The week before we left for England, I was hurriedly trying to finish up a tiling project at work, but was able to get it done midweek, and give John P. a shout about a short road trip out to Hubbard Park in Meriden. I hadn't been there in some time, John had never been there, and I wanted to get him some of the hill training he was asking for!
I figured on multiple up/downs from the main lot, and we were able to "tag" all three of the main high points at Hubbard, and run twice down my favorite section of trail there, the "Kamikaze Trail Descent" segment, which is a mile long, technical, and totally runnable straight shot from the top of the middle peak near Castle Craig down to the reservoir. It's quintessential New England trail, and exactly the right pitch to just open up on...John loved it. We covered 13 technical miles at Hubbard with about 2400' of climbing. Great day!
Me and JP
Castle Craig
From the "Other" peak
Looking across to the "Castle"
England:
The next day? Packing, getting the beasts situated, and a redeye flight from Boston to London, to kick off a 10-day family vacation, see the country, possibly get some running in, and attempt to source some decent craft beer there (I did succeed!). Our trip would take us from London to Bath, the Cotswolds, Oxford, and back to London for one more day before our departure.
Our first hotel directly faced the London Eye, was a few blocks from Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and Buckingham Palace, and kicked ass. Our first day was just dealing with fatigue, mostly mine as I can't sleep on planes and the girls slept the whole flight. Oh, and London has shit for decent beer. There, I said it. Good restaurants who offer Budweiser, Heineken and Guiness as their premier beers need a clue...
Trafalgar Square
The view from our first hotel, just awesome...
Day 3? A tour of the actual studios where the Harry Potter films were made! So cool...
Strive to be Number One!
Day 4! A morning run in London, sunny skies and crisp air, and many streets around Buckingham Palace closed for the Commonwealth meeting! Ran through St. James's Park, Green Park, and along the river for a bit. Next, a drive to Bath with a pit stop at Stonehenge...cold on the hill, but humbling to stand there...for a few minutes, then back into the car.
My kind of town!
Never saw anyone gardening, they just appear this way :)
Nice place...I mean, palace!
Early a.m. in the parks is glorious...
Perfection in St. James's Park
COLD.
I loved Bath. It's a gorgeous little English village tucked into the hills, everything's extra green and there's history galore. It's also where, lo and behold, I found the Nirvana of all craft beer shops!!! One block from our mediocre hotel, where I had to store my newfound score in their coat check mini-fridge, and ask for it like a beggar. Like a beggar! And then get a bucket of ice from the bar to keep my fancy craft beer chilled. Five stars? I think maybe not so much...
Bath Abbey!
Greenery!
Craft Beer!!! From all over Europe, no less. They had NEIPAs from Finland that tasted as good as Treehouse brews. Not even kidding.
Day 5. Walking tour of bath with Mrs. Norris (same name as Filch's cat in Harry Potter, I'm sensing a theme here...), where we hiked up to the Royal Crescent, toured their place, as well as the Jane Austen Center (where I got dressed up as Mr. Darcy, WTF), the Fashion Museum, and the Roman Baths, which would have been cool if not for the 40,000 teenagers running amock throughout the baths. My daughter, an American teenager, HATES American teenagers. I can't blame her, hahaha...
The Roman Baths, overrun with teenagers taking selfies, as it was in ancient times...
Lord Critchlery does not approve.
Day 6 dawned with a glorious sunshine, crisp air and my chance for a run. I immediately headed uphill, and up...some hills in Bath! I got to the top of one of the 7 hills of Bath and saw a "Cotswold Way" sign on a gate. Wait, what??? I thought it started in Chipping Campden and went North, but apparently it starts there and ends in Bath...so I got some small time on it inadvertantly. I continued on, and ended the run with a short jaunt near the river. Picture perfect.
The Cotswold Way. It's gonna happen at some point. Follow the acorn!
Gorgeous parks on the hillside
Found this in a small neighborhood park. Sweet fountain!
Along the river, early a.m.
Bath from below. Really liked this town...
