Trip to Cotswolds

St John Baptist Church - Landmark of Cirencester

Nine of us made an unplanned trip to Cotswolds on the Bank Holiday. Initially it was to rent a car and help few of us move our stuff out of college before we get booted out. Then it transformed into a holiday plan. We had an additional car rented as a result of this. Moving stuff became a secondary reason. In fact, it was only done on the last day.

Cirencester Park stretches beyond the eyes can see!

It was also one of our mates birthday so we have planned for a BBQ at a park. Our first stop was Cirencester. We didn't know which park to pick upon arrival. You know, there're parks everywhere in the UK! We decided on Cirencester Park after spotting the largest green patch on the tourist map. What meant to be a BBQ at first evolved into a picnic because the park was privately owned. No BBQ and "picnic parties" (whatever that means) were displayed at the entrance of the park. Anyhow, I didn't think it made any difference without a BBQ because the picnic spread was good enough.

Huge crowd at Bourton-on-the-Water

We moved on to Bourton-on-the-Water. This was a pretty place! Because of the weather, the place was extremely crowded too. It was strange. The tagline of this place was "Venice of the Cotswolds". My first reaction was, "Why on earth does this place want to be the Venice? Why can't it be itself?! Where's the originality then?" In fact, this place can't be the Venice! The depth of the river was slightly more than a feet! After some of us went down to the river (River Windrush) to soak their feet, we went off walking down the river before heading back to our cars. We spent about an hour or less at Bourton-on-the-Water before we went to Stow, our third and final stop.

Glorious evening sun at Stow

Martha prepared a birthday cake for Phuong since it's her birthday. Owen, who was my co-pilot was down with a severe headache from the unusual hot and dry weather. He was dehydrated but recovered soon after Stow.

Minh and her historical first BBQ in life

We went back at 6pm and continued the night with a BBQ at Martha's. Apparently, it was Minh's (Phuong's younger sister) first BBQ experience in her life! I am glad we had the BBQ in the end.