Corsham

This afternoon I had the opportunity to explore Corsham, a town that I'd never been to before. My mum was doing an exercise class nearby, so my dad and I went for a walk in the area.

First of all, we walked around the grounds of Corsham Court, a stately home that was built in 1582. The park surrounding the house features a sham ruin, a church, a lake and lots of lots of sheep!

Afterwards, we had a walk around the town centre, which is very pretty with a strong Cotswolds character, and which also has lots of independent shops and cafés. I wouldn't mind coming back again in the future to be able to spend some more time there.

I saw a signpost pointing in the direction of "the Flemish Cottages", which intrigued me. However, when we actually found said cottages, I didn't think they looked especially Belgian - they seemed more like typical Cotswold houses. But they were definitely quite picturesque.

Some other interesting sights of Corsham included the Wiltshire Lion (a sculpture celebrating the landscapes of this county) and a very beautiful peacock wandering around!

To conclude, I had a good time discovering Corsham, and it was a nice start to my summer holidays! 

This is the first decent amount of time I've taken off work since Christmas, so I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit over the coming days. But I also have some exciting trips planned! I'll be going on a city trip tomorrow and then a short beach holiday a couple of days later. And I might also be going to a historic house later on in my holidays. So there's plenty to look forward to.

Although this year has so far been a difficult and frustrating one, I'd like to make the most of this summer the best I can. And hopefully when December comes around, I'll be having another, even better, summer out in Chile...

Country Guide: Austria

Name: Austria (in German: Österreich)

Continent: Europe

Capital (and Largest) City: Vienna (in German: Wien)

Language: German

Currency: Euro

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Central European Time

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type F

Description: Austria is a landlocked country in the centre of Europe. Most of it is located within the Alps, and for that reason it's famous for its mountains, as well as its Alpine meadows and lakes. In the summer the weather is warm, but in the winter the whole country turns into a winter wonderland with lots of snow! In terms of culture, the country is a very popular destination for skiing and other winter sports, and is also known for its musical heritage.

Why You Should Visit: Austria is a beautiful place, thanks to its natural scenery and picturesque cities, such as Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Vienna in particular is a must visit, as it is one of the most iconic cities in Europe, and is renowned for its historic architecture. Another reason to go to Austria is to see its fairytale castles: you can find many of them in every corner of the country.

Fun Fact: Although the movie "The Sound of Music" was set in and filmed in Salzburg and the surrounding area, it is actually not at all a well-known movie amongst Austrian people.

My Blogposts About Austria

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- Salzburg (Salzburg, Sankt Gilgen and Mondsee)

- My New Town (Feldkirchen in Kärnten)

- Vienna and Bratislava

- A Memorable Few Days (Innsbruck, Sargans and Vaduz)

- My Last Five Weeks in Kärnten

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Travel Tips: Destinations off the Tourist Trail (Kärnten region)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Places to Visit in Austria (Vienna, Salzburg, Mondsee, Innsbruck and Kärnten region)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Belvedere Palace, Vienna)

- My Gap Year 2014-2015 (Plus Gap Year Tips) (Klagenfurt and Velden am Wörthersee)

- Year Abroad: Dealing With Problems

- Year Abroad: The Best Bits

- Planning a Year Abroad

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Salzburg, Vienna and Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Fairytale Destinations (Salzburg and Hochosterwitz Castle)

- Movie Travels (Salzburg and Mondsee)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Mountain Destinations (the Alps)

- Cute Animals in the Wild (Innsbruck)

- Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part One (Feldkirchen in Kärnten)

- Travel Tips: The Best Destinations to Live in - Part Two (Vienna)

Clockwise starting from top left: Innsbruck, Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, Sankt Gilgen, Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Villach

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Broadway Tower

A year or two ago, I was browsing in a local book shop, when the cover of an Ordnance Survey map caught my eye. It showed a beautiful, golden castle on a hill, which looked like an incredible place to visit. A bit of googling told me that it was Broadway Tower, and I mentally made a note that I'd like to go there one day, but I pretty much forgot about it until Covid began last year. Since then, I've tried to make the most of the less than ideal situation of being stuck living in a small village, by exploring as much of my local area as I can, including plenty of attractions in the Cotswolds. I've been keeping a list of nearby places to visit (which I've now nearly completed), and this week, Broadway Tower was the destination of choice.

