Castle Combe

Our next outdoor outing was to another place in the Cotswolds, Castle Combe. This pretty village has been used as a filming location in movies such as War Horse, and attracts visitors from all over the world - even during lockdown, as we discovered!

It is only a small village, but every corner of it is picturesque, old-fashioned and charming.

There is one particular part of Castle Combe that is photographed more than any other: the bridge over the Bybrook River.

However, it was quite difficult for us to get pictures in that spot, as there was a group of Brazilian tourists literally camped out there the entire time we were in the village. One woman was wearing a summer dress (bear in mind that it was November and the temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius) and was posing for a full-blown photo shoot on the bridge, first on her own and then with her boyfriend. My parents thought she must have been a professional model posing for a magazine, but I'm in no doubt that the whole thing was purely for social media.

Now, like most people, I like to have my photo taken in the places I travel to, as a souvenir of the trip. But there's definitely a limit - for me, it's important to spend more time actually enjoying being at the destination and being present in the moment, rather than doing nothing but taking pictures. Besides, there are always other visitors who want to take photos too, and it's selfish to hog an entire photo spot all to yourself.

But eventually we did manage to take some photos of ourselves there, during a gap in the Instagram photo shoot. It only took us a few minutes to get the shots we wanted!

I have to admit I was annoyed by the tourists, but I eventually saw the funny side of the situation. (They're probably still there on that bridge now!) It didn't stop us from having a great time in Castle Combe, and our trip there was one of our favourite outings during the second lockdown.

An interesting fact about Castle Combe is that there's a famous race circuit just outside the village. (I remember going there when I was little, but I don't remember the village itself.) As Claudio loves cars, it would have been great to go and see a race there, but unfortunately Covid put a stop to that plan. At least it means we've got a good excuse to go back in the future!