Thursday, April 27, 2017

The Beautiful Village of Blockley in the Cotswolds, England II

Well, it took me much longer to continue my first post about our morning stroll through Blockley than I anticipated but finally, I am there.

You may remember that Blockley is the lovely village in the Cotswolds in England where we spent part of our vacation last year. We were in search for a place to have a traditional English breakfast and decided to walk to the local village cafe and had the great pleasure to explore the village on the way.



We were walking down the High Street in the direction of the village cafe and passed this incredible beautiful cottage that I couldn't take my eyes (and camera!) off. 



Isn't it lovely, like right out of a fairytale?



Looking down the High Street in the direction of the village center. This photo shows how narrow the streets are. The cars you see are all parked there. Only one car can pass in one direction. You can imagine that often you meet oncoming traffic in the middle of the road. If that is the case one has to back up all the way to the beginning or end of the row of parking cars. The locals are astonishingly good at this, but for my husband and me, it was often a "hold your breath" situation.



I loved the red poppies growing in the tiny traffic island that divided a small intersection. You can also see the traffic island in the photo above on the right side.



There was no shortage of possibilities to shoot romantic photos in Blockley!



One of the many "mini gardens" with climbing roses conquering the charming cottages.



This cottage looked like nicely renovated and very well loved. I could have moved right in. The green paint color in which the windows and door are painted was typical for the area and goes so well with the honey-colored Cotswold stone that most cottages are built off.



There was a gap between the houses which opened the view into the gentle hills of the surrounding beautiful landscape. So peaceful!



The village church of Blockley. The white van that ruined my photo belonged to a film crew. We obviously weren't the only ones, who had discovered the beauty of Blockley.



We couldn't find out what type of shop this really was, but someone made the effort to decorate the window with vintage packaging. One of the many charming details we came across in Blockley.



More honey-colored houses. I wondered if these were new or old. If they were new they fit in wonderfully with the old excisting ones. At the end of the High Street to the right, you see another white van from the film crew.



On our stroll along the High Street, we passed by many lovingly planted up old, maybe even antique, stone containers like this one. It wasn't secured in any way and I truly appreciate the fact that people in the English countryside are still decent enough not to steal them.



We finally reached our destination of the local shop and village cafe. Again I wondered if this was a new or an old renovated building? The village cafe and shop was a hub for the locals to meet and chat. Life seemed to go a bit slower in Blockley than we are used to...



Aren't these Whippets gorgeous? Such a quintessential elegant English breed of dogs.



We walked into the cafe, found a nice table, and took our time to study the breakfast menu. We were in the mood for a traditional English breakfast and decided to go with the local option: "Blockley English", which contained two fried eggs with two rashers of bacon, sausage, roasted tomatoes, black pudding, sauteed mushrooms, and one slice of toast, all for 7.95 pounds.

It also came highly recommended by our friendly waitress. I asked her what black pudding was, but she only said it was delicious, encouraged us to take it, and promised that she would tell us later.



This is what our breakfast looked like! It was heavy, couldn't be called exactly healthy but as described very delicious. The black pudding is the black patty close to the white creamer. As we were eating it, we still couldn't find out what it was made off. My best guess was black beans. 

When we asked for the check we called our waitress up on her promised to reveal the secret of the black pudding and she told us with a big grin on her face that it was made out of cooked pork blood, pork fat, and oats and sourced from a local farm. We swallowed a bit hard on this piece of information but had to admit it was tasty. Still, for me trying it once is probably enough, though!

After we finished our breakfast we continued our stroll through the village, there was still so much more to discover. Since this post is getting too long, I will blog about it in another entry hopefully in the near future.



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If you liked to stroll through Blockley with me and missed the first part of this morning walk, please click here to catch up.

Before I finish, I would like to mention that I am way behind visiting the blogs of you, my dear blog friends. Life has been super busy lately again and I just can't find the time right now. I hope this will change again in the next couple of weeks. Please bear with me, I am trying my best to catch up with reading your posts and leaving comments.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Christina


I am linking up to
Shabby Art Boutique - Create, Bake, Grow and Gather  //  How Sweet The Sound - "Anything Goes" Pink Saturday  //  One More Time - Share It One More Time  //  My Soulful Home - Sundays at Home  //  Life And Linda - Dishing It & Digging It  //  botanic bleu  - Monday Social  //  Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home - Amaze Me Monday  //  Between Naps On The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday  //  Coastal Charm - Show and Share  //  Cedar Hill Farmhouse - The Scoop  //  Sweet Sensations - Celebrate Your Story  //  A Stroll Thru Life - Inspire Me Tuesday  //  Savvy Southern Style - Wow US Wednesdays  //  A Southern Daydreamer - Outdoor Wednesday  //  Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup  // A Delightsome Life - Home and Garden Thursday  //  21 Rosemary Lane - Share Your Style  //  Peonies & Orange Blossoms - Thursday Favorite Things  //  Rattlebridge Farm - Foodie Friday and Everything Else  //  French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday  //


