family travel

Autumn in the Cotswolds With Kids

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This was the second October half-term holiday in a row we took a trip to the Cotswolds. Since I never got around to writing about it last year, I’m now doing a 2-for-1 special on blogging about it.

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Both years, we stayed at the Lygon Arms, a former coaching inn-turned-luxury-hotel that dates back to the 1300s (!), which boasts quite the list of famous names who have stayed under its roof. King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, King Edward VII and VIII, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor…

And now these notorious characters:

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Wham, Bam, Thank You, Amsterdam

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Or “Hamsterdam,” as E calls it. I started this post nearly two months ago, but it got long, and I got busy. Better late than never, which was my approach to blogging about Christmas in London, too.

We had a great three and a half days in the beautiful city in the Netherlands in May. I’d been there before, when I was 20, with my parents and younger brother. Since I’d hit most of the big tourist must-dos in Amsterdam back then (Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank’s house, Heineken Experience Tour, a stroll through the Red Light District, and what felt like ALL the churches), and M had traveled there for business a couple times, we didn’t feel pressed to drag our kids to places that aren’t particularly interesting to a 3-year-old, or baby-buggy-friendly. So this trip we could just enjoy being in what is actually a very child-friendly city, despite its reputation for its Red Light District and “coffee” shops.

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Of Winnie-the-Pooh, Anne Boleyn, and Sodden Shoes: A Tale of a Weekend in the Countryside

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Memorial Day Weekend in the States is also a bank holiday weekend here in England, so we had planned a getaway to the English countryside, from Friday to Monday. One of M’s business associates had recommended the Griffin Inn to him as a family- and dog-friendly place to stay. He told us to ask for the room over the pub, so the baby monitor reaches down there. Good tip!

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