Slightly disappointingly, the tower is much smaller and far less golden than it looked in the photo in the bookshop. But it was still nice to see it in real life - it's a very pretty building.

My dad and I actually went up the tower, which was a very interesting experience. There are three rooms inside (one on each floor) which have been preserved to represent the late 18th century time period when it was built. And being up on the roof was a real highlight; the tower is on the second highest hill in the entire Cotswolds area, and in theory, you can see across 16 counties of England and Wales from the top. The morning was a bit misty, so we couldn't see quite that much, but we still had some amazing views from up there. The best thing was that we could see a beautiful group of deer close to the tower!

After visiting the tower and going for a walk around the grounds, we visited one of the on-site cafés, where I had a delicious matcha latte and vegan lemon drizzle cake!

All in all, it was a nice little day out, and I'm glad to have finally visited this place which had interested me for quite a while.

I'll be going on another family outing tomorrow, and may be writing about that soon. And I also have some more Country Guides and Travel Tips articles in mind, so I'll have plenty to write here over the coming weeks and months!

Country Guide: Argentina

Name: Argentina

Continent: South America

Capital (and Largest) City: Buenos Aires

Language: Spanish

Currency: Argentinian Peso

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Argentina Standard Time (UTC -3)

Adaptor Types: Type C and Type I

Description: Argentina is the second largest country in South America and has a very varied geography and climate. Featuring desert landscapes in the north, the Andes mountains in the west, Patagonia in the south, and the Pampas lowlands and Atlantic Ocean in the east, there is plenty to visit in every corner of the country. In terms of culture, Argentina is famous for being the birthplace of tango dancing and for being a football-loving nation.

Why You Should Visit: You should visit to see all of the amazing nature Argentina has, including Aconcagua (South America's highest mountain), the Iguazú Falls on the border with Brazil, and the lakes and glaciers in Patagonia. Another highlight is Buenos Aires, one of the most incredible cities in the world, which is known for its beautiful architecture and vibrant culture.

Fun Fact: Y Wladfa in Patagonia is the largest Welsh-speaking community outside of the UK.

My Blogposts About Argentina

My Year Abroad Blog 2017-2018

- My Weekend in Argentina (Mendoza Province)

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- Buenos Aires: Day One

- Buenos Aires: Day Two

- Buenos Aires: Day Three

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Cities (Buenos Aires)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Castles and Palaces (Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Colourful Cities (Buenos Aires)

- Movie Travels (Buenos Aires)

- Travel Tips: My Top Five Mountain Destinations (the Andes)

- The Journey Between Santiago and Mendoza (200th Post!)

- Mendoza

- White-Water Rafting in the Andes! (Mendoza Province)

- Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Buenos Aires)

- My Year of Adventurous Travel (Mendoza Province)

Clockwise starting from top left: Cacheuta Spa, Mendoza Province; Casa Rosada, Puente de la Mujer, La Boca neighbourhood (all three in Buenos Aires); View of Mendoza from Cerro de la Gloria

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

Country Guides

I always enjoy writing articles for my Travel Tips series, and now I've decided to start writing a new series of articles here on this blog. This series is called Country Guides, and the name is pretty self-explanatory! Basically, the idea is to give an overview of the most important info about a country and the reasons why you should visit it. My plan is to write at least 14 of these guides and to publish one every week or so. The first one will be coming in a couple of days...

Update: November 2024

It's been over two and a half years since I published my 14th Country Guide, but over the last month, I've published five new ones, covering the countries I've visited since 2022. Google Photos has had some upgrades since then, so the collages for my new guides have a different, neater look! In addition, I've updated some of my old Country Guides to cover the travels I've done over the last couple of years. So if you're planning a trip to any of the 19 countries across Europe and South America that I've covered in this list, please check out the corresponding guide(s)!

