Bradford-on-Avon

Our final travel adventure of 2020 was to the town of Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire.

My parents wanted to take me and Claudio on one last outing before he went back to Chile at the start of January, so I made a list of nearby places we could visit. However, the day after I'd made the list, the government announced a change in the tier system of Covid restrictions. The places on my list were in Gloucestershire, which was moved into Tier 3, and Oxfordshire, which was moved into Tier 4, meaning it was no longer possible for us to visit them.

But as Wiltshire (where we live) was one of the few remaining places in Tier 2, we could still go on a trip out, provided that we stayed within the county. My first choice was the Stourhead National Trust property, a stately home that has a big garden with a lake and several Roman and Greek style temples. But my parents took a long time to make up their mind about when we should go, and by the time they decided, all the visitor slots had already been taken. (We'll have to go there next time Claudio's here!)

So in the end, we went with my second choice, Bradford-on-Avon. It's a town that's located in the far south of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, close to the famous city of Bath, and it's best known for its old bridge that crosses the River Avon.

Something else Bradford-on-Avon is famous for is The Bridge Tea Rooms, which has been voted the best tea room in the entire country! It's located in a very charming old building, and the waitresses even wear Victorian outfits.

And fortunately, we got the chance to visit it and had an amazing time there. It has various vegan and allergy-friendly food and drink choices, so there's something for everyone - I had a vegan carrot cake and a rose-flavoured tea, which were delicious. The decor of the tea room is also so pretty and old-fashioned, and really transports you into the past. 

Afterwards, it was time to explore the town. The most obvious place to start was the bridge, which dates back to the 13th century. It's a very attractive architectural feature and also a great place to look across the rest of the town.

One of the buildings that can be seen from the bridge is St. Thomas More Roman Catholic church. It was actually originally the town hall and was designed by the architect Thomas Fuller, who went on to design many buildings in Canada, including part of the parliament in Ottawa.

I particularly liked this part of the building, whose style reminded me a little bit of churches I've seen in southern Europe and South America.

Bradford-on-Avon is a town with several churches, and one of the most famous is St. Laurence's Church. It's quite an important building, as it was built in the Saxon period but remains complete, which is very rare.

Just across the street, you can find the Holy Trinity church, which is of Norman origin.

Overall, we really enjoyed walking through Bradford-on-Avon and looking at the river and all of the pretty old buildings.

All of us had a great time there, and we especially loved The Bridge Tea Rooms. I'm sure we'll go back at some point in the future!

This trip out was the last one of Claudio's time in Europe, the last one of 2020, and also the last one I'll have for a while, as we're now back in a strict lockdown again in England. So I'm glad that it was such a nice day for us.

We had some more local travel adventures throughout the time when Claudio was here, which don't quite warrant a entire post each, and I'll be writing about them all next in one big post!

Our Day Exploring Oxford (100th Post!)

The final city Claudio and I visited together during his time in Europe was Oxford, a world-famous city that is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the UK.

I'd been to Oxford with my family many times before, as my sister used to live there, but I'd never really seen all the sights, as we'd usually gone there for days out shopping or theatre trips. However this time, we managed to really explore the city, and I feel like I know it a lot better now.

The sight we saw first was the castle, which isn't too far from the train station. I'd actually visited it back in March last year and blogged about it here, but this time our photos came out a lot better! The castle is quite an underrated attraction in Oxford, and I would say it's definitely a must-see.

Claudio needed to buy some Christmas presents for his family, so we popped into the Westgate Centre. After he'd bought everything he needed, we went up to the top of the mall where the bathroom is. There's actually a rooftop terrace up there with amazing views over the famous spires of the city.

Afterwards, we had lunch, and then it was time to explore some more!

We had some ideas of parts of the city we wanted to see, thanks to the Chilean programme City Tour On Tour. In this programme, the two presenters visit famous cities all over the world, and in the series about the UK, they visit many of the places we went to during Claudio's stay here: London, Bath, Lacock, Castle Combe, Brighton and Cardiff, as well as Oxford. In the Oxford episode, one of the attractions they visit is St Michael at the North Gate, a Saxon tower that's the oldest building in the city.

Just across the street from the tower, you can find 26-27 Cornmarket Street, another very old building that was mentioned in the episode. There's actually a Prêt à Manger there these days, which we went into later. It was cool to have coffee inside one of the oldest buildings in the city!

Then it was time for us to see some of the university's most famous buildings, including the Sheldonian Theatre.

The area of the city where the theatre is located is where many of the most iconic attractions can be found, including the Bridge of Sighs. Its official name is actually Hertford Bridge, but it has now come to be known as the Bridge of Sighs owing to its similarity to the bridge in Venice. Standing in front of it really does give you the sense of being in Italy.

Nearby you can find the Bodleian library, the main library of the university and one of the oldest in Europe. It occupies several buildings, including the Clarendon building and the Schools Quadrangle, whose entrance is known as the Tower of the Five Orders.

The best-known building of the Bodleian Library, and also the best-known building in the entire city, is the Radcliffe Camera.

It really is a grand and impressive sight to see, and it was one of our favourite attractions that we saw during the trip.

Other beautiful buildings in the area include All Souls College...

...and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

The next place we went to see was Christchurch college. It's generally considered to be the most attractive college of the university, and it even has its own cathedral and meadow. Usually it's open to visitors, but obviously it's been closed recently due to Covid. However, it was still very nice to see from the outside.

Next we went back to the central shopping area of the city to see another famous old tower, St. Martin's Tower or Carfax Tower, which is the only remaining part of the 12th century St. Martin's church.

Then we went to see the Ashmolean Museum. It's not open at the moment, but it's a very grand, Roman-style building, and worth just going to have a look at.

During our day in Oxford, we also enjoyed exploring the Covered Market and walking round the city's picturesque streets.

All in all, we had a great time exploring this beautiful and very European city. I actually had mixed feelings about Oxford before, as I don't like the snobby, superior attitude of the Oxford and Cambridge universities. In my opinion, they're not any better than the other universities in this country; you only have to look at the incompetence of the current government (most of whom studied there) to realise that. But it's true that the architecture of Oxford University is amazing to see, and I'd definitely recommend it as a destination to anyone visiting England for the first time.

Claudio and I thought this trip would be the last one we'd have before he went back to Chile. However, his flight was moved again, so we got to spend a couple more weeks together, including Christmas and New Year, which was really lovely. We also had time for another trip - I'll be writing about that soon.

On another note, I'm quite excited that this is my 100th post on this blog! Over the couple of years since I first set up Charlotte's Travel Adventures in October 2018, I've visited eight different countries - nine if you count England and Wales separately - and had many memorable and varied travel experiences, from floating in a lagoon in the Atacama Desert, to teaching English in Poland, to exploring my own local area in South West England. Blogging has really become a passion for me, and I plan to continue writing here for many years to come!