**I hope you know that if you click on images you should see them better!

We woke and had in-room coffee before packing our bags to get downstairs for the 8:30 required time. (Not that they ever pick them up right then, but they say 8:30 so I will not be late!) One annoying thing yours truly did was, as I was attempting to pull my adapter out of the wall socket thinking to myself, “You are forcing it and it’s going to break!” I broke it. Stupid me, but there you go.

Oh … and yesterday we saw a sign outside that announced a Motor Show. Or so I thought. This morning when I looked outside I realized it read “Moron Show”. Well, because I’m such a genius, when Dan laughed and said someone had changed it I said, “Oh. I just thought maybe there was a car called Moron.” Okay. Really, I did say that. And yes, Dan could hardly stop laughing. Since my goal in life is to make people laugh I guess I can say I’ve had a successful day.

We went downstairs, met up with Jan and Greg, and headed to the breakfast area. It was another lovely meal. I had eggs Florentine, and the others had equally delightful plates of food.

From there we went back upstairs so Dan and I could vote.

Yep. Vote.

Because we would be out of the country when ballots would be mailed we requested the overseas ballots and they had been sent to Greg and Jan’s. Greg delivered the morning after we first met up, but this morning was the first time we were really ready to fill things out. Then I walked them over to the post office, where it was £7 and change to get them sent. Now we just hope they arrive in time! (Only after we signed up to have these ballots mailed did we then get an email saying we could have actually printed ballots early at home and sent them. I sure wish we’d known about that earlier!)

We dropped by a store so Greg could get a hat (a nice Tilley), and soon it was back to our rooms to get our daypacks and start our walk.

The beginning of the walk took place on the road, and passed by a cemetery.

Soon we crossed the busy street and were on the path, which is much nicer to walk. It had sprinkled last night, but thankfully it wasn’t at all muddy. Unfortunately it was a bit muggy (and became muggier as the day progressed). The walk was quite scenic. It was also all downhill to begin with which was hard on someone who had a damaged toe. (Sorry, Greg! That is no fun, I know, having dealt with that myself. But you are so quiet about it. I would have complained and attempted to get a lot of sympathy!)

We reached a spot where there was, much to our surprise, a food truck. The woman had an espresso machine, as well as some goodies. We all ordered some form of coffee. How fun to run across this. In addition Dan, who had arrived there first, was conversing with a group of women. As it turned out (and I’m guessing that’s why I heard a big laugh from all of them as I walked toward them) they are from Los Gatos and Saratoga areas. One of them went to Monte Vista High School and certainly knew Lynbrook High — but they were probably ten years younger than I am. Once again, a small world.

We walked on through, mostly, meadows. I had read that there was a sign warning walkers about the possibility of a bull in a field, but we never did see one. I was ready, though, to use Dan and/or Greg as a shield so Jan and I could escape. That would have made one or both of them heroes, right?!

Then we entered the small village of Lower Slaughter.

At that point we were ready to have a seat for a while, so we stopped in at The Slaughter Country Inn for a light bite. As we sat clouds were rolling in and for a time we thought we might be in for a spot of rain, but it never did hit us.

From there we had the final leg of our short and gentle walk.

Now it’s Hello Bourton-on-the-Water! And hello major crowds. I had read it was the most crowded village, but I had no idea what the meant. It’s crazy and a bit of a shock. Our dinner reservation is just at a pub — nothing fancy as far as I can see — but I’m glad I made a reservation!

Our stay is at the Broadlands Hotel.

We have a slightly larger room than yesterday, but it’s pretty minimal. There is no place to hang towels, for instance, and luggage will have to opened on the floor or bed. But we shall survive, I’m sure. We stay here two nights and have transfers: the first is back to the hotel from tomorrow’s destination and the following day the transfer is at 9:30 in the morning, taking us to our starting point. Dan and I have learned to like these two day stays — it means we don’t have to wake up to pack tomorrow morning.

We both showered and did a bit of laundry. I’m happy I have my merino shirt: I washed it and about an hour later it was close to dry. That fabric really is rather amazing.

When we were all ready, we went out to walk a bit and went to the Co-op to look for a small bottle of laundry detergent (it wasn’t to be found). Then we headed back to make our 6:00 dinner reservation at Kingsbridge Inn.

We walked in to Kingsbridge pub and I told the man behind the bar that I had reservations. He said just to pick any table for four. Didn’t even ask my name. Hm. No reservations were needed at all. That was a surprise. We went outside to the patio there. All the tables were either occupied or very dirty. We weren’t impressed, but finally cleared a table ourselves and sat down. While at the bar we were told to order our dinners via our phones or else go up to the bar. We chose the former and placed our orders once we found things that were available: it seemed the majority of items were out of stock. Drinks were the same. But we managed to get our orders done and paid for (and then they give us the option of tipping them? For all the work we did. So strange. But yes, we tipped 5%.). A bit later Greg and Jan got their drinks (they ordered separately) and we sat and waited. Then a young man came up to tell me they were out of something I’d ordered but they could replace it with something else or refund me. Fine. Replace it. Eventually he returned again and said they were out of my drink so I had to choose something else. And after all that another man came and said the kitchen was too hot and they had to close it down. He said it was 60° centigrade. He said “no food”. I said we’d already ordered and paid and he said we should go to the bar to get a refund. Um. Okay. Greg went up and then the younger man came and said that yes, our food WAS coming. I quickly went to Greg since I thought he’d be asking for the refund (realizing too late I should have just let him do it and we could have left). But then our meals and drinks all came. With no silverware or napkins. I could go on and on about how crazy and poor the service was, but I’ll stop now and just say I’m sorry I chose that place.

After that debacle we really wanted to sit and relax elsewhere. We looked a bit nearby. We didn’t see anything there, but I did see the tallest lupine I’ve ever seen!

Then we found a lovely spot for some wine. The restaurant looked so nice. Earlier we had seen the place I’d reserved for tomorrow and thought it looked a bit questionable so I canceled that and made a reservation for this new place. I’m thinking tomorrow will be much nicer! We had a lovely time sitting under a fragrant tree with pretty pink blossoms (I think it’s a locust tree?).

Back to our hotel we went, and said our good nights. Tomorrow we have breakfast set for 8:30, so we’ll connect again then.

Oh … and it has been sprinkling a bit. I’m thankful it waited until we got back to our rooms.

Goodnight!

17,389 steps, 6.96 miles, 2 flights climbed (this last bit is surely inaccurate, as we climbed hotel stairs at least 4 times)