36 comments:

  1. Hallo Christina,
    I can imagine how you felt being in Blockley. On my travels through England I had been several times in the Cotswolds. I just can recommend to go there. It's always like being in a fairytale,isn't it.Your photos I liked very much, because you they focus on important things worth looking at.Thank you very much.
    Regina from Germany

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    1. Regina, welcome to my blog!
      Ooh, you have been traveling to the Cotswolds as well? Then you know the beauty of this area first hand. It is truly an incredible pretty part of England, which I hope to visit again. The 14 days that we stayed there last year were way too short, but I am very grateful that we got to enjoy it for that time!

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  2. Well done for eating the black pudding! In Ireland they serve both black and white pudding at breakfast. I have never dared to ask what is in white pudding. The Cotswolds are so pretty. It is lovely to see some photos of an English village in summertime - a timely reminder of everything we have to look forward to!

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    1. Sarah, white pudding?! Since I found black pudding already, hmmm let's say a exotic, now you make me really curious what that one is made of...
      I couldn't agree more, the Cotswold are incredible pretty. I would love to see them in spring, well any time of the year to be honest ;-)!

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  3. Dear Christina,
    thanks for sharing these super beautiful pictures! I love your posts about your England vacations! After reading such posts I always feel the need to visit the English countryside myself. This year I finally booked a garden vacation to England which takes place in June. The focus is on roses, but now the travel business where I booked cancelled the visit to Mottisfont Abbey garden and replaced it by a visit to another garden. I am really disappointed by that as I always wanted to visit Mottisfont Abbey. (Especially because of the beautiful pictures you posted about Mottisfont Abbey garden). I was so much looking forward to seeing it myself. I wrote to the travel business and hope a solution can be found. Otherwise I am really thinking about canceling the vacation. Are you going to England again this year?
    Best wishes,
    Lisa

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    1. Lisa, thanks for your upbeat comment :-)! Wonderful that you booked a garden tour to England, but I am so sorry to hear that the travel business canceled the trip to Mottisfont Abbey. Maybe they substitute it with another really nice garden? There are so many great ones it is impossible to see them all...
      I really, really, hope that my husband and I can go on a vacation to England this year. We have the plan, but because of professional reasons it is not entirely clear, yet. I would love to have more certainty at this point, I am ready to go any time...

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    2. Christina, I talked to the travel business and luckily we will visit Mottisfont after all. The plan was to visit Mottisfont on the weekend, but guided tours aren´t offered on weekends anymore. After I had talked to the travel business, they decided to change the program a bit and we will now visit Mottisfont on a Monday. I am sure you are right about there are being many beautiful gardens in England, however Mottisfont is really a garden I always wanted to visit. I am so, so happy that I can see it after all!!!
      I can totally understand that you would love to go to England again! It seems that you always travel to the nicest places in England. I really hope for you that you can visit England again soon!

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  4. Blockley is somewhere that I know well - black pudding, well that is an acquired taste, my husband loves it, but it is not for me. We have just been on a little jaunt and nearly every hotel stayed in offered us black pudding at breakfast - it is quintessential British.

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  5. Such a beautiful village ! And what a breakfast :)

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  6. What a nice experience. Having two sets of English grandparents, I was smiling when you were trying the black pudding. The problem with English breakfasts is not that they are not filling, but that they are lacking in a bit of plant material. A strawberry or something would be nice.

    Barbara
    faireadowplace.blogspot.com

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  7. Hi Christina, ohne zu wissen wo, sieht man doch sofort, dass es die Cotswolds sind! Wunderschön.

    Sigrun

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  8. It is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us. If I was not afraid to fly I would want to visit England more than any other place in the world.

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  9. What an amazingly beautiful place. Thank you for sharing it. The home with the pink climbing rose on its front--ah, sigh!

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  10. What a charming place ! I think I would have skipped the black pudding and doubled up on the bacon !

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  11. What a glorious village! You're right that it looks like something out of a fairy tale, or maybe an episode of 'Doc Martin'!

