Blogs from Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Moving on to Oxford today, we decided that we would spend the day at Bletchley Park, as it was close to Oxford. We knew that because it is the weekend that many people would be out and about, and the other place we really want to visit, Blenheim Palace, would be better after the weekend. Bletchley Park was a secret base during WWII. It decoded messages, troup movements and orders from the German enigma machines. We arrived about 11.30 after a two hour drive through some lovely autumn colours. It has taken until the last week or so for the trees to really change into the autumn colours. We began with an introductory short film, then picked up our audio guides and started to wander around the property. To keep the work really secret, the team ... read more

The last time I had been in a plane was in Richmond airