Day 1: Fancy a Seat in Stinging Nettles, Love?

Views from atop Dover Hill

Kipscote Gardens....Beautiful!!!!!!!

Nan 'freewheeling'

Mort's homecoming

One of 1,000's of pretty houses!!!!

On Saturday morning (June 28) we hopped on the train at Paddington Station and headed to the Cotswolds, a hilly region in Southwest England (similar to the scenery in the movie 'Babe'). When we arrived at the train station in Moreton-in-Marsh, we were collected by our host, Julia Jones, and whisked away to her farm near Chipping Campden. Julia oufitted us with maps, Dawes touring bicycles, and helmets. Then Team Llewellyn was off! 3 days and 90 some miles ahead of us, cycling from little village to little village.

Note: this blog title is related to something that occured not 7 minutes after we set off on our bikes. It's hard to capture the details of 'The Incident' (as we've named it) in a blog, so next time you see Laura you'll have to ask her to give you a play-by-play. The short version is this: Laura had to go to the bathroom, we THOUGHT we were on a path small enough for just bicycles, Laura squatted by the side of the road, a car came by, and in a mad scramble to finish her business and pull up her pants, she ended up falling in a pile of stinging nettles. All this resulted in her blowing up like a puffball for at least an hour. Not a good start, but it was the worst thing that happened to us that day. And Nan was laughing so hard she had to get off her bike so she didn't tip over and likewise end up covered in stinging nettles.

Day 1: We got a big dose of quaint, charming English villages. We stopped off at little pubs along the way and would cool off with a beer. We concluded the last leg of that day's bike ride with a delicious dinner and some beer at a little restaurant in Ebrington. Then we cycled the last few miles, up a BIG hill on full stomaches, back to Chipping Camden. It was an incredible day, and we were exhausted.