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  12. I would have seen your face after the waitress told you about the black pudding! She was smart not to tell you before ordering. The village is just like it should be. Beautiful buildings and flowers. Loved the poppies! groetjes,
    Hetty

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  13. Hi Christina!
    What a lovely village, I love the English countryside, lovely cottages and beautiful gardens. I can imagine you had a lovely vacation. I haven´t been in this part of England, but my first trip to England was to Devonshire, beautiful villages with white cottages and thatched roofs.
    Just like a fairy tail.
    Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
    Best regards /Marika

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  14. What an amazing place!Beautiful climbing roses and pretty poppies!Thanks for sharing!

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  15. Oh, what a charming place! Lovely to see the beautiful cottages, the flowers and rolling hills, and the little shops. I knew what the 'black pudding' was....I think I read it somewhere. I suppose it is an acquired taste! Just like caviar, too! You must have been so thrilled to be there. Beautiful photos. xx Karen

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  16. Liebe Christina, vielen Dank für's Mitnehmen auf diesen herrlichen Urlaub. Die Fotos sind total super. So eine englische Stadt kann schon etwas.

    LG kathrin

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  17. What a charming village! It does remind me of a fairy tale, except for the part about the 1 lane traffic and having to back up! I actually knew about the black pudding, having read the ingredients in a novel I once read. Glad you enjoyed your traditional English breakfast!

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  18. De jolies maisons à l'architecture typique et des rues charmantes joliment fleuries ont fait de ce voyage un lieu pourvu d'un charme certain que tu as immortalisé avec talent. Je ne connais pas le pudding noir mais il me parait sympathique et mérite d'être connu.
    Très beau reportage chère Christina...au plaisir de revenir pour continuer le voyage...
    Belle journée...jocelyne

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  19. So picturesque and beautiful! I love the architecture, the flowers, and the landscape. I really want to do a walking tour of the Cotswolds sometime in the near future. Thanks for posting these beautiful photos!

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  20. What a beautiful place. Very English village-looking. I will have to make note of the town name to put on my list for "someday". . .

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  21. ​Oh, this is quintessential English at its best Christina!​ I absolutely love that photo of the climbing rose on the cottage, and containers with plants usually gets left in peace over here - even mine on the street, in in the middle of London have never been ruined or stolen, people seem to appreciate them and leave them alone.
    I giggled when I read about you two eating black pudding without knowing what it is, I guess every country has its fair share of strange food and Britain is no exception - there are much more here. Have you ever tried tripe when visiting here?? If not, then best to do the same - eat first and ask afterwards!

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  22. Oh my goodness, what a lovely place. I am going to add this place to my my must see. I will make sure not to order the blood pudding. Yuck, lol. Did you find out what they were filming there? What a lovely place and so happy you shared at Dishing it and Digging it link party. Thank you for sharing.

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  23. Thanks for the armchair travel of the charming Blockley. I'll try anything once and would have tried the black pudding too!

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  24. What a charming spot. Breakfast looked delicious, too. Thanks for sharing at Monday Social.

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  25. England + gardens + roses are unbeatable! Have a great week!

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  26. This looks like a perfectly splendid day! I love old architecture and gardens so all your photos were a delight. Thank you for sharing. Visiting from Mrs. Jann Olsen's today.
    Patti

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  27. I came across your post from my link party at Share It One More Time. We LOVE Blockley. We spent an afternoon here because we are huge Father Brown fans, which is filmed here. We made a special detour to visit here and see the church especially on our way back from York. We are trying to decide whether or not to go to France and Germany or go back to England which we love so much. We generally go to England every other year but decided we better go to France and Germany again because of all the dangers there it nay be impossible in a few years. :( Enjoyed your lovely tour and remembrance of this charming Cotswolds town.

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  28. This looks very quaint and that breakfast was a bit heavy. Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story, and I hope your week is going great.

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  29. Happy Pink Saturday, Christina. Thank you for joining us, and I hope you will be back every weekend.

    I am so glad you took us along on your walk around Blockley. What a beautiful village and wonderful experience.

    This post is being featured on my Pink Saturday post this wee as "the one with the most clicks".♥

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  30. Liebe Christina,
    so tolle Bilder wieder.
    Da hattet ihr bestimmt eine tolle Reise!
    Demnächst bin ich auch das erst mal in England
    und schaue mir ein paar Gärten an :-)
    Ich freue mich schon riesig!
    Ganz viele liebe Grüße
    von der Urte

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  31. Gorgeous, thanks for sharing your English tour.

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  32. I have stumbled upon your blog from our Thursday Favorite Things. Blockley is simply charming!! I went to the Cotswolds once and have been plotting my return back. Thank you for sharing your adventure with us! I will feature you later this week as part of Thursday Favorite Things! Angelina @ Peonies & Orange Blossoms

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