Busy week - 2

On day two of No2 Son's visit, we were a little more organised and we went off reasonably early to visit Bourton-on-the-water, armed with comfortable shoes, bottled water and a rucksack. Bourton-on-the-water is a small town that has a river running through the middle and is a big tourist draw. It is part of the picturesque Cotswolds and built with the traditional limestone found in the area.

Burton-on-the-Water with the river Windrush flowing through it

TBH by a model of one of the churches in the town

One feature of Bourton-on-the-water that No2 Son recalled is that it has a model village that you can visit which is a model of the real place. Because the real town has a model village in it, inside the model village is a model of the model village.

The model Windrush

Of course we had to go and visit this and he was delighted to find it as he remembered, but he was even more delighted to find that inside the model of the model village there was a smaller model village and if you look closely at the smaller model village, there is an even smaller one in that model too.
The tiny model village was only a representation, but gives you an impression of an infinite series of ever smaller model villages inside the models.

The model of the model village inside the model...

The next level down, a model of the model village inside the model of the model village inside the model...

The circled model inside the model of the model......
Well you get the picture

No2 Son in the model village. To the left you can just see the model of the model....

At lunchtime, we found an interesting cafe, which is named with the Jewish greeting ‘Shalom’. This seemed to contradict the obviously Christian theme of the place, but it looked good and we went inside. There we found a menu that I noted vaguely had no prices. On the back was an explanation of the name and its interpretation that showed it is indeed a Christian organisation that supports charities and makes links all over the world.
We ordered a light lunch and all enjoyed what we had ordered but when it came time to pay, we were told that there was no charge but we could make a voluntary contribution but only if we wanted to, and the amount we gave was entirely up to us. We put in the box what we would have paid for a similar meal in any other cafe and wandered into their shop where they had a large map of the world showing all their links to other people. It was very interesting and had the names of the contributors in their native languages and scripts and No2 Son and myself spent a little while trying to read the languages we thought we might understand.
We then went on to do the tourist bit around the town and enjoyed a lazy stroll for the rest of the afternoon along the river and around all the tourist shops that seem to have sprung up since I last went there when No2 Son was small.

The No2 Son was going home on the Thursday and we had nothing planned, so TBH and I took the opportunity to recover from our days out until it was time to take him to the station in the afternoon. For some of the time we watched a movie that he had not seen since childhood. The movie is noted as one of the worst films of all time and he was curious if it still seemed as bad as it did when he was ten. TBH did not join in but No2 Son and myself sat and rocked with laughter at the wooden acting, terrible sets and the innapropriate synthesizer music used on the soundtrack. The movie is Hawk the Slayer and despite its cast, including many good actors, including Jack Palance, the lead role is so bad that it is funny. Coupled with the lack of sets, the corny character names used and the bad plot the whole thing is ludicrous. We marvelled that someone had actually believed this movie would net them a profit.

Once No2 Son had gone home, Friday was cleaning day but it was not the end of our week by any means we had to preparing for the next event that was to take place starting that evening.