We were staying just a couple miles down the road from The Farmer’s Dog, so we got up and going one morning to zip over there for some overall pretty amazing Bacon Baps and Sausage Rolls. This was our contribution to the Jeremy Clarkson economy that seems to run the area.
We then rented this little boat for the day to cruise along the Thames and take in a bit of the Cotswald countryside. As the teenager was showing me around the boat he explained to me, “I don’t know if you know much about boats but when you turn the wheel it takes a little while for it to turn. And it won’t turn if you are in neutral.” I nodded my head as if learning this for the first time and looked over at the rest of my smirking family.
When we got to the first lock, however, we weren’t smirking any more. We were reading the directions and couldn’t for the life of us figure out what they meant. We were very happy when the lock master came strolling out of his house.
A WWII pillbox along the river. Fortunately, these were never needed. Imagine being dropped off in there with a machine gun and told to take care of any Germans that might come along?
Grammy had been using a cheap pair of binoculars to get a better view of things. They worked, but were lacking a bit of class. So when Ali and I were walking around a market in Brighton Beach the other day and spotted these late-1800s Finnigans opera glasses we couldn’t resist. We knew she would love them, but we were still caught off-guard when we gave them to her and she immediately began sobbing. I’m not sure gift giving would be considered a strong point of mine, but this one nailed it.
We had a great afternoon. What a fun way to spend a perfect summer day. Boats are electric and simple (5mph limit) and stopping is as easy as pushing the boat into the bank, pounding a stake into the dirt and tying off.
Burford is a beautiful 1,000-ish year-old town that is pretty much exactly what you picture when you think of England.
Architectural patina abounds.
Ali and I were enjoying a pint out on the sidewalk at The Cotswold Arms—a 500 year-old pub, in a 1,000 year-old town—when an almost 60 year-old Ferrari Daytona rolled up. It’s not every day you get to see a work of art like this out in the wild. The owner went in and grabbed a pint himself, then came outside to keep an eye on it. I told him it was nice to see it out on the road and he said these old cars need to stretch their legs every now and then. Agreed.
