Photo’s are here or you can just click on the photograph above.

Leicestershire, Essex and Suffolk:

Our overnight flight from the USA arrived late morning into London Heathrow. Once showered, changed and breakfasted in the American Airlines First Class Flagship lounge, we set off north towards the Midlands to spend the night with Geoff’s dad and step-mother in Melton Mowbray. Stepping out of the rental car with its heated seats and toasty heated steering wheel into the early evening chill was a sudden and harsh reminder of exactly how bone-chillingly cold December can be in England. It was grey, gloomy and dark just after 3.30pm. Our breath was freezing as we exhaled and our extremities were turning blue. We stopped for dinner with family at Purple Garlic curry house in an attempt to warm our core body temperatures before they shut down altogether. Purple Garlic is not as good as SOI on the other side of town but OK as the first of 4 curries we would have in the following 2 weeks! After all, what is a trip back to England without frequent enjoyment of our national food! 😉

The following morning, fighting jet lag and the continued gloom overhead we set off to visit Geoff’s nan in Essex to take her for lunch at Parkers Garden Company cafe only to discover that mid-week before Christmas at this ordinarily obscure little garden centre in an obscure little town on the Essex coast is busier than Delhi during Holi Week . It took well over an hour to get seated which wasn’t great since Doreen is coming up on 97 years old and was tottering about on her walker waiting for sustenance 😉 … after finally getting seated, we had a lovely lunch as usual!

Sadly, my 90 year old mother took a fall the week before our arrival in England and had to have a hip replacement. The irony is that if she had wanted one for a dodgy hip 10 years ago she’d still be waiting for it now … but the less said about the woes of the British National Health Service the better! Hence, our next stop was Suffolk to meet my brother Paul and sister-in-law Katie and to visit my very unhappy mother with her new hip in Ipswich Hospital. Poor mum!

As usual we stayed at our favourite country pub hotel “The Angel Inn” at Stoke-by-Nayland which was pretty as a picture with fairy lights in the garden and a decorated tree by the log fire in the vaulted dining room. At the end of our second day visiting mum in hospital we joined my family for dinner at one of the top gastro pubs in the area, “The Sun Inn” in Dedham. The food is always exceptional and the atmosphere is great inside this 15th century coaching inn. The village is very old and very picturesque with a mix of black and white timbered Tudor buildings and cottages painted in Suffolk pink and oranges. It is small, quaint and one my favorite villages in the area. Lavenham is a very well-known Suffolk town close-by which made its fortune as one of the wealthiest wool towns in the region. Famous for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15th-century church, cosy tea shops and cafes and pristinely preserved half-timbered medieval cottages, it is unmissable … especially Lavenham Blue Vintage Tea Room which is exceptional! During our start and finish with my family in Suffolk we also stayed at The Red Lion in East Bergholt – lovely rooms – average food – we probably wouldn’t return.

The Cotswolds for Christmas:

And finally on to one of our bucket list trips: The Cotswolds at Christmas!!! This would be our first Christmas back in the motherland in 26 years and we were as excited as a couple of 5 year olds laying out a platter of mince pies and carrots at the bottom of the living room chimney for the impending arrival of Santa and Rudolf on Christmas Eve!

I had been tempted (bribed!) by Geoff to make this trip – not because it didn’t appeal but because November through February is the height of flu season in the motherland and almost everyone we know is struck down with something horribly contagious every winter. However, I was swayed by visions of snow dusting the golden limestone cottages and blanketing the rolling hills and fields in the Cotswolds. Naturally, it didn’t quite work out that way but we did have some spectacularly blue sky days periodically between the grim, cold, dark ones so it wasn’t a disaster despite the lack of snow which makes Christmas “Christmassy” when you live in year round sunshine in Florida (if there’s anyway on earth where Christmas is so thoroughly un-Christmassy it is definitely Florida😉).

The Cotswolds region covers a wide area spanning a number of counties. The largest counties are Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire but other Cotswolds villages are located in the counties of Wiltshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Before we arrived in our first destination we had to make an emergency side-trip for an unexpected wintery purchase from the closest big town – Stratford-upon-Avon.