In the morning we headed toward the Cotswolds, by way of Lacock Abbey (site of a lot of HP filming, and where the first negative print was created, for all you photography buffs!), Avebury and its mysterious, massive stone circle (way bigger than Stonehenge), and some Hobbit-esque shires along the way. Makes total sense why it's the weekend retreat location of choice for the well-to-do in the UK. I'd totally live in a thatched roof cottage alongside a trout stream, with footpaths crossing here and there and a neighborhood pub on the corner! Heaven!
Old Brewing!
Lacock Abbey
Harry Potter scenes filmed here!
Hey, that's a ford! A ford...
We checked into our hotel in the village of Stow-on-the-Wold, where all the businesses closed promptly at 6. Cool! Soph even had her own room with bunkbeds, and our hotel had local craft beer and a restaurant with delicious food. Perfect.
Day 7? A tour of the Cotswolds. We started in Chipping Campden, the start of the Cotswold Way, where I found the plaque that marks the beginning of the 102-mile footpath. We then made our way to the Broadway Tower, a "folly" tower that also resides on the path, and climbed to the top! We also cruised through several really cool towns before returning to our hotel.
This is the beginning of the Way...
There's a plaque here, and one at Bath at the other end.
Alleys in Chipping Campden
A Shire!
Lori at the top of Broadway Tower. Proud of her, she's afraid of heights and felt surprisingly calm here.
Looking over the Cotswold countryside from the Tower
Day 8 started with a run in Stow, including a short jaunt on the Gloucestershire Way, another national footpath. Trails! Lots of gates to go through, but if it's a designated national footpath, private property owners are not only required to allow access, but also maintain the section that passes through their land. Pretty cool!
Morning mist
Hey! It's a Way!
Gates everywhere
Short singletrack section! Saw a red fox!
Alleys in Stow
Serene early morning runs are the best
We headed out later that morning for a drive to Oxford, by way of Blenheim Palace. That place was massive. The grounds are immaculate, I was itching to drop everything there and go for a run around the lake, but played nice and we had a great time.
Enormous place...
Eye see you!
Excuse me, that's quite a large organ you have there...
Landscape Heaven
Here's the only thing about this trip that was awesome and difficult at the same time: the country is so rich with history, you can't go ten feet without tripping over a historic stone wall, national landmark, Harry Potter film location, etc...and our drivers were all locals to their specific areas, and had/wanted to show us as much as possible during their time with us. We arrived to Oxford, checked into our hotel and went out to see some sights, but missed our window with a boat ride on the Thames we booked, got to the historic library we wanted to see 10 minutes too late, and opted to do some shopping instead. I bought Oxford shoes in Oxford! Ha! We stayed in a very old hotel with odd hallways, and a "Shining-esque" vibe to it. Nice...
Day 9: No run in Oxford, unfortunately. We were staying only a mile away from the Oxford track where Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4:00 mile, and I just couldn't make it happen. Next time, then! Took a commuter train from Oxford to London, and grabbed a cab to the hotel. Last day in London so we made it count, walked all over the place (including St. James's Park where they were setting up for the London Marathon), had dinner at Covent Garden, and generally stayed out late.
A gorgeous day in London...
The 26-mile mark for London, right next to Buckingham Palace. Only 385 yards to go, fools!
Day 10 was a rude awakening, as our schedule was off by an hour and our ride to the airport was early, so we scrambled to pack our shit and get going. I really wish I'd known that the London marathon was held the day we left, as I'd have entered the lottery and maybe capped the trip with the race, we totally could have extended the trip by a day for it!
We had a direct flight back to Boston, great food on the plane, arrived early, and breezed through customs no problem. Back at the house by 4 p.m.! What a Hell of a trip. No real problems to speak of, and damn sure nothing to really complain about! That's a win in my book.
So there's a capsule version of our England trip, it's a glorious place, they have a robust running scene, and I'm really serious about running the Cotswold Way. I even popped into a bookstore there and bought a book about the entire route, complete with detailed maps, etc. They also have some shorter distance races!
My last thoughts: I may have said it before, but running early in the morning is really the best way to see an unfamiliar city. I'm not a really early morning runner, but on vacation I get to see miles of a place, where it might take hours to cover the same distance in a cab. It's been a highlight of my short running history, these jaunts around places we don't go to often, so I really look forward to them!
Next up: Two Ultras and a Mountain Race...catching up from the last four weeks...
