A Cotswolds Walk

England is a great place for walking. Established public footpaths run all over-- even cutting through private land-- giving walkers a wonderful netwark of byways on which they can see the country.

We went on a twelve mile walk in a charming area of England called the Cotswolds. We started in a beautiful village called Bourton-on-the-water and then walked through charming villages, swathes of woodland, fields of grain, and grazing pastures. It was a fantastic walk and probably the highlight of our trip.

Shakespeare Country

Above you'll see me at the conclusion of my pilgrimage to one of the great artists of all time: Shakespeare. I don't know nearly as much about Shakespeare, especially his poetic works, as I would like to, but what little I do know of is enough to have brought me pleasure, joy, and personal growth. He must have been an amazing person with a profound intellect and a great heart.

We visited an exhibit on him and his work, his birthplace (above), and his mother's childhood home (Mary Arden's Home, pictured on the right). Mary Arden's home was a wonderful open air folk museum that had little to do with Shakespeare but was a fun and educational look at life in that time period. They even have full time staff whose job it is to live the life of people of that period, they bake bread in earthen ovens, make shoes by hand, and live (by day) without running water or electricity.