http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , United Kingdom , England , Oxfordshire , Oxford en-us Sun, 19 May 2013 14:11:10 +0000 Sun, 19 May 2013 14:11:10 +0000 There are two types of holidays. Those where you visit people and those where you visit places. Right from the beginning we knew this was going to be a people visiting holiday with a wedding to attend and JB returning home for the first time in three years. But with the wedding set in such a beautiful location in Oxfordshire I now wish wed built a bit more exploration time into our visit. Ob http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-786198.html They say that heaven is an English day in springtime. If that39s true spring for us began on May 1st biking over the rolling Lanbourn downs home to English horse lovers for thousands of years at least since prehistoric people carved horses into the chalk soil by removing the overlying soil. The oldest of the white clay white horses is so big that the best place to view it is from the air. A http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-784236.html How do you get to Oxford Study Study Study I suppose someone who knows the famous joke about Carnegie Hall would say. If you don39t know the answer to that one is Practice Practice Practice Anyway it is a challenge to find a good cycle route between Bath and Oxford as we learned by experience over the past three days. But we did it spending one night in Avebury so we could get http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-783768.html Yesterday it was a little bit a disappointed. Today we should visit Oxford and tomorrow we should go home. So we hoped that today it would be also one of the highlights of our trip. And it was. Oxford is a very beautiful city. It feels small open not very busy and is very atmospheric also because of it beautiful cultural buildings. And all highlights are easy to walk well some parts take http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-769720.html I think it39s a giveaway that Nick wrote this blog with the mention of the 39brickwork39 in Oxford.. Considering we have now spent much more on our car George getting him fixed than what we actually paid for him a trip out of London town was definitely what was needed. And what better place to drive than Oxford With it being only one and a half hours north east of London it was ve http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-765971.html Oxford39s boat race names Torpids Summer Eights Bumps Isis Skulls Christ Church Regatta still make me twitch though I twitch nowhere near as much now as when I rowed and when I saw the race names on the calendar in the training room.The names still conjure up memories of English sport for the privileged cricket hunting fly fishing and rugby union. Such sports need expanses of cared f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-765876.html London is not only great to explore but also as base for day trips. So I slipped in my itinerary a day trip to visit Bath and Oxford. There are actually group tours to various destinations but after reading many horror stories getting left at time too short at each attractions etc I decoded to take matters on my own hand. However as Bath and Oxford are quite far from each other and got lots http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-765686.html Catherine39s aunt Berenice has a lovely home in the inner suburbs of Oxford and we gathered there for the days leading up to and following Christmas Day. Berenice cooked a wonderful traditional dinner including an eight kilogram turkey cooked on an AGA stove and we shared the day with Charlotte Imogen Tarrant and James Hoyle. Duncan Anderson Christine and boys Theo and Toby coming over http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-764260.html Our daughter Elise has been living in the UK for a year now London to be specific. We could not let another Christmas go by with catching up. Catherine travelled across before me and we all met up at Catherine39s aunts place in Oxford on Christmas eve.Catherine and Elise started the adventure with an excursion to York.Greg arrived in Oxford after a long but uneventful flight from Australia. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-762861.html I almost decided not to write about what was a mostly uneventful day in Oxford. It was as the title suggests oh so quiet. But I guess if you are one of the 18000 Oxford University student intelligentsia in pursuit of academic excellence then that is probably how you like it.But nevertheless Oxford is probably the most famous university town in the world with lots of magnificent architecture http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-751076.html Hello Welcome to the Blog This is just to set things up and get you guys familiarised with the blog...if you want to keep up to date with what we39re up to we will try to give regualar updates on our whereabouts and what we have been up to along the trip. Happy reading hopefully Carla and Dan x x x http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-740408.html I had to wait until we got home because of iffy internet connections. We are home well happy.This will be our last blog from Oxford. The internet was not at the B B last night so I am writing this one on the bus taking us to Heathrow Airport. They actually have an electric pug by our feet so I am not running down the battery. Yesterday was a wonderful day but a little bittersweet with knowi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-706757.html First let me say thank you for all the great comments. They are so encouraging. We had a fabulous Easter service at the Christ Church Cathedral. They had chairs everywhere in every nook and cranny. We were glad we got there reasonably early but the 1100 service didn39t start until 1130 because of getting all the people in and seated. We sat so we could see the Dean deliver the morning mess http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-706089.html We had a lovely day in the Cotswolds. Seeing such interesting places like Blenheim Palace StowontheWold Chipping Norton and BourtonontheWater. How could we go wrong with names like these Most of the places were smallish towns or even villages. We were looking for a real country pub that was off the beaten track for lunch and saw a small sign on the A44 for the small village of Broadwell. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-705318.html Hello again. Now we are back in business. Yesterday we located a nice camera shop and are back into the whole tourist thing.Jim and I took the tour of the Bodleian Library. It was so amazing to be sitting in a room that had not changed since 1488 AD. That39s over 500 years old. The only change had been in the 17th century when Christopher Wren added a door on one side of the building. Wish we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-704972.html So sorry that I have been so long. Our camera has decided to give up the ghost. It was one that we had bought in China so I think we got a fair run for our money. It was just an inconvenient time to break. So we had an interesting Wednesday. We found the Methodist Church and some other good things whose pictures we hope to be able to recapture when we get home. S I am sending some of ourdaught http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-704943.html Another full day. Chrissy didn39t feel like going out and walking today so Jim and I sometimes with Louis did our personal best on walking with 22600 steps which is about 11 miles. I have to admit that after dinner my legs didn39t want to climb the stairs up to our room. We went to the University Park where Louis is determined to unearth a mole. They also have the Cricket grounds here http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-704235.html Greetings again from Oxford. Jim Louis and I took a nice long walk yesterday as the day was mainly sunny with some clouds. We went through the meadow again crossed the Thames River and went to this tiny little village of Binsey. It39s sole claim to fame except for being so quaint is their pub The Perch. It was great to be able to get away from the city life so easily and just stroll along http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-703934.html We had another lovely rather cool day yesterday. They are having a drought here and are wishing it would rain and we are so happy when it doesn39t. Sounds like a selfish tourist doesn3939t it We actually missed the morning service because we were too late. We thought it was 1100 but it was 1030. But not to worry the Evensong in the evening was really a proper service and not w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-703704.html Happy April Fool39s Day and also Palm SundayWe have had a quiet few days since we are trying to be dutiful dogsitters but still managed a litle fun. On Friday we went shopping for Chrissy some warmer pants since the weather has gotten decidely cooler. We are assured though that this is still good weather for this time of year. There was such a crowd that we went to a meadow close to the Th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-703413.html