Gallop End

I think I 'cheated' on much of my trip.  Can hardly claim to be an intrepid traveler when a friend or family meet you and smooth your path.  I suspect I might still be trying to find my way out of Heathrow airport had my niece not met me.  What a wonderful way to arrive in a country - wide smiles and a first time meeting with a recently born great-niece.  I just had to sit back and allow myself to be whisked away to the beautiful Wiltshire countryside.  Travel could not be less stress free.

A warm welcome from my brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Judy, a tasty meal, a good night's sleep - it was all so easy it was hard to believe I was on the other side of the world. 

I spent a few days relaxing with my English family, enjoying the rural surroundings.  Judy took me for a walk so I could get my bearings 

and Peter whisked me off to see nearby sights.  The weather was perfect, comfortably warm days, cooler evenings, the countryside green and lush, the rolling hills and cropped farm fields abundant with crops ripe for harvesting.

I think most of these are in and around Bradford on Avon.

We weren't there on the right day/time to see inside the Tithe Barn at Barton Farm Country Park.

but it was lovely to wander beside the river in the afternoon sunshine and take in the sights.

 

 Boys on bikes

  

boys in boats.  (Just pretend you can't see that girl!)

The first of many stone bridges I was to see in the UK but I wasn't to know that at the time. 

The surrounding hillsides covered with stone houses and cottages made of golden honey coloured cotswold stone.

Nearby Bath deserves a post of its own so I will do that tomorrow.