Anyone that knows me will tell you I’m a very ‘urban’ kind of gal. After growing up in London, I then spent a year in Berlin, before moving to San Francisco. In my thirties, I migrated to Manhattan, then back to London then finally put down some roots in Tel Aviv.
lucky for me that I've always lived in cities, since I still haven’t got round to learning to drive!
Whilst I’ve travelled extensively on solo trips (Latin America, Southern and Eastern Africa, three trips round India and a long journey through South East Asia) I’ve always used public transport, or hitched (this was essential in Namibia, I remember - and I was rather successful in my attempts).
When I visit England, it’s not that usual for me to travel outside London, unless I’m taking a train to Oxford, or a big northern city like Manchester. Once there, I walk the streets, use public transport or grab a cab. So it seems rather out of character for me to head off to the English countywide.
But indeed I am taking a holiday there. To be more precise, I’m house sitting for a charming couple who are leaving me in charge of their three cats and four chickens! I’ll be staying in a 17th century cottage with timber beams, old floors, tiny doors and lots of character. Who could pass up an opportunity like this?
I’ve been in the Cotswolds before - years ago - but then I travelled with a friend, and she had a car (and a licence!) Now, solo, how will I survive in the English countryside for 9 days, without a motor vehicle? Can it actually be done? That is the question.
Journeying there from London isn’t even that difficult - I book a train ticket from Marylebone station to Stratford-upon-Avon - Trainline informs me that I have to change platforms (20 minute layover) but I’m not carrying much luggage so that’s fine. And, just as I suspect, it’s super easy - I don’t even need a paper ticket any more (I download my ticket as a PDF file on my phone and hold it against the barrier). Ta da!
The journey itself is more fun than I expected - my plan was to read and even do some writing but fate has other plans. Thirty young women are sitting in my carriage and it transpires they’re all medical students at King’s College, London, off on an adventure weekend, staying at a youth hostel near sx. It’s not just fun but quite inspiring to listen to their individual histories, and how they all decided to train as physicians. Girl Power!
It is! The bus is a little late (due to heavy traffic) but there are plenty of seats, and soon we’re speeding through country lanes, whizzing past greenery, huge fields and farmhouses and tiny villages.
Arriving in Stratford, it’s pouring with rain and rather chilly so I decide to head straight to my home base - Shipston-on-Stour, which is in the north of the Cotswolds.
As luck would have it, there’s a direct bus line that runs every hour at this time of the afternoon and it’s just a sort walk from the train station.
For the competitive price of £2, I’ll be dropped in the ‘centre’ of my village (not 3 minutes walk from my cottage).
Can it really be this simple?
Thirty five minutes later I’ve arrived. I don’t even check Google Maps - just ask a local where ‘Sheep Street’ is. Time to see what an olde English cottage actually looks like…