The Cotswolds - Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th January

Photos from the Cathedral In the gardens The cloisters - they shot the beginning scenes of Harry Potter here St Nicholas church - Norman dated with a leaning spire. Folk museum that houses an 18th century pin factory - it was closed so we couldn't go in!

St Oswald's Priory remains founded in 909. The ruin has been in it's present state since the 1643 bombardment. St Mary's Gateway - the western entrance into the St Peter's Abbey precinct. The houses on either side are on the line of the precinct wall.

View from Hatton Court

Hatton Court - where we stayed

This weekend Josh and I headed out for a relaxing holiday in the Cotswolds, only things did not quite work out as planned. We picked the car up from City Airport at 10am and after driving around London for an hour and realizing we were lost we went back to the airport and hired a GPS system. Eventually by about 11.30 we were on the road. We drove for about 3 hours down to a lovely motel – Hatton Court Motel – check it out on the website! We were both exhausted and had a lovely traditional English dinner in an elegant dining room with excellent service and finished the night off with a nice warm bath. The following day we got up to a cooked breakfast, in the kitchen dining room again totally impeccable! We headed down to Gloucester to have a look around the town. When we got out the car we realized that the central locking of the rental car did not work, so we spent the next 2 hours waiting whilst the AA fixed the car. Finally by mid-day we did some sightseeing. We took a guided tour around Gloucester Cathedral. It was beautiful. We had a personalized guided tour around the crypt, cloisters, nave, ambulatory, Lady Chapel and saw King Edward II’s tomb. The cathedral was built in 1089. It was originally a Benedictine monastery but by 1540 King Edward VIII abolished the monasteries. But because the King Edward was buried here it was turned into a cathedral. Looking around was excellent. We then did a walk around all the old historic buildings in Gloucester, it was really beautiful. By 3pm we left the town drove back. By the time we arrived back home we were totally exhausted! But Gloucester was beautiful!