… so this one will be short and sweet!

After early breakfast this morning, we left Vico Equense by bus with our Oak Hall group, saying farewell to Mt Vesuvius, the Mediterranean Sea and the frenetic, frazzled and dilapidated anthill that is Vico Equense and the Amalfi Coast, driving north to the Naples airport. Long disorderly lines, slow-moving queues, navigating our way through the bustle and energy of scurrying people who are all in a hurry to get to wherever they need to go. In Naples, it’s still the old-fashioned way of walking on the tarmac and walking up the gangways to get into the plane. Sitting in narrow planes on tarmacs, waiting for air space to take off and then a smooth ride over white clouds for a bit over two hours, over the English Channel and green countryside, gliding over London to Heathrow. I had a window seat and appreciated being able to look out the plane window. Goodbye to all the new and treasured friends we’ve made this past week.

Navigating our way through customs – Philip had difficulty getting the automatic machine to accept his passport – then through the different Heathrow Terminals to the Central bus station where we waited several hours for our two and a half hours comfortable bus ride to Cirencester in the Cotswolds – our next destination. After leaving Heathrow on the bus, we were almost straight away driving out in the green, green countryside and didn’t drive through any suburbs.

I was surprised at how immediately there’s a different “vibe” – hard to explain – going from Naples to Heathrow – but I could definitely feel it. Nobody checked our bus tickets – we could have got on and off without paying!

The bus dropped us off at the edge of Cirencester – a town of about 20,000 people with lovely old English buildings. Philip had to pay 40p to use the toilet at the bus stop! There was a map of the town nearby so we worked out how to walk to the town centre so we could find some food to eat. We’re so glad on days like today that we travel lightly with luggage! It’d be awkward to lug big suitcases around.

We stopped at the first pub we found – the Bear – and had a great dinner. It was an old building with low ceilings and dark overhead beams – and a huge screen showing the Switzerland vs Italy Euro cup soccer match very loudly. Switzerland won with great rejoicing.

Because we’ve decided to not hire a car, and because our B&B is 6.4 kms from Cirencester, we’ve decided to stay very local and so we needed to find a supermarket to stock up on food for a couple of days while we’re here. We bumped and dragged our belongings over the cobble footpaths, and with help from willing locals found a Waitrose supermarket and bought a few basic foodstuffs to see us through the next two days. Then dragged our stuff back to the town centre to get a taxi to take us to our B&B called Well Cottage in the little nearby village of Ewan.

It is enchanting. The “Well” (of Well Cottage) has been filled in and is no more. Our hosts Bridgid and Neil are helpful and friendly we’ve already had great chats with them. The front “half” of the building belongs to their daughter and her family. We’re in the back half.

The quiet is blissful. There’s fields, farms, a few farmhouses and huge trees and all I can hear are birds. Do you know your ears almost “ring” when there’s quiet after endless noise and chaos?

We did a very short walk down the road to where the Thames River starts. We’ll explore more tomorrow. We’ve decided to do very little tomorrow, apart from around here. The past week on the Amalfi Coast was amazing but it was very busy with lots of “overload” experiences! So this is the perfect antidote. I’m going to revel in it.