Day 11, Monday, September 11th: Scotch Eggs!

We had the windows and blinds open upstairs the entire night to cool our place off. We woke up to cloudy skies and around 17 degrees. The weather forecast for today is a high of 23 degrees and a mix of sun and cloud so could be a great day for a walk. Our plan is to walk to Chipping Campden, stop for lunch and walk around the village and then walk back to Broadway using a different trail. The Trail app predicts about a one hour and 50 minute hike eastward to Chipping Campden. You got to like the name of the village!

Although not having a car makes it difficult to get around, I really appreciate not having the driving we encountered in Iceland. For certain to get around Iceland you need a vehicle and/or bus tours. The Cotswolds for me is much more relaxing given the absence of the stress of driving. Lana here--keep in mind that it took about a day for Randy to start complaining about the people walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk LOL.

Online map of the Cotswolds including most of the small villages. As you can see Broadway is at the northwest part of this bucolic area of Great Britain. 

We begin our hike from Broadway and walk east up High Street. We use Lana's Trail app and find the turn and eventually we are outside of the village. We are now hiking mostly uphill which we predicted. Around 2.6 kms we are walking along a golf course! Very gentle countryside and none of the uphill is really steep. We are in forests on some of the portions of the walk to Chipping Campden.

Lana's Trail App picture of our walk/hike today. Very unusual shape for a circular walk as we headed north before we got to Chipping Campden and then circled back to the village.

View early in the walk of the Cotswolds below. 

One of our walking paths between the farmer's fields except this one is divided by wire fencing. Perfect walking conditions on the soft grass. If it was raining it would be a different story. 

"Nearly There" to where?

This is the golf course we were walking beside for a bit. 

Very lush and green golf course with rolling hills. You would expect a lot of difficult lies and shot making as you could be hitting uphill, downhill or sidehill. 

Excellent, the sign indicates "Chipping Campden in 2 1/4 Miles"

I have been meaning to take a picture of one of the many stone walls we encounter during any of our hikes in the Cotswolds. I am sure that many of these stone walls are centuries old. I don't see any use of bonding material/grout etc. Some of the walls are overgrown with vines/grass etc. Apparently there are over 6,500 kilometres of these handmade stone walls in the Cotswolds. 

Lana's picture of a delicate flower growing along one of our paths.

I could not resist this picture of a flock of sheep grabbing some shade. If I got too close they would scurry away. They were not interested in me.

Part of our walk heading downhill directly towards Chipping Campden. 

Finally got a picture of the wooden signposts indicating "COTSWOLD WAY" which is a 162 km 'trail' that begins in Chipping Campden and ends up in the south at Bath. 

We are now super close to our destination.

One of the first homes we come across as we enter the town. Thatched roof and no netting!

I figured these beautiful yellow stone houses were worthy of a picture and really represent the nicer area of Chipping Campden. 

Signpost in the town, but not sure of the significance?

It was a beautiful day for a walk/hike as the temperature was in the middle 20s and there was mostly a gentle cool breeze always ready to refresh you. The breeze always seem to come along when we needed it. When we arrive in the town it is 8.21 kms from our start. This is a very large town compared to Broadway. Apparently, it is a planned town of the 12th Century and the main drag "High Street" was its centre. The word "Chipping" means MARKET so I guess the town's title is really Market Campden? The town was fairly wealthy at one time due to the fact it was an old wool merchants town.

It is about 11::40 and we are thinking of lunch. Lana's checks her app to determine the more highly rated food in town. She comes across Huxleys Cafe & Brassiere not too far along High Street. We check the menu on the side of the building, but I wasn't too impressed. We decide to check out their bakery and it was serendipitous. With the look of the sandwiches and the fact they had some salads we decided to forgo eating at a pub or restaurant and just eat a casual meal outside.

This was our bench seat outside of the bakery where we enjoyed our lunch. Unfortunately, Lana did not take a picture of her Caprese salad with avocado nor our fantastic Raisin Roll pastry. The Orange San Pellegrino topped it off. 

Randy's focaccia bread sandwich with serrano ham, mozzarella and pesto. The salesclerk toasted the bun for me. It was fresh, delicious and filling. I loved it. 

