Yesterday I uttered those words I never thought would leave my lips “I think I have had enough English Cream teas now”. We were sitting in Boswell’s of Oxford. A family owned department store and independent since 1738 – that’s 50 years before Australia was even discovered. Darryl just nodded – too full of finger sandwiches, scones, cake and tea to respond verbally.
It was another of those days that characterize our current existence. We had woken and thought “where shall we go today”? Oxford, being a 25 minute train trip was on our list and so Oxford it was.
I love that in England we can just jump on a train and alight in some incredibly famous historical place. Oxford for example – a city revolving around its prestigious circa 12th century university. A city spared Hitlers bombs because it was going to be his base once he had conquered England. A city that spawned Alice of Alice in Wonderland and a university whose hall was the inspiration for the Hogwarts dining hall. All this a mere 25 minutes away! With the day spent gazing rapturously at its buildings, peaking in pubs frequented by CS Lewis, snapping monuments to martyrs and rummaging through every antique and op shop we could find – is it any wonder we returned home exhausted.
OP shops! Yes – once scorned and shunned by Darryl these shops (since the discovery of some antique cutlery) have become the inspiration for many of our travels. Whilst the antique shops over here are great – they are (really) expensive. We have discovered that the trick is to try to find our antiques in the numerous charity shops.Its hard work but we are having a ball.
Windsor Castle is another of those places an easy half hour train journey away. We visited a few weeks ago and not really knowing what to expect were totally blown away once we got there. It turns out that the Queens preferred place of residence is a really dinky di fabulous looking castle. Perched on a hill not far from the famous Eton college, Windsor Castle is actually the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British Kings and Queens for almost one thousand years! It also has a pretty amazing dolls house on display – Queen Marys Dolls House – the most beautiful, largest and famous dolls house ever built. We finished the day off with another of those cream teas that eventually cumulated in total rejection of any more cream teas at Boswells yesterday.
Last week we headed once again into London where we met our niece for lunch on the banks of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Whilst the food offered was pretty dismal, the location more than made up for it. Open to the public since the early 17th century, Hyde Park is the largest park in London. Despite intermittent showers, we managed to stroll through its grounds ending up in front of Kensington Palace – official London residence of Kate and Wills.
And talking of Kate and Wills – one of the first forays we did in our little VW Golf was to Bucklebury- home to Kate’s parents – the Middleton’s. Again not too far from us, the location was chosen as our first venture in testing the English driving conditions firstly because of Kate and secondly because we had been told it was a very pretty drive. Being a manual car I had the job of driving and Darryl of navigating. I can tell you instantly that Darryl ended up being a useless navigator and actually threw both the GPS and the UBD away at some point. Needless to say our first English driving adventure did not go all that well. The following week we swapped the manual for an automatic and with the reversal in roles – were both happier.
To finish off for this week – Toilets – are very few and far between over here. If you are lucky enough to find one then it’s probably pretty abysmal and you more than likely will have to pay to use it. Television ads – the English have a really quirky sense of humor and it is displayed none more clearly than in their TV ads. Many the time I have sat here going “what the heck was that ad about”? It takes about 2 or 3 viewings before the meaning reveals itself. Postage – the British postal system leaves ours for dead. You can post something here today and it more than likely will arrive at its destination tomorrow.
Next week we take off for some more adventuring around England before Ireland the week after.
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