Day Tripping from Oxford

We have been so busy that we haven't had a chance to sit down and do a blog entry. But today (Monday) is a relax at "home" day. There is so much to see we have to remind ourselves to slow down a bit - so today is that day - we are Oxford, and Oxford only.

Janet and Gilles left on Saturday morning, so all last week we did day trips (you read about one on the post last week) with one day spent more officially touring Oxford (going into the colleges, touring the library). Gilles did an admiral job of driving on the left side of the road, aided by the GPS (in terms of getting us where we needed to go) and three “back seat drivers” saying “other side” or “attencion” (that is how "attention" is pronounced in French) every so often.

Last Tuesday we were off to Warwick Castle, the most medieval of the castles in the country.

It is set up to be a family friendly attraction, so lots of interactive activities (jousting, docents in period costume, areas of the castle named to keep the kids interested “the princess tower”) but we maneuvered past all of that and did enjoy the interior of the castle. Because it was set up for families we did enjoy getting to touch things – lifting up swords which weighed much more than we expected. Those knights in shining armor must have spent a lot of time at the gym.

After the castle, we went to Stratford-on-the-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace.

It is a popular destination, by car, tour bus, train, and even houseboats!

Very cute town, with many "leaning" structures.

Before going on to describe it, we have noticed that throughout this country, authors and poets are very celebrated and honored in all venues (museums, churches, even houses on the street marked as an author’s birthplace or where they lived). As an avid reader I have found it quite emotionally moving. So here we were in Stratford, where the man who wrote all those plays we had to study in high school English, or (for Jim) perform on the LPC stage, was born, went to grade school, lived (also in London) and died. Self-guided tours were incredible – of his birthplace, his daughter/son-in-law’s house, where he lived when he died, and where he and family were buried. While we couldn’t quite do it in order because of the timing, it does give you the sense of walking through somebody’s life and then to sit in the church and look at the memorial stones – really hard to even put into words.
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Shakespeare's birthplace

and the garden in back.

Anne Hathaway's cottage.

This is the house where his daughter and son-in-law lived. Son-in-law was a physician, so this home housed a museum of medical items from the time.

The house where he was living when he died.

The gardens outside the home were stunning, like so many wonderful gardens we have seen in this country. English country gardens - probably an insane amount of work to keep up, but we are enjoying the efforts, from the sculpted gardens like this one, to the more seemingly "wild" ones like in the backyard of his birthplace.

surreal to sit here and view this.

Wednesday brought us to Salisbury Cathedral, the construction of which was the inspiration for the book “Pillars of the Earth”. It was built between 1220 and 1258 – given the size the "speedy" construction was a remarkable feat and worthy of an exciting novel.

Also unique architecturally as it has a nave that is open from front to back as opposed to the traditional gothic style that has pillars and screens in the middle. A tower was also added later over the center, and the bowing of the pillars is noticeable as they had to accommodate the additional structural weight. The church also houses one of four surviving Magna Cartas – and they claim it is the “finest” of those four. The docent pointed out that it had an abbreviated form of Latin – and credited it as the original “texting”.

So if that wasn’t enough for one day, we went to nearby Stonehenge. Having seen so many pictures of it, I didn’t expect to be impressed, but impressed would be an understatement. I felt much like I did when I saw the Grand Canyon – so much better in person than in photos. But, here are the photos anyway!

To cap off the day, we went for a pub dinner in Shaftesbury, where cobblestoned Gold Hill is often used in movies/shows that need to give the flavor of Old England.

This area of Dorset, including Stonehenge, is Thomas Hardy country and with another tribute to writers, the audio tour of Stonehenge included a reading of Hardy from Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

Thursday was spent touring two of the Oxford Colleges (Magdalen and ChristChurch) and the Bodlean Library. While Christ Church and the Bodlean are the most popular because of being featured in the Harry Potter films, Magdalen is the most beautiful,

its gardens include a herd of deer.

Here is Christ Church College circa Harry Potter

And Jim enjoying a brief fantasy of being on the teaching throne at Bodlean Library.

I think we all had fantasies of going back to school…

We ended the evening with dinner at “The Trout” – a pub on the river outside of town that friend Connie recommended from when she did a semester of Law School at Oxford in 1978 – it is still here and also recommended by the owners of the house.

So, here I will take a moment to dispel all the rumors about the crappy British food. We have had great food (with the help of recommendations from the owners) here in Oxford, but also out-and-about.

Jim has found this to be a vegetarian-friendly country. Wherever we go, including pubs, there are multiple choices for him. Much easier than last year’s trip.

Friday we were back in the car off to Windsor and another castle. While in the rest of Europe it is overwhelming to view the wealth of the Catholic Church, here it boggles the mind to see the wealth of the royals.

It is the oldest continuously inhabited royal castle in Britain. Exhibits included impressive collections of artwork (Van Dyke, Da Vinci, Michelangelo just to name a few) as well as a portrait photo collection of the royal family (yes, Prince Charles’ ears were big right from the start).

The castle exterior is not that beautiful, but the moat around it has been turned in to a beautiful terraced garden.

As mentioned, this is a functioning residence of the Queen...and the Queen needs her mail!

I took the opportunity to pose near one of the guards - won't be possible at Buckingham, so why not be a tourist!

Our drive back to Oxford took us along winding roads through thatch-roofed villages, rolling hills, lots of sheep. Picture perfect.

Next adventure: London. Stay tuned…