This is the historic market building in the centre of downtown. It's part of the National Archives so will be preserved and maintained. 

OK, we are on vacation and had another long walk. After our fantastic casual lunch we wanted to have our pint of Cider. We stopped at the Red Lion Tavern for a pint (6 Pounds) of Stowford Press Apple Cider (4.5% ABV) from the tap of course. Also, it is a 'fizzy' cider and we asked for two small glasses with ice cubes and again no eye roll from the bartender. The cider was very tasty and hit the spot for both of us. Again, given the low alcohol content we are in no danger of staggering on our hike. We drank our cider outside under a patio umbrella at a wooden picnic table. We are also enjoying a bag of of salted peanuts we ordered at the bar. Goes great with the cider!

When we were walking along High Street and doing some window shopping Lana come across this butcher shop. She is keen on having an English pork pie for dinner. Fillet & Bone was our spot and Lana was in luck. We bought two Scotch Eggs and a Pork Pie for dinner tonight at home. I finally get my Scotch Egg fix!!!!

Pork Pie and other meat pies under glass. They also had some different flavours of Scotch Eggs. Lana really enjoying this place!

More meat pies Mum?

Yup, I had to take at least one picture of Chipping Camden's High Street given the fact it was constructed in the 12th Century. Wow, hard for a Canadian especially from the west coast to even consider a town/structures being that old. 

Lana's zoom photo of what I considered a pheasant. There were about 16 of them in the farmers field when I first entered and they scurried off into the bushes of course. For some reason this one is a real poser!

Some signage explaining the Cotswolds and it's geography.

An explanation of the Cotswold Way trail. We realize we really are seeing only a small portion of the trail on this trip. 

Screenshot of Garmin Connect data.

Another Garmin data output of our walk today. 

Garmin map of our walk today. 

Almost a perfect day for a long walk. While the breeze turned into a wind it was much appreciated as it cooled us down. Lana tired after lunch with the walk back to Broadway. There was still a fair amount of elevation gain and walking in the direct sun although she did use her "brolly" to shade herself. One of the good features of the walk was the hard packed soil and grass.

It was 14 kms to Broadway Tower from the very beginning. Once we got to Broadway Tower it was all downhill to the village of Broadway. Lana wanted to rest by the tower so I ventured down on my own and waited for her in town.

When I got to the Broadway Reformed United Church it was around 15:10 and I found a wooden bench in the shade. It was 16.09 kms from the beginning of our hike to the bench. The birds are singing and many other walkers/hikers passing by on their way to the town centre. One of my downhill kilometre pace was 11:02 minutes which is pretty fast over one kilometre and that included going through some kissing gates. Lana arrived about 17 minutes later and was completely beat. She said her "feet feel like lead".

The statistics for our walk/hike today:  16.90 kms   4 hours 14 minutes   355 metres elevation gain and about 26,000 steps

We decided to head straight for the Co-Op and buy some salad for our dinner at home tonight, a couple of more Cider and a newspaper. Lana eager to get home and simply veg on the couch. Another positive to the walk was neither of us got stung by the nettles. We are opening all our windows to get the breeze through our place to ensure it is cooled down for tonight. Sun is still shining at 17:50 and the pigeons are cooing. 

We ate our dinner at the Airbnb again. We picked up most of our meal in Chipping Campden and a salad at the Coop. Plus, we opened our Blackberry Sparkling Cider (with ice) to pair with our meal. The highlight of the meal for both of us was two Scotch Eggs. A Scotch Egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat coated in bread crumbs and either deep fried or baked. My first experience was in London and it was love at first sight. We vacuumed up our Scotch Eggs, Pork Pie and green salad. The cider was pretty good as well. Lana feeling much better now after her shower. 

Our dinner at home tonight. 

The boiled egg wrapped in goodness.

Another fine day in the Cotswolds. Weather has been pretty good tonight although the forecast for tomorrow is rain. Our place is cooled down. Over 27,000 steps recorded for today and 58 floors. This is our third last full day in Broadway as we are travelling to London on Thursday.