Friday 7th August pm - Cirencester Cirencester was founded by the Romans in 49AD and was the second largest Roman town in Britain originally called Corinium. The Romans built a fort here to protect the traders as even in early times the town was well know for it's wool trade. The Roman amphitheatre still exists. In 577AD the Saxons took over the town until William the Conquerer turned the town into a prosperous market town. Henry IV gave the town a Guild ...

Friday 7th August am Swindon We had a later sleep in and decided to go to Swindon and see the Great Western Workshops building that now houses MacArthur Glen Shopping Outlet. The building has been beautifully decorated. The centre is one of the largest covered designer outlets in Europe with over 90 High Street and designer brands shops. There were some amazing top end stores but even their reduced prices I couldn't afford but we did have the best coffee ...

Thursday 6th August pm - Magdalen College Jim's recommendation! We got the bus back to Magdalen and paid out £4 each (Old folks rate) to enter the college grounds through St. John's Quad. All the colleges we passed had big high doors off the street for only the students to access. The grounds of Magdalen were absolutely beautiful. The manacured lawns I would love at my place. The buildings were started in1458 and was built outside the city walls which was q...

Thursday 6th August - Oxford We had to get up a bit earlier to have breakfast as we had decided to go to Oxford for the day. Our bus from outside the Woollen Shop left at 8.33am so off early and a bit of overcast sky. Luckily we were at the bus stop early as he left at 8.30am after selling us an all day bus and train ticket foe £20. We got to the station at Morton in Marsh and had a wait of about 20 minutes before the train arrived. The train ride into Oxfo...

Wednesday 5th August - Walking the Cotswolds Today we decided to walk from Bourton on the Water to Upper Slaughter then on to Lower Slaughter and then back to Bourton. We borrowed the Five Country Walks book from the B&B - found the walk approx 6.4 kms, Guide time approx 2 hours. Bourton on the Water is a village in the valley so anywhere from here was going to be uphill. We followed the very well written guide book and crossed the road, followed the ...