U.K. Trip Blog #51: Crazy Drive and Perfect Timing

Sudeley Castle former Guard House

We left Sudeley Castle and headed back toward Windsor so we could return our rental car.

GUARD TOWER - On our way out, we were sure to stop at the what we think was one of Sudeley Castle's Guard Tower and get a photo of it.When we pulled over to get the picture, we noticed that someone had converted it to a house and was actually living in it!

THE ATTRACTIONS - Because the tour inside Sudeley castle was a big disappointment, we looked into what the property is used for. The castle is used for weddings, and there's both and owlery and a pheasantry near the property that has a rare collection of birds. Not being big fans of birds, we skipped it. There's also a small play area for kids, but we didn't see it. We did, however stop and have tea and scones from the coffee shop and sat outside under cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-50s to enjoy them before we headed back to Windsor.

Road to Crazy Driving!

THE CRAZY DRIVE - The GPS took us down a one lane road again, and I didn't want to follow it, but reluctantly did because there was no signage leaving Sudeley Castle to get to a main road. After going 4 miles down the one lane road we came to a sign that said "Road Closed." You'd think they would put a sign at the beginning of the street (there were no houses on the road, just fields) so people wouldn't drive four darn miles only to turn around!!!  Once we got back to the castle, we just followed tiny signs to the town of Cheltenham and turn off the GPS. We found the highway quickly.

PERFECT TIMING - We turned the GPS on again after we got on the M4 highway and knew we would follow the signs to Windsor. We would use the GPS as we got closer to our destination to find the rental car office- and when we were  miles from the exit, I pulled into a rest area and filled the gas tank at a petrol station. We pulled into the Hertz rental office at 4:55 p.m., just 5 minutes before the deadline to turn the car in! It was perfect timing.
  We took a taxi back to Windsor and the Bed and Breakfast. We then walked into downtown Windsor and had a great Italian meal at Francesco's. We had a nice chat with Ramona, the waitress, who told us that she moved there from Romania and married the owner of the restaurant. The food was outstanding. After dinner we walked in and out of shops in Windsor and then called it a night.

NEXT: A SURPRISE PARADE FROM WINDSOR CASTLE!