

Annoying Stratford-upon-Avon
Annoyance(1): The prominently sign-posted park-and-ride facility gladly accepted our £1 compulsory parking fee. However the driver of a bus, which was clearly marked as a park-and-ride bus, informed us (and another annoyed couple) that the scheme hadn’t operated from this site since July last year. Thank you Warwickshire County Council!
Annoyance(2): My fault – I lost the dust cap on my camera lens. Again!
In between these two mishaps, Stratford-upon-Avon is a pleasant enough place if you’re in the vicinity or if Shakespeare is your thing.

The Cotswolds village of Naunton
On the way back from an uninspiring visit to Cheltenham we passed through the stunningly pretty village of Naunton. No shops, just a rather attractive looking pub, and with a population of about 350, Naunton would, on a sunnier day, be well worth a proper visit.
I like this watercolour of the village by the artist Lesley Holmes.
Stow-on-the-Wold
Cotswolds bookshops
Today was cold, cloudy and, for a while, very foggy. No point taking pictures in the pretty (though not as pretty as they say) village of Broadway, but we had a decent sandwich lunch at Hunters Restaurant & Tea Room and I found 3 reduced paperbacks at the disappointing Blandford Books.
Stow-on-the-Wold has two bookshops. The Borzoi Bookshop sells new books and is excellent – I bought 2 books. Evergreen Livres is the archetypal second-hand bookshop – dusty old books – I found a wacky modern paperback amongst the old stuff.
The Queen’s Head in Stow is old and attractive and made for a quiet, evening drink. The lunch and dinner menus look interesting and we plan to revisit later in the week.