pub opposite), and also the tiny village of Leighterton where we booked ourselves in for a very lively Sunday lunch - (you have to book!!)
4. Stroud and Bath- This was as far as we wanted to shop for groceries and it served our every need. It deserves special mention for ‘The old lady teashop’ which, if you can handle the cigarette smoke, something we are not used to in teashops, the food was to die for and favourite was the best pate I have ever tasted! The prices were excellent as well. Bath was not ‘us’ Very crowded for off-season and we didn’t think much of the Roman ruins and Baths. Quite expensive and over-rated - especially after we had spoiled ourselves by having the above villages all to ourselves.
5. Tetbury, Stow-on-wold, upper/lower Slaughter, Broadway etc. Picture perfect and what a part of England it was to see. Quite beautiful. Again the mission was to find a pub, church, graveyard and antique shop in each one. Wonderful day trips and easily achievable. I imagine they would be quite touristy in summer so we truly appreciated the quiet time we had. We would definitely do this again.
6. Food - We tried the Dil Raj Indian which was good and very popular so a booking was a must. We followed this with a mad Kareoke night and now we all want one. A fun night had by all! We found the Old Bell okay but we took up the challenge and went to the Carpenters Arms and had a great time. The locals actually spoke to us (Ithink they had no choice) and actually invited us back for their Kareoke night. Although smoky, we had a great time! The fish’n’chip shop on long street we found to be good and just how Kiwis like their chips. Another highlight was the Old Spot on Wednesday night. No visitor should miss this one - excellent - and they even let us take Zoe (we rang to ask them). I think this was Julias absolute favourite.
7. Cribbs Causeway - good if you are looking for the shopping centre that looks like every other one in the world - but a good spot for movies and to see what the fashions are like in the UK but not our main objective for visiting as we were after the old and worldly. Very easy to get to.
All in all we had a wonderful fun time and although the exchange rate worked against us totally it made it more fun to hunt things out. Due to the foot and mouth we didn’t get to see Owlpen Manor, Snowhill and many of the other places we actually had passes for but we made up for it by stopping in all the tiny small villages we could. The people were terrific and friendly - and some of the charity Bazaars we came across we found hidden treasures!
There was nothing we would change except maybe the price of Petrol! Favourite place was Painswick - least favourite was Stratford-upon-Avon. We felt we saw a really broad slice of England as we also stopped at places like Bridgewater (not recommended) but good to see contrast never-the-less.
