Malmesbury With Claudio

Following our afternoon in Cirencester, our second post-quarantine trip was to Malmesbury, the town where I went to secondary school and which I blogged about back in June.

Like I did in June, we visited the most famous sights, such as the abbey and the Market Cross.

This time we were able to go inside the abbey, which was great, because its interior is so grand and impressive.

It was also really nice to see this little waterfall by the long stay car park.

It was great to introduce Claudio to a couple of the most important towns in my local area before we headed off on our longer travel adventure. Our next stop was London, and I have a lot to write about our time there!

Cirencester With Claudio

Claudio and I just got back from a very busy but incredible week spent in London and Stockholm, and I can't wait to write about all the different places we visited. But before going away, we managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to places in the local area after our two-week quarantine period finished.

First of all we visited Cirencester, a town in Gloucestershire which I previously wrote about in May. 

Cirencester is considered to be the capital of the Cotswolds, one of the prettiest areas in Britain, so it was the perfect place to introduce Claudio to travelling in England. 

We spent a really nice afternoon exploring the town on foot and seeing lots of cute dogs, interesting cars, and of course picturesque sights, such as the castle...

...Cirencester Park...

...and other places around the town.

Finally we went to the Abbey Grounds Park and visited a place I don't think I'd seen before: the Roman town wall. It was interesting to discover a bit more of Cirencester's Roman history after visiting the amphitheatre for the first time back in June.

All in all, it was a great first trip out after quarantine. Cirencester is a town that attracts tourists from all over the world, and we both really enjoyed seeing its sights.

The following day, we explored another town in the Cotswolds: Malmesbury. I'll be blogging about that next!

Hello From Quarantine!

Hello from quarantine, where I've spent nearly two weeks with my boyfriend Claudio and my parents!

It's actually been a great experience (a million times better than the quarantine between March and May!) and it's been really nice to relax at home together. I've been working, but we've still had plenty of time to spend doing things like watching TV and movies, cooking and working out. And because the village where I live is quiet, we've been able to go out for daily walks without coming into close contact with anyone, so we've been to see my favourite neighbourhood stray cat a couple of times, and played football and done workouts in the park lots of times. I also turned 25 earlier this week, which I find slightly alarming(!), but I had a lovely birthday.

Even though my village isn't the most exciting place in the world, Claudio really likes it here and is enjoying discovering the way of life in the English countryside!

But all the same, we're not going to be hanging around here in Wiltshire for much longer! Next week we'll be going up to London on the train, where we'll spend a few days sightseeing. We've already booked trips on the river cruise and the London Eye!

Then we'll head to the airport and travel further north than either of us have ever been before, to Stockholm, Sweden! It looks like an amazing city and we're so excited to explore it. Just need to keep our fingers crossed that it won't end up being removed from the travel corridor list on Thursday...

We had quite big plans to explore Europe together (in particular France, Italy and Greece), which we thought would be possible by this point in the year. However, those plans will have to wait for another time. France remains on the quarantine list, so it looks like the only part of Paris Claudio will get to see is Charles de Gaulle airport...

But Italy is the big disappointment. Claudio's great-grandfather emigrated to Chile from Genoa, and we were really hoping to visit that city, along with Pisa, Rome and the Vatican City. So when Italy ended up on the quarantine list this week, we had to rethink our plans.

Greece, Sweden and Germany are the only three remaining European countries on the travel corridor list, and our first thought was to go to Athens and/or Santorini. But then I discovered that permanent residents of countries like Chile are not allowed to enter Greece, even from the UK.

Luckily, Sweden allows all travellers coming from the European Economic Area to enter, regardless of their citizenship. It also seems like a country that is handling the pandemic really sensibly, by allowing people to carry on living their lives whilst applying common sense at the same time. So yesterday we got our flights (flexible tickets) and hotel (free cancellation) booked and made a list of places to see in Stockholm! 

After we get back home, we'll have a few weeks left to explore places in the local area, including some that I've written about over recent months as well as some new ones. That is, of course, barring another national lockdown, which I'm praying doesn't happen, as it certainly isn't necessary down here in the South West, where cases are very low.

I'd hoped that Claudio's first trip to Europe wouldn't be as complicated and uncertain as this, but I guess that's just how things are at the moment. In future years, I hope we'll be able to visit France, Italy, Greece and many other countries together!

However, we're very happy to be able to travel in England and Sweden this time. And now there's only a few days to go until we start our next travel adventure! I can't wait to explore London and Stockholm, and to document our trip here when we get back!

A Morning in Old Town, Swindon

Earlier this week I spent a morning in the town where I was born: Swindon! 

