We decided after our busy weekend to have a more relaxed Monday. We headed to Borton on the Water, which is a very popular Cotswold town. The town has a river that runs through it with multiple bridges that cross it for walking and driving across. The river itself is quite shallow when the floods aren’t happening. While we were being buried in snow this winter the Cotswolds had 106 days of rain, which meant some serious flooding of towns and rivers. The picturesque town of Burton was affected and there was construction fencing all around the town. We were blessed with amazing weather again and did some window-shopping before going to the model village.

In the 1930’s the town of Borton did a 1/9-scale replica of the entire town. It was like walking into a doll house and feeling like a giant at the same time.  It was a cute village to walk around and take pictures of. 

We decided to go to Bird Land in Borton on the water. It was like a bird zoo. Birds kind of freak me out but they are also beautiful at the same time. Bird Land was a bit expensive so we made sure to see every single bird. The Snowy owl, penguins, and Frog owl were my favorites.

At one of the bridge crossings there was a family of mallards. Mallard ducks are my favorite and they are everywhere here. The little baby ducklings were struggling big time with the very strong current. Paul had to drag me away from the bridge after about half an hour. I could have sat all day looking at those little fluffy swimmers. They were going to sleep well after all that paddling with their tiny little legs.

We went to a teahouse for lunch and were able to score a seat outside in the sunshine.  We had Jacket-potatoes again. After lunch we walked back across the bridge to get some Winstone’s Ice-cream. It is a local ice-cream shop and man was it amazing. We sat on the bank of the river and enjoyed our ice-cream while watching the ducklings again.

We made our way back to the car and headed to Bibury. It is another tiny Cotswold town that is usually overrun with Japanese tourists with their Ipads taking pictures. We lucked out there was pretty much no one in Bibury.

More fun with the silly glasses

On the way to the town we saw some gypsy ponies and caravans on the side of the road as we drove by the lanes. 

We got back to the house and of course I took a nap. I have been having some ear problems making me a bit wobbly and exhausted. I crashed and took a 2-hour nap before we met Clare and Steve for dinner at The Crown at Framptonmansell. It was delicious and we had a lovely time.

The best part of my day was the ducklings and ice cream. Paul’s best favorite part was the lack of Japanese tourist in Bibury so that I could take good pictures.