DAY TWO – Hampton Court and the Drive to Chipping Campden

With the Renault debacle behind us, we looked forward to a good day two in the UK.  The weather so far is cooperating fully.  The week before we arrived was warm and rain, rain, and more rain.  For us yesterday was beautiful, weather-wise, that is, and today turned out just as good.

We checked out of the Oakwood House B&B in West Drayton after a nice breakfast and a chat with the owners, an interesting couple, and two guests from Australia.  We did indeed head back to Hampton Court Palace, about 30 minutes away.  Aside from a normal traffic glitch for some construction, we arrived at the Palace at 9:45 AM, just 15 minutes from the opening time.  Got a prime space, and we were among the first to enter the grounds.

We visited here way back in mid 1980’s before the devastating fire in the William III apartments in 1986.  That is long forgotten as the Queen reopened the site in 1992.  Hampton Court Palace – you history buffs think Edward VIII, William III, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, et al.  If you are up on your BBC history shows, it will all sound familiar.  The apartments are very nice; the gardens are beautiful and in full bloom.  All-in-all, well worth the revisit.  We concluded the visit at about noon with cups of hot chocolate and a shared piece of Elizabeth cake in the café (that sufficed as lunch), and then it was back to Vic, the Volvo, for the ride to Chipping Campden.

The ride was just over two hours made slightly longer by motorway construction around Oxford.  Chipping Campden is a lovely town, and our cottage, Campden Mews, is dead in the center on the High Street (Britain’s answer to Main Street) but behind a gate and surrounded by stone walls, shrubs, and trees.  One minute to the bustling street but a sea of tranquility.  Our house, Campden Mews, is beautiful.  Full kitchen (but with a small fridge), dining area, and a large sitting room with TV on the ground floor and two large bedrooms with en suite baths on the second plus a delightfully secluded yard.  We had drinks in the yard – it was cool but sunny and very nice in the sun.

On the way to Chipping Campden, henceforce to be referred to as Campden, we had stopped off in Stow-on-the-Wold to visit their Tesco Superstore. We stocked up on water, cranberry juice, vodka, wine, and household essentials including some Spanish chicken with roasted potatoes for tonight’s dinner.

Today’s issues were two:  figuring out how to operate the gas stove and oven, and, more ominously, dealing with an electrical outage that happened soon after we arrived.  Shoshana, the landlord, dispatched her husband James to deal with the electricals, but I had figured how to reset the circuits before he even arrived.  The wi-fi is excellent!

Dinner and wine was great, and it was nice not having to deal with a restaurant meal on our first night in Campden.  The king-size bed is comfortable, and a good night’s sleep was had by all.  It is now Sunday morning and the weather looks excellent once again.  We will probably visit a famous nearby garden and a quirky air museum near here today, but more on all that tomorrow.

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