The drive home, but the long way round. Honey-coloured stone cottages, two of the prettiest villages in England, and a proper Sunday lunch in a 700-year-old pub. By 7pm we're back in Bracknell. By 9pm Haruna and Amina are asleep. Worth it.
No rush. Coffee at Colonna & Smalls if anyone takes coffee seriously, or breakfast at the hotel. Pack the car. Wave goodbye to Bath. Forty minutes north-east, the Cotswolds begin.
A village so unchanged it's been used as a film set for everything from Doctor Dolittle to War Horse. No through-traffic, no modern signs, no overhead wires. We park at the top of the hill, walk down through it, take a hundred photos, then climb back up. Whole thing takes 45 minutes. Haruna and Amina will not believe it's real.
Bibury's Arlington Row is the cottage row printed on the inside of the UK passport — 14th-century weavers' cottages along a river that's so clear you can see trout. We wander first, then settle in at The Swan or The Catherine Wheel for a proper Sunday roast: roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, more roast potatoes than is sensible, sticky toffee pudding to finish.
Back to the start. Three days, six counties, a few thousand photos, one limestone arch, one Roman bath, two storybook villages, and one very full Sunday lunch sitting in our stomachs. Haruna and Amina collapse on the sofa. John makes tea. Nobody speaks for thirty minutes. Perfect.
Until the next visit, Haruna and Amina