Day 151, 2 December 2012, Oxford
(Oxfordshire, via Buckinghamshire), Road Trip!
We jumped in Heather's roadbeast today (gorgeous little Toyota IQ that is way bigger on the inside - quite TARDIS like in fact) and headed off to explore Oxford - the University town. Aside from a mulled cider for Heather and me at the Red Lion, and a pint for James, the order of the day was Free Stuff Only. OK. Aside from the £1 for a walking tour guide book and 50p for 2 postcards. We took off on our walking tour from Balliol College, passed the 2 oldest coffee shops in Britain (seems to be some discussion between the pair as to who got there first) - established in 1650 and 1654 respectively. We visited Oxford's Covered Market and went into a knitting shop - which made me ever so briefly homesick for a pair of needles and a woolly hat pattern. Wending our way through and out, we ended up on the Cornmarket and saw the oldest building in Oxford - St Michael at the Northgate (dating to around 1000 - 1050). It was a gorgeous day - the fine weather we had in Edinburgh has followed us all the way to Oxfordshire and the dreaming spires of Oxford were on show - gleaming golden in the glow of the setting sun (... at 3.30 pm ish). Before then however we walked the Christ Church Meadow and were very impressed with their ice rink. Just couldn't figure out why no one was skating on it... turns out it was indeed frozen, but was flood water from the recent extreme weather (not usually a lake there at all). Even saw one of Christ Church's livestock stranded in the distance on an "island". We strolled through the Old Schools Quadrangle at the Bodleian Library and around the back of the New College. Founded in 1379 it reminds us of the Pont Neuf in Paris.... it was no doubt "new" at the time. Our stop at the Red Lion for a warm up, sit down and a wintry drink was enhanced enormously by a group of dancing men with flexible metal swords and an accordion player. Having done a bit of research it turns out it was Rapper dancing, which is a form of Morris Dancing. Where would we be without Wikipedia! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper_sword) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance). The day concluded with a short ride up the front of the top deck of a double decker bus (novelty still hasn't worn off) back to the Park & Ride. Strictly speaking the next stage of the journey was for me at least the Ride & Snooze. Rumour has it I slept for most of the trip home. Can't believe it myself. Tomorrow we are going to explore the old town of Hemel Hempstead and kick back before we fly to Budapest (Hungary) on Tuesday. Never a dull moment.