England: Onward to the Cotswolds!
Another round of driving, but unlike Ireland, this drive was through the mostly flat English countryside with a lot more golden than green hills. Roads are much more drivable here and people actually follow the speed limit — these Brits are so proper! We stopped in the highest point in the Cotswolds, a village called Stow-on-the-Wold. Quite a mouthful, so everyone calls it Stow. It was quaint, and seemed to be asleep since we were there somewhat early and the grim weather possibly scared off most tourists. The main attraction here is St. Edward’s Church. While the church itself is nothing spectacular, going around the outside of the building to the north door where two tall trees line the medieval door frame making it look like The Lord of the Ring’s door to Moria. It probably would have taken on more of that eerie feel if we had visited at night though.

As we were driving into the next town, Moreton-in-Marsh, Ash’s eagle eyes spotted a sign for a falconry center, and, of course, we had to follow them. So, we ended up at Moreton’s Falconry Centre. Unfortunately, all the one-on-one play time with the birds was booked up for the next week, so we opted for a walkthrough of the birds on display and a show of their prowess an hour later during the flight show. The mightiest birds were in an open air area each perched on logs with their feet tied down so as not to fly away. The Golden Eagle was Ash’s favorite, and I can see why because that bird was beautiful.


An assortment of large and smaller falcons perched a few feet from each other throughout that area. Then we walked around to the cages where we saw caracaras, vultures, owls, and Ash’s other favorite, the Bald Eagle (2 in one cage to be exact!). I fell for the cute little owls with the white snow owl, Crystal, being my prized pick. The next hour was one of the trip highlights so far: the flight show. Rio, a small falcon, flew around on the prowl for a field mouse or something worthy of his stomach. Next up, the arctic snow owl, Crystal came to play. She was brilliant — in every aspect of the word! Her ivory feathers with flecks of black reflected off the dreary gray clouds brightening up the day. She was gorgeous, and she knew it. Earlier in the day I tried to snap a photo of her in her pen, and she did a 180 degree head turn away from the camera. I got her eventually though, when I pulled out a fast-walking paparazzo shot around the corner just in time before she turned her head. But her celebrity must have gotten to her head because she was reluctant to fly as the rain started to pour down shortly after her stage debut. As it started to rain harder Crystal could almost be seen mouthing ‘I’m so over with this, just feed me already.’ She did a few more flights over the length of the field and then the nice trainer went ahead and fed her. Such a diva!

As the rain poured down, we got to see Frank a larger falcon. Frank on the other hand was not the brightest bird in the cage, so his display wasn’t worth writing about. Since the rain continued to come down hard, we had to rush to get our suitcases out of the rain and into our cabin on the farm where we were staying. Thank goodness for the car this time around, since this scene gave me flashbacks of our Como visit where the passing cloud rained us out while on foot with our suitcases!

