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Back & Garden of Harrington House
A full night’s sleep, what a luxury. Feeling so much more human now.
Downstairs in time for 7:45am breakfast and delighted to find homemade Greek yogurt, free range eggs and homemade marmalade. The food is really plentiful and very tasty.
The easy walk, which several of us have chosen, leaves at 10:00am, with Dave in the lead and I have offered my service as ‘back marker’ (sweep). So nice to relax and let someone else worry about the trail and direction, although I was accused of abandoning my duties once and galloping up front – oops. Not to worry, Dave was at the back so all was good.
The walk was relatively easy and meandering, with minimal elevation. We went through many a field gate, a few stiles and saw countless sheep and horses. Our first stop was a village named Lower Slaughter. The word Slaughter refers to muddy, or boggy, so in actual fact it is Lower Muddy Bog or something similar.
The River Windrush was, at one time, the site of many woollen mills. The one in Lower Slaughter is now a quaint shop with a cute little tea house in the back serving freshly baked goodies and organic ice cream. Here we sit for awhile with a good cup of hot tea and nice conversation with the other walkers.
Off we go up to Upper Slaughter and the village’s church. Here we use the benches outside to sit while we have our yummy packed picnic lunch. A few hours later we arrive back in Bourton, a nice relaxing walk.
Some of us expected tea again at 4:00pm and went down to the lobby only to be told, tea is only served on arrival day, darn. Margie pipes up – why don’t we head to the pub instead. Now that’s a great idea!
The Duke of Wellington pub, built in the 1700s, was once a coach house with stables and is likely the oldest pub in this area. A glass of wine was very reasonable and so we all ordered one. Now if only if could manage to keep my hands down and keep the wine in the glass rather than on the table, it would be a good thing. This brought on gales of laughter from the ladies, as my expressive hand movement doesn’t bode will with drinking wine (ah well, keeps me from consuming too much 😄😄). This is becoming quite a theme, as I knocked over my glass last night and managed to spill some on Gillian, one of the walking guides. She has been giving me a hard time ever since.
Drinks consumed, we head back to Harrington House to join the rest of the group for pre dinner drinks and socialize. One of the fellows in our hiking group, ordered a beer, turned to us and, not missing a beat, asked our room number to charge his beer to. We all had a good chuckle and introduced ourselves. He said he goes by ‘Extra Grotty Alan’ – hmmmmm sounds suspect, but he seemed very likeable. Janet joined us and during the conversation of our respective days declared she could have ‘murdered a cup of tea’ (or dying for a cup of tea) during their walk. Apparently we had more leisure time than her group did.
Cozy Bar at Harrington House
Tomorrow’s walks explained, we were summoned to the dining room for dinner. The food is very good and plentiful, so I was very happy I ordered the half portion! We sat with new ladies tonight and conversation throughout the room was very lively.
Each evening we need to choose our sandwich for the next day’s picnic lunch and the meal for the next evening’s dinner. As each person came out of the dining room, full from dinner, we all waited in line to choose tomorrow’s dinner – hilarious!!
Now to choose tomorrow’s hike……….
Interesting quotes
‘Sept 5, 1897 on this spot, nothing happened’