Stratford-upon-Avon:

This famous tourist town is in Warwickshire in the West Midlands (rather than in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) . Almost as soon as we arrived in England we realized our hiking boots were not going to cut the mustard in the countryside in December. We had driven past miles and miles of open fields and farmland which were several feet thick with chunks of gloopy, sticky mud. if we were to get any outdoor exercise at all during this visit we needed to acquire some sturdy Barbour Wellington boots. There was no way we were going to risk having a hiking boot sucked clean off a foot in the cold, clammy mud. Thankfully Parkinsons Lifestyle (somewhere in the back streets of the town) had a large supply of wellies. We were tempted by the trendy, upmarket, handcrafted Le Chameau boots (the Jimmy Choo of winter essential countryside footwear in these parts) but if we managed to squeeze in 3 walks during our 10 days in the ‘wolds then it would equate to £200 per walk between us. Le Chameau boots are nice … but not that nice! Stratford is pleasant enough for a very popular tourist town courtesy of its most famous resident but, like the Le Chameaus … not that nice! William Shakespeare was born here, lived here and is buried here. If Shakespeare is your thing then go for it! There are beautiful examples of medieval Tudor architecture but because of the scale of the town there are plenty of ugly modern buildings in between. The town lies on the River Avon (frequently cited as another one of its appealing attractions) but in reality it was brown, muddy, filled with various junk & floating debris and it had burst its banks making everything around it brown and muddy too. Maybe it’s nicer in summer?!

And now to the Cotswolds …

Broadway:

Our first three nights were spent in my favorite hotel in my favorite village – the “Jewel of the Cotswolds” – the popular village of Broadway. “Abbots Grange Manor”, steps from the centre of the village, is small but perfectly formed. It is the oldest dwelling in Broadway and was built in the 14th century as a summer home and monastic retreat for the Abbots of Pershore. Subsequently, it became a village poorhouse. Later it fell into disrepair and became Tenements after the Reformation in the 16th to 19th centuries which is pretty hard to imagine given its current life as a beautiful 5* boutique hotel with four poster beds and immaculately maintained medieval architecture. It was dressed to the nines as expected for Christmas with a huge tree in the Great Room where we were served mince pies, Earl Grey tea and mulled wine every afternoon at 3pm in front of the log fire. The Great Room is one of the highlights of the manor with its vaulted ceiling, stone fireplace and period furniture. Breakfast is another highlight served in the oak-paneled dining room. We love it here!

Friends, Jeanette and Colin, came over to meet us and stay for a night at the hotel which was fun. It turns out that it’s their favorite English country manor house hotel too! We had booked dinner at the “Swan Inn”, a few minutes stroll from the hotel which is usually pretty good but pre-Christmas was absolutely dismal! The service was chaotic and the food was mediocre at best. Everybody and their wife and kids were spending the last weekend before Christmas strolling the High Street in Broadway because the decorated shop windows and the trees on the Green hung with twinkling lights are renowned to be some of the prettiest decorations in the Cotswolds during the festive season.

Geoff also caught up unexpectedly with an old friend from his work days in England (Mark) who stopped into The Swan for drinks with his family.

Snow or not, Broadway is a pretty perfect village for a 3 night pre-Christmas visit – especially since the sun shone in a cloudless sky during 2 of those days

A few miles outside of the village uphill on a steep winding road into the countryside lies Dormy House Hotel. The highlight of our culinary experience in Broadway was dinner at The Back Garden, the main restaurant at Dormy House Hotel. The hotel was wrapped up like a giant Christmas gift in a giant red ribbon and the trees out front were festooned with gold lights. There were Christmas trees in all of the various reception rooms and bars. It’s a very, very nice hotel which we might even look into for a long weekend next time we fancy a trip to the Cotswolds.

