Wednesday, February 28th. The Cotswolds. We got up later than yesterday. After a quick shower and a healthy breakfast, we were out the door. This time, Sean went to heat up the car while I got Arthur ready. That way, by the time Arthur and I got to the car, it would already be warm.
We left the house at 9:45 and headed towards Bourton-on-the-water. Arthur once again fell asleep on the way there.
Through his antics, we’ve learned that Arthur got hungry more often. Probably because of the cold. And in order to make him feel comfortable, we should feed him and change him every 1.5 to 2 hours. When he would cry, it wasn’t because he was cold (or hot in the car). It was because he was hungry and/or needed to be changed. This was good for us to know because it was basically like how he was in Singapore.
Unfortunately, we had to learn this the hard way. He cried and cried and cried once we arrived in Bourton-on-the-water. I got him out of his car seat to change his diaper and took him outside to put him in the stroller. He was unhappy. I should have fed him first. But by the time I got him back into the car, he was already crying really hard. So I had to soothe him first and then I was able to feed him. He was much more pleasant afterwards. But I could tell he was tired and wanted to sleep. So when I placed him back in the car seat, he started to squirm and protest again. I rocked the car seat back and forth to get him to quiet down a bit and then Sean took the car seat outside and placed it in the stroller. Sean then pushed the car seat around so that he could fall asleep. We had to endure about a minute of his soft cries before he fell asleep. Afterwards, we were able to walk around the town and visited some shops.
It was quite a pleasant walk. It was -2 degrees and the wind was biting, but at least the sun was out.
Throughout the walk, Arthur was asleep. The cold didn’t seem to bother him.
Before we left Bourton-on-the-Water, we once again changed and fed Arthur. For the next two hours, we drove around the various villages around the area. We followed Cotswolds Romantic Road route I found online. We did the route clockwise.
We tried to take pictures of the scenery but pictures couldn’t do justice to what we witnessed. The vast open space was calming to the heart. It just felt great to be out in the open.
Sometimes, the weather would be quite funky. The sun would be out for a couple of minutes and then it would start snowing for a while.
https://videos.files.wordpress.com/XpSUx2UX/img_2383.movWhen we got to Broadway, we fed and changed Arthur and placed him in the stroller. He fell back asleep. I thought he would wake up while we walked around the main street, but he didn’t. So we decided to stop for lunch at Number 32. Lovely decor and tasty food. Sean had a burger and I had a risotto.
After lunch, we continued to walk around.
Note in the photo above how some snow piled up on the right side of the street but not on the left side. This was because it started snowing when we had lunch but the sun came out to melt the snow. However, the right side of the street were shaded by the building.
After some time, we decided to continue our journey.
When we got to Snowshill, the snow has started to pick up a bit more. The scenery started to match the name of the village.
I started video recording our drive again when we encountered, literally, a slippery slope. Sean decided to reverse and turned around to go a different way. Our car is not a 4×4 and it doesn’t have snow tires. We were super careful about the drive.
Thankfully, we got out of the village all right. When we got to Stow-on-the-Wold, it started to snow a whole lot more. Instead of walking around the town, we decided to head home just to be safe.
I’m glad we made that decision. The drive back was smooth but it got us worry a bit. Visibility was starting to be a problem and we were worried that the roads would be icy.
Sean was a trooper. He drove us home safely and we were back in our super comfortable and warm Airbnb around 5:15pm.
For dinner, we decided to do a Deliveroo.
We gave Arthur a bath around 6:30 and put him to sleep right after that.
By 8pm, I was exhausted.
Tomorrow, we plan to head to Oxford. Hope the weather will be agreeable.
two backpacks and a diaper bag 