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Exeter Cathedral 1400
Heavy stone with a feeling of lightnessLynmouth – Oxford, with Exeter 1998 August 5
Jane suggested I catch the early train (10:10), with Barbara, and spend a few hours in
Exeter before catching the train on to
Oxford . This worked very well. Exeter has a left-luggage place run by a taxi company. The train system was deemed too vulnerable to IRA bombs to keep luggage anymore.
I remembered things of Exeter from my visit in 1977. It is bustling. I had lunch (a pasty) in a pub and spent the rest of the time at the
Cathedral . A permit (one pound) was required for visiting. It’s worth it because there so many original things in their original places. The “Friends of Exeter” keep everything in good repair, from the choir, to the brass, to the stone. Once during my time touring, a pastor came out to say a prayer, to remind us it was an active church. There was also a service in one of the chapels.
From Exeter to
Reading was fine. Reading required a bit of humping of luggage, but everything has been better than leaving London. Oxford station was being modified, but nothing was too difficult. The Combermere House
B&B is a Victorian house turned into rooms. Mine is small but very nicely kept.
Oxford 1998 August 6
Breakfast was a delicious fry-up (eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, fried bread).
The elderly gentleman who runs the B&B with his wife took my hand and kissed it in the most inoffensive way – courtly. He also advised me very clearly about the buses. In the end I didn’t take the city bus. I bought a ticket for an off/on tour of Oxford. Rather than getting off and on, I took the whole tour to get oriented, then got off in town, and at the end of the day I got on to come back up to the hotel. At six pounds, a good value.
Oxford was dreadfully congested, with cars and many, many buses, on medieval-width roads. The architecture was spectacular, but the traffic robbed it of romanticism. I wandered and took pictures until forced by hunger to eat lunch – in a café in the “covered market”, similar to Calgary’s Eau Claire Market. Then I went to gawk at the original
Blackwells bookshop, and wrote down the titles of several books. The pound exchange
Bodlean Library
Established 1602 rate was so high that it seems futile to buy books here. Better to try for the Canadian price through “special orders” (or the library).
Then I went on a walking tour of the
Oxford colleges (a few of the oldest of the 39 colleges). This was excellent, because the guide (French) knew lots about the colleges’ history and about how Oxford University works. Then I had a drink in a 17-century pub next to Blackwells – down a few steps and with a very low ceiling with bowed ceiling timbers. Back to the hotel, then out to a French restaurant for lamb back!
Oxford – Cirencester 1998 August 7
The checkout time was 10:00, but the train time was 12:40. The hotel agreed to keep my cases for the morning, and the courtly owner booked a cab for me. By virtue of turning the other way from the hotel, I found the Oxford Canal walking path, which took me to the bus station area. Near that was a new shopping square. I fell into temptation at a discount book store! Then I had a coffee in the sunny square, bought a sandwich for lunch
Radcliffe Camera (library) near All Souls College
Radcliff Camera built in 1749
All Souls College established in 1438 on the train, and walked quickly back to the hotel (about a mile).
The train was easy. To my happy surprise, there was a bus at the
Kemble train station, so the trip to
Cirencester only cost 85p instead of a taxi fare.
My hotel was right at the centre, across from the huge parish church. There was also a market going on in the street in-between. Not finding a proper watchstrap, I bought some ribbon for 50p to replace my broken strap. I paid 35 p for five delicious apricots.
Our group met this evening over a drink. Two couples are over seventy, and one couple is about thirty. One fellow is full of himself, but everyone seems fine. Dinner was very ordinary.
View map of this transition travel.
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
Did you visit the library?
I just googled that library and saw some images from it. It looks wonderful. I'd like to visit it and go in and have a look. Did you do that? /Ake