Day 7 – The Cotswolds and May Day

Morris Dancing

We left central London using an Uber to get to our car rental at Heathrow and the start of the driving portion of our trip. Starting on May Day turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.  As it is a holiday, we were able to see some things that normally would not have been possible. For example, we saw Morris dancing as part of a May Day celebration in Oxford. The bad side it that when we got to the Cotswolds, all of the small towns were very crowded and parking was at a premium so it limited our sightseeing a little.

I’m not sure I can adequately explain Morris dancing. You kind of have to see it to understand it. Morris dancing is basically English folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. I think only men are allowed in Morris groups and they do choreographed dances to music, today’s accompaniment was some kind of small accordion. They all wear small bells on their legs to add to the music when they dance and elaborate costumes that are unique to each dancer. Today’s event seemed to only be locals and us, so it was a pretty unique experience.

Arlington Row (Bibury)

Market Square (Stow-on-the-Wold)

From Oxford, we followed a driving route through the Cotswolds that I saw suggested by someone on-line which took us through small market towns, along narrow country roads which were basically single lanes, sheep farms and the rolling English hillsides. This part of England, because it still looks like it did hundreds of years ago, is often called “quintessential England” and the English themselves are very sentimental about it and take long walks through it. By the way, there is no such thing as private lands when it comes to walking in the countryside and many farms have gates designed to let people pass through and still keep the sheep in the fields.

Cottage Door (Bibury)

Church and Pasture (Colm St. Dennis)