We had a booking at “Grill by James Martin” at “The Lygon Arms” but due to the current excruciatingly poor reviews we swapped it for a last minute booking at Broadway’s only curry house, “The Broadway Indian Restaurant”, which is neither the best curry house in England nor the worst but clearly far better than Grill! (as an aside, on our last evening in England as we headed back towards Heathrow Airport we discovered England’s best curry house! It’s only been open a few months but it’s the kind of upmarket place which uses blow torches and froth to make the final touches to each of their dishes – absolutely fantastic – Delhi Highway in Gerrards Cross).

Chipping Campden – Christmas week:

After 3 nights in “Abbots Grange Manor” in Broadway we checked in 10 minutes down the road into a typically tiny golden limestone Cotswolds cottage for a week in a typically tiny Cotswolds village – Weston-sub-Edge which is just outside of Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire. The cottage was positively Christmassy but the rooms were too small to swing a day-old kitten, the ceilings were so low that Geoff smashed his head every time he walked from the bedroom to the landing (no, he didn’t learn his lesson after the first or second time .. or even the fifth ) and if I wore my high heeled suede boots my head grazed the beams in the living room. It was cute … maybe too cute … 😀

Like all of the surrounding Cotswolds towns and villages, Chipping Campden made its money in the wool industry from the Middle Ages onwards. It is a small market town with a terraced High Street, quaint independent shops and an impressive Market Hall built in 1627 for the trade of butter, cheese and poultry. It is larger than Broadway and slightly less inundated with tourists. Strings of lights were festooned across the eaves and window frames of the shops and houses either side of the entire length of the High Street which was impressive in itself. There was a tree in the centre of the High Street next to the Market Hall and beautiful festive wreaths decorated every front door. The perfect place to spend Christmas!

We attended a Carol, Crib and Christingle Service at Chipping Campden’s St James’ Church at 4.30pm on Christmas Eve. It was dark as we arrived and we were all but the last people to grab seats in the pews. Soon after, it was standing room only. The whole event was suitably quaint and Christmassy with moments of light entertainment you don’t normally expect in a Church of England service. During the narration of the nativity story the local small children slated to play the somewhat critical roles of the Innkeeper, the Star of Bethlehem, one of the sheep, two of the angels and Mary’s donkey failed to turn up to perform their respective parts . As a result there was much improvisation on the part of the vicar and lots of giggling in the pews while other restless toddlers ran around causing chaos and clambering around on the stage.

Mary was a third of the age of Joseph, she was wearing what looked like her grandmother’s headscarf, a multicolored striped onesie and fluffy Ugg boots which I’m fairly sure were not fashion items back in the day. She looked mainly confused as her hubs for the event dragged her around the church by the hand. Once the nativity story had been throughly decimated the vicar handed out dozens of Christingle candles to the younger members of the congregation. For those who have never heard of Christingle (like us!) the vicar handed out oranges decorated with a red ribbon, a lighted candle in the centre and 4 cocktail sticks inserted at various angles and stuck with sweets. The Christingle procession culminated in countless overexcited toddlers circling the pews with open flames dripping hot wax on anyone who got in their way … what could possibly go wrong?!

For a couple of agnostic/atheists the service was surprisingly moving. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and to our astonishment we both remembered all of the carols and Christmas hymns from our childhood despite the fact neither of us have set foot in a church (barring the odd wedding and funeral) since we were about 10 years old … it must all be embedded in our DNA We blasted out slightly rusty but not appalling renditions of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “Away in a Manger” and “While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night” ending with a grand finale of “We Three Kings of Orient Are”. Shockingly, we could also remember 95% of The Lord’s Prayer which I definitely haven’t recited since my early years of High School. Well done us!!!

Since we hadn’t humiliated ourselves too much we felt we’d earned a couple of mulled wines and mince pies in the very popular local pub “The Eight Bells”, a 14th century historic gastro pub with open fires and stone slab floors. The atmosphere on Christmas Eve was buzzing and the tinsel was glittering. We returned with friends a couple of days later for dinner which was very good but on Christmas Eve we headed for a curry at “The Maharaja” at the back of “The Volunteer Inn” which looked like a working men’s club but served great curries.

