Gym's Ramblings: Cotswolds Day 3

June 26, 2016

It was Sunday here in the Cotswolds and another hike was on the agenda. As I sit here clacking away we have just come back from another wonderful dinner in the dining room where we re-capped the day's accomplishments over coffee and petits fours. Mrs. Gym's FitBit reads 93 floors climbed and 9.86 miles traveled (15 kilometres). So today, we strode out upon a quest that turned out to be 1.5X as long as the previous day's. But we did not make it to Broadway Tower which was our stated goal. What happened?

No, we didn't get lost. Gym rarely gets lost. He has worked with maps all his life and I might say that Gym is a keen observer of his surroundings. So why venture away from planned goal? Well, Gym decided that something the driver from the airport had said did not sit well with him. When we were travelling down the hill into Broadway, the driver said something like, "no one hikes up a hill like this".

Gym and Mrs Gym did! And we made it to Snowshill, on a route high above the road. Our route took us along the Cotswold Way. And there are some fantastic views of the Cotswolds from along that trail. Once in Snowshill, we visited the Snowshill Manor and Gardens.

We spent about an hour and a half in the Gardens, the outbuildings and the Manor Home of Charles Wade. Gym was drawn to the place because like his father, Charles Wade was a great collector. Gym had to check out his collection. The difference between Charles Wade and Gym's father was that Charles Wade had no heirs. So, all the wonderful collections Wade had as well as his real estate were left to the National Trust. This allowed Gym and all the other tourists to check out the treasures for a small fee, paid to the trust.

It turns out that Charles Wade's collections were better than Gym's father's but Gym's father had a collection of children that trumped everything at Snowshill Manor. Having said that you have to see some of the cool stuff we saw that we hope we captured in some of our photos.

After Snowshill, the intrepid couple hoofed it down to Broadway again and required some respite in the pub of the Broadway Hotel, where Gym unsuccessfully tried to locate a taxi to take him back to Buckland Manor. It being Sunday and there being only 4 taxis in the area, Gym girded up his loins and accepted the fact that another traverse of the hill between the two communities was in the offing. The walking was never any issue for Mrs. Gym and in some way, as it was sabbath, Gym somehow deserved to have to walk. Slowly at first, Gym found his stride and punched a hoped for, gentler line across the cuesta. Unfortunately, the new route was a much muddier path and Gym ruined a facecloth back at Buckland Manor cleaning his shoes, much to the chagrin of Mrs. Gym.

Dinner tonight, was again an outstanding experience and I hope to describe the menu in more detail in future post.