Bath to Beeley with Accidentally Cultured

Bath in a Flash

After the big flight from Sydney, we arrived in London at 7 am, hired a car and headed to Bath. Our visit to Bath was very brief and we left for Beeley around 3 pm.

Off to Bealy

Despite the pleasure of google maps blue dot on the iPhone I was longing for a paper map. Even more so as the phone’s charge began to plummet towards 5%. AC was nervously twitching in his seat and constantly erupting into various types of rages and fiddling with everything on the dashboard and console.

“Where is it?  Where is the f…g thing?  Have you taken my shit again?”

I discovered that this meant he wanted my phone charger.  So, using my extender arm I reached around behind my seat and retrieved my phone charger from the ‘shit’ on the back seat.

God bless Technology!  And my phone charger!  With less than 3% of charge left, the dear little cord plugged into a hole in the console, and Voila! We were headed towards his favourite place,

“One hundred per cent!”

All the while we were driving through very pretty little Cotswold’s villages, like this one.

image1

There were very long dry stone walls with gate houses lining the roads. And the glimpses of the roof turrets of the manors snuggled into the extensive grounds looked very inviting. The whole scene was framed by rolling hills, and hedges glowing with autumn foliage. Then, I saw a sign announcing ‘Reindeer Crossing’.  A little confused I wondered if Christmas was coming a little early.

Revisiting Cirencester

AC loves the comfort of repetition.  He was very excited to see Cirencester again and nearly killed us looking for the bed and breakfast we once stayed in.

image2

Revisiting Bourton-on-the-Water

Bourton-on-the-Water is without doubt one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds.  So naturally we stopped for a bite to eat. And of course, to reminisce about a holiday we had there with the children.  Then, we had a frantic search for the bed and breakfast we once stayed in. And, on our way again!

image3

Driving through the Cotswold’s

There were still many hours of driving ahead of us. So back to the blue dot, and driving past Cotswold villages with delightfully quaint names like Stow-on-the Wold, Upper Swell, Upper Slaughter, Chipping Norton, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stretton-on-Fesse. Delightfully, the thatched cottages, dry stone walls, old pubs, cottage gardens are the order of the day in these places.

Accidentally Cultured’s Birthplace

I was a little sad we could not stop at Warwick Castle.This is the place where Accidentally Cultured originated. The home of the Neville’s! Complete with Neville crest!  His accidentally remarkable resemblance to the wax model, of Sir Richard Neville amazes us, not to mention the cultural delusion of being linked to the Neville’s of Warwick Castle.

image4

Beeley at Last

Well after sunset, the blue dot, dubiously led us down a very narrow winding lane encased in hedges. Then suddenly AC screeched at me,

“Why aren’t you taking a f…g photo?”

I had been obeying strict orders all day not to take my eyes off the blue dot, as well as,

“Did you get that one?”

which means he wanted something photographed from the car.

Not to mention,

“Did you write that down?”

Gratefully, the blue dot indicated that we were approaching our final destination. Then, all of a sudden, an enormous yellow moon, lit up a flock of sheep straggling across the road in front of us.  Fearing for my life, a photograph was the last thing on my mind.

The Beeley Devonshire Arms

The Beeley Devonshire Arms did appear around the next bend. And after the extremely long flight from Sydney, the visit to Bath, and the drive to Derbyshire, I was having hallucinations about being in the horizontal plane.

It seems to be a peculiar trait of the English and the French to regard the bath tub as a luxury item.  But I thought the bath tub in our room was taking it a little too far. This is because, upon entering our room, there was a very large bath tub situated between the door and the bed.

AC kindly offered to go first, and then go have a beer, so I could sit in the tub in private.

image5

However, another strange feature of these rooms is the enormous keys holes.  I am not at all sure that I did have a bath in private.  I later discovered that the key hole gave quite a clear view of everything in the room.  Obviously the bath was positioned by a Peeping Tom.

The English breakfast was the best feature of this quaint little pub, with its tiny doorways and typical English style bar.  All he had to say about it was,

“Come on, take the f…g photo.”

image6

AC is looking much happier with himself having survived the first day of our adventures. He was also thrilled at squeezing the luggage into the hated little Mercedes Benz.  Here he is giving himself a pat on the back!

image7

Facebooktwitterlinkedininstagram

One thought on “Bath to Beeley with Accidentally Cultured

Add yours

Leave a Reply to Paul Cancel reply