Christmas Day arrived to a biting north wind, bright sunshine and blue skies (one of only 4 such days during our 2 week trip). We had a few hours before lunch so we drove a few minutes to the tiny village of Bretforten (on the edge of the Cotswolds in Worcestershire) where “The Fleece Inn” was hosting a Christmas morning Silver and Brass Band which played rousing carols and Christmas tunes at varying levels of competence. It was great fun as we sipped complimentary mulled wine & ate mince pies to keep warm.

Bretforten is known for its renowned National Trust pub “The Fleece Inn” which was built in the early 15th century and remained in the ownership of the same family until 1977 (which is remarkable). The last of the family descendants bequeathed the pub to the National Trust. We stopped in for lunch one day. The food could have been better if I’m honest but neither of us could remember setting foot inside any pub quite so authentically historic or atmospheric. As we sat wedged in by the roaring open fire it was easy to envisage that the place has been largely untouched by the 20th century let alone the 21st or perhaps any intervening century since the 15th!

“The Kings Arms” in Mickleton, by contrast, served excellent food for its Christmas lunch. We were welcomed by the landlady who was very cheery and swayed from side to side as she weaved through the revelers to our table by the open log fire. As each course was delivered she was a little more rosy-cheeked and little more giggly as she made her way through the mulled wine. As she became more boss-eyed the service became more erratic and amusing. We were distracted by the table next to us. There was much confusion surrounding the delivery of their appetizers – some arrived successfully and others were lost entirely somewhere en route from the kitchen. Then we spotted the landlady with 2 heavily-laden plated Christmas lunches tottering towards us. We held our breath in unison as she staggered roiling between the other tables like she was serving food on a sinking ship in violently choppy seas. As she approached the gap between our table and our neighbors’ table the 2 plates were tilting further and further towards the ground. We watched in slow motion before any of us could react to avert impending disaster as gravity finally took over and a jug fell off the plate spraying gravy and meat juices all over the floor around our feet. It was dripping down the edge of our table, barely missed my priceless suede boots and narrowly missed splattering over our neighbor’s favorite Christmas jumper. She leaned in close to our faces as if she wasn’t quite sure what she was focussing on and giggled an apology like a naughty school child while we all dealt with the immediate aftermath. She returned a few minutes later with some paper towel and, backing dangerously close to the open fire, she proceeded to smear the congealing gravy liberally over a wider area before swaying away again back to the bar. Obviously everyone took it in good Christmas spirit … dinner and a floor show for the princely all-inclusive sum of £90 per head! What more could you ask for on Christmas Day?!

Old friends Barrie & Karen came to visit us at our tiny rental cottage for a couple of days in Weston-sub-Edge. To celebrate a birthday (and to tick another one off the Christmas in England bucket list) we went to the brilliantly produced riotously raucous “adults only” pantomime performance of Sleeping Beauty at Chipping Campden’s Cidermill Theatre which is highly recommended if you’re in the area (they’re doing an adults only version of Cinderella over Christmas in 2026).

A couple of minutes outside town lies Dovers Hill which is a great place for a breezy walk with expansive views over the surrounding countryside. We parked up at the National Trust car park at the hill and walked the circuit on Boxing Day morning to blow the cobwebs out of our ears. It was sunny, bright and cold. We returned with our friends a couple of days later when it was grey, gloomy and even colder! It was lovely to catch the morning light on bright red hawthorn berries and golden grasses on the hillside. You miss so much wildlife when you walk in summer because of the thick undergrowth but when the trees are denuded in winter and ground cover is less prevalent you spot so many more winter birds. Brightly colored pheasants darted in and out of the scrub at ground level and red-breasted robins picked at winter berries. Lovely!

Bourton-on-the-Water:

Bourton village is probably the most famous and the most heavily tourist-frequented of all of the villages. It is also by far the most disappointing, unauthentic and utterly overrun. I used to come here with my parents 50 odd years ago. It has always been popular but back then it still retained some of its original charm. During a somewhat circuitous drive on Christmas Eve to pick up last minute supplies from Daylesford Organic Farm, we stopped to see the famous floating Christmas tree set in the River Windrush in the centre of Bourton village. Even on a freezing, overcast, gloomy day it was busy. In my humble opinion this is the most missable village in the region.

Daylesford Organic Farm:

This place is upscale luxury country living for the very well-heeled – a kind of Harrods in the countryside for foodies. It has a famous spa, a fabulous food hall with organic produce and homemade treats, and there is a restaurant and cookery school. The ambience is rather lovely and the prices are eye-watering. It’s certainly worth an excursion if bumping into David Beckham over the fennel bulbs appeals 😉 We stopped in on Christmas Eve to pick up supplies. No sign of David anywhere … Disappointed toddlers were red-faced and screaming at their harried parents. Judging by the furore, their Christmases were in tatters. If you’re a parent with a young child desperate to meet Santa then turning up on Christmas Eve at one of the most popular destination stores in the Cotswolds and expecting him to have a free slot available in his busy schedule to see your nipper isn’t the best plan. Santa was booked out all day until closing … and then presumably all night doing his logistically impossible round-the-world travels on his sleigh with Rudolf, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Blitzen, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and Donner 😉

Burford:

This is the famous town on the hill in West Oxfordshire – the “Gateway” town to the Cotswolds. It lies on the River Windrush – or – in the River Windrush depending upon how high the floodwaters are rising. The entire public car parking lot at the bottom of the hill was a fast-flowing extension of the river when we visited which made pre-Christmas parking quite challenging! The three-arched medieval bridge at the boot of the hill was not far from being submerged itself. The best views of the town are from the top of the High Street on Burford Hill which is largely residential and has a bucolic vista over the surrounding hills in the distance. There is a beautiful blend of Georgian town houses in the town together with stone cottages, boutique stores, black and white half-timbered buildings; the Church of St John The Baptist dates back to 1175 and there are the usual plethora of historic pubs. Burford is one of the most picturesque villages in the region.

Snowshill:

Only 5 minutes drive from Broadway is the tiny village of Snowshill in Gloucestershire comprising little more than a well-photographed group of cottages sweeping uphill, a village pub and the old stone church of St Barnabus which found fame as a filming location for winter scenes in the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary. There are great walks from here but not so great in knee-deep mud and freezing wind 😉

Stow-on-the-Wold:

This popular Gloucestershire former wool-town is know for its central Market Square which has hosted markets since 1107. Golden stone 16th century buildings now house cute cafes, tea shops and historic pubs such as the 500 year old “Kings Arms”. One of its well-known pubs is “The Porch House” on Digbeth Street which is absolutely stunning. It is reputed to be one of the oldest pubs in England with a somewhat chequered history with parts of it carbon-dated back to 947AD. We met Geoff’s Aunt Val there for lunch on Boxing Day but the food was inconsistent, average and not to be particularly recommended. Stow is elevated on an 800 foot hill on the Roman Fosse Way and lies at a strategic intersection in the Cotswolds. Again, a must-visit town in the area. St Edward’s Church is an instagram-famous spot – the current building is 11th century onwards through the Victorian era and its most popular photo location is the Yew Tree Door – a nail-studded heavy wooden door flanked by the gnarled trunks of ancient oak trees which is rumored to have inspired Tolkien’s Doors of Durin in the Lord of the Rings!

Overall, the trip was as perfectly perfect as you’d expect of Christmas in the ‘Wolds! Our first festive season back in the motherland in nearly 3 decades was wonderful for all of the right Christmassy reasons!

Country walks, lunches and dinners with friends and family in atmospheric historic pubs with open log fires draped in huge Christmas wreaths, Christmas trees with twinkling lights, Christmas pudding and brandy custard, warm mince pies and mulled wine, and devouring boxes of chocolates in front of silly Christmas movies We really enjoyed all of our typically English Christmassy traditions.

OK – the weather was chilly and wintery … but then again if it’s not freezing cold and blowing a gale outside it’s not really Christmas!!