10 days in my World of Away

One of the podcasts I listened to while getting ready for my sabbatical is “World of Away in 365 Days – A podcast to help design a career break and get out the door”, which you can find on Spotify:

I am pretty sure it was from this podcast that I got this interesting tip: even if a career break does not involve big travels around the world – like in my case, as I plan to mainly remain in London – it’s good to start it with a trip. Spending a few days away from home is a perfect way to signal to yourself that there’s a cut, that you should take a breath, that a brand new phase is starting.

And who am I to disobey the suggestion for a trip? On Saturday 15th of September, the morning after my last day at work, my husband and I woke up around 5am to spend the weekend in the Cotswolds. And so began my “World of Away”.

We’ve been living in the UK for almost 10 years now, but it was the first time for us visiting this “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” a few hours away from London.

We took our train from Paddington towards Moreton-in-Marsh. From there, we walked for about 18km to Bourton-on-the-Water, where we spent two nights at Halford House, a delightful adults-only guest house, in a Grade 2 Listed Georgian townhouse.

The weather was perfect for a walk in the English countryside on the first day, but on Sunday we only managed to take a short stroll in the morning, visit the famous Bourton-on-the-Water model village and get back home just as it started pouring. Indeed, that was once again the perfect weather… to curl up on the sumptuous armchairs in Halford House’s lounge, and enjoy the company of the adorable local kitty. On Monday, we walked again 15km or so, to Kingham, where we caught our train back to London. Something like this, if you’re interested in a similar hike: https://www.britishwalks.org/walks/2018/1020.php

A few outstanding culinary highlights:

• Bakery On the Water, Bourton-on-the-Water – we had breakfast here twice and bought Cornish pasties for lunch on our last day. All the pastries and hot drinks were excellent!
• The Chip Shed, Bourton-on-the-Water – we had fish and chips here on Sunday. Not sure where the 4.1 review average comes from. I think this place deserves more! Good quality ingredients, great services, they even offered us extra chips for free!
• The Wild Rabbit, Kingham – a cozy pub where we had a beer by the fireplace on Monday, while waiting for our train. Really welcoming place, if it had not been for the plumber who was repairing the radiators and hoovering debris right next to us…

Overall I enjoyed the Cotswold villages, they are definitely cute, but I didn’t expect them to be SO DAMN POSH! Most of the houses look perfect, even a little “too perfect”, as if they’ve all been newly refurbished, which doesn’t make them look really authentic to me. Not to mention some disgustingly luxurious mansions that definitely gave off “don’t even get close or I unleash the guard dogs” vibes.

Hikers were also very few and far between; most people just visited villages and moved around by car, which I think is a pity.

As for me, I’m going to keep walking and hiking as long as I can, during this sabbatical and beyond. Those pastries and fish and chips aren’t going to burn themselves.