It's fair to say that as a town, Swindon doesn't have the best of reputations, and people often make jokes about it being a dump. The central shopping area is pretty much dead, some neighbourhoods have high crime rates, and it contains an array of terrifying roundabouts, including the infamous Magic Roundabout.

However, it's not all bad! The Old Town area is actually quite an interesting place to explore, and it's where you can find the Swindon Museum, as well as an array of independent shops and cafés.

On Monday morning, my mum wanted to look at some shops there, so I took the opportunity to go for a walk in the Town Gardens, which I think is the nicest place in the whole of Swindon. It features an old bandstand, an aviary for budgies and cockatiels, and lots of cute squirrels!

While in town, I passed the Swindon Arts Centre, a theatre and cultural venue. This was where I did my Year 10 Work Experience all the way back in 2011, and I have great memories of the week I spent there.

Afterwards, we met up at the Core Juicery, a café with plenty of vegan options, including one of my favourite foods, avocado on toast!

Other great places to eat in Old Town include the Moshan Island Grill Caribbean restaurant, Fabio's Italian restaurant, and Los Gatos tapas bar.

Overall, Swindon isn't exactly well-known as a travel destination, but like every other town, it has its good parts as well as its not-so-good parts. It's also an ideal base for exploring the UK, as it's right in between London and Cardiff, and is close to popular tourist destinations like the Cotswolds, Oxford and Bath. 

I've got no more trips planned for the time being, as my boyfriend will be arriving here in a few days and we'll have to start our quarantine! But I plan to work on this blog during that time, and of course start planning our travel adventures for when we're allowed out again!

Buscot Park

The weather in the south of England is actually very nice for this time of year, so my parents and I took advantage of the sunshine last weekend and went on a trip to Buscot Park, a National Trust property in Oxfordshire.

The manor house itself is closed but the grounds are still open to the public from 2-6 pm every day. And there's a lot to explore within the grounds! It was quite busy because of the weather and because it was Sunday, but the area is so big that social distancing was relatively easy.

When we arrived, we passed the tearoom, which is a really nice setting with frescoes on the walls. Unfortunately, it's closed at the moment due to Covid (hence why this photo was taken through a window!), but there is a food truck selling drinks and snacks outside the main house.

The first part of the grounds we explored was the Four Seasons Walled Garden, a garden with many varieties of plants and a clock tower in the background.

Next we had a look at the Terracotta Warrior statues, which are exact replicas of some of the original statues from Xi'an, China. I actually discovered another photo of them on my phone from March 2016, so we obviously must have gone to Buscot Park during the Easter holidays in my first year at university. Weirdly, I have absolutely no memory of it!

Nearby there's a water feature, the Faux Falls. As the name suggests, it's a fake waterfall. It's not possible to look at it very closely as the area is blocked off (maybe because of social distancing measures), but it actually looks more impressive the further away you are from it.

The house itself must be a very nice place to visit when it's open, as it contains works of art by famous artists such as Rembrandt, Rossetti, Rubens and Murillo. However, seeing the house from the outside is still a great experience. It's a very impressive building, and there are several interesting statues and smaller buildings surrounding it.

My favourite part of the house was this bit where you go through a little tunnel (which is painted with frescoes) and find a beautiful swimming pool on the other side. It was tempting to dive in!

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Peto Water Garden, one of the most famous Italian-style water gardens in Britain. It features various interesting statues and leads down towards a lake, on the other side of which you can see a bridge and a little temple. It's a very beautiful and tranquil place.

There are actually several different gardens across the park. We didn't visit them all, but one of the most unusual ones we saw was the Swinging Garden, a garden with four swing seats around the edge!

I was interested in these two Sphinx-like statues, which both have messages in Greek written on their plinths. I think Greek will definitely be one of the next languages I have a go at learning!

Overall, we had a really nice afternoon exploring Buscot Park. It's a really scenic place to walk around, and thanks to the classical architecture and the sunshine, it almost felt like being in Italy or Greece. Because the pandemic has made travelling abroad so much more complicated, I'm interested in finding places in the UK that are good alternatives to foreign destinations, and this one will definitely go on that list.

The trip was also a nice distraction, as I've been very worried about potential new coronavirus restrictions. Luckily, the new measures announced today are not as strict as I'd feared, which means my boyfriend and I will be able to visit different places next month, once we've finished our two weeks' quarantine! Any trips we do will have to be planned at the last minute due to the current situation, but that's not really a problem. The most important thing is that we'll get to spend several weeks together, after not seeing each other since March. Not long to go now, and I can't wait!