I plan to come back to this series in 2025, to cover some new countries, and even a new continent!

Image by Andrew Neel from pexels.com

My Country Guides

1) Argentina

2) Austria

3) Belgium

4) Chile

5) France

6) Italy

7) Liechtenstein

8) Poland

9) Portugal

10) Slovakia

11) Slovenia

12) Spain

13) Sweden

14) Uruguay

15) Peru

16) Brazil

17) Malta

18) The Netherlands

19) The Vatican City

Lodge Park and Sherborne Park Estate

This weekend, my parents and I went on an outing to the Lodge Park and Sherborne Park Estate, a National Trust property located in the Cotswolds. It's quite a big area of countryside, with its main focal point being the 17th century grandstand. The grandstand isn't a big building, but it's quite impressive to see, because of its attractive classical style of architecture. There is definitely a slight touch of Italian palazzo about it...

The little ornamental pond in front of the house makes it look even more picturesque, and interestingly, we could see lots of little tadpoles swimming around in it!

When we arrived at the building, we were given a forty-five minute tour, starting with a short film about the history of the property. Sadly, it was originally built as a place for rich people to watch a cruel "sport" involving dogs chasing, and sometimes killing, deer. But luckily, now many different types of wildlife, including deer, live happily in the surrounding area.

After the film, we were shown around various parts of the building. I think my favourite bit was when we went out on the balcony and could look out over the countryside below.

When the tour finished, we moved on to our second destination of the day: the nearby Sherborne Arms pub. The food there was really good, and I also enjoyed seeing the pretty little Japanese garden next to the car park.

Overall, it was a very nice day out to an interesting place we'd never visited before.

Next Saturday we'll be going to Chepstow in Wales, but given that I've already written about it here, I'm not sure I'll be blogging about it again. However, I'll possibly be visiting a new local destination during the week, so hopefully I'll be writing about that (or something else) in a week's time!

South Cerney Outdoor

My trip with my parents this week was just a short one, but it was still a nice change of scenery. We went out on Monday morning to the Lodge Café at South Cerney Outdoor, a watersports centre in the Cotswold Water Park, to have a coffee next to the lake.

The last time I'd been there was back in 2016 for a free windsurfing session, as part of a government programme to inspire people to try new sports, following the Olympic Games in Rio. I really enjoyed learning to windsurf, and it's something I'd definitely like to do again in the future. 

But this trip was a less active one, as we just went there to visit the café, which now has a new balcony overlooking the water. All the tables on the balcony were taken, so we sat at a picnic table not far from the lake, from where we could watch the swans, ducks and stand-up paddleboarders.

The only disappointing thing was that the choice of food in the café was quite limited. I had read on the website that there would be a good range of vegan food, but the only vegan option on offer was crisps, which was a bit of a weird thing to eat at 10am for breakfast. However, at least I could get a vegan latte, and a very nice one at that.

Afterwards we went for a walk around the area, which is very picturesque. Sights to see include the River Churn, and several wooden cabins, as well as the lake itself, of course.

As for my future travels, I have some good news to report. Next week my parents and I will be going to Jennie's Kitchen (another café in the Cotswold Water Park) to feed the alpacas there (very excited about this!) and then later on in the week we'll be going on a longer trip, which I'll definitely be writing about here. We'll also be returning to Chepstow later this month, and during my time off in July we'll be spending a much needed couple of days at the beach!

Although things haven't been coming together as quickly as I would like them to for my move back to Chile, it does make me feel better to have some things to look forward to in the coming weeks. Obviously, if it were up to me, I wouldn't still be living where I am now, but I'm going to at least try to make the most of the rest of the time that I'm here. There are plenty of nice places to explore in this part of the world, and I'd like to document as many of them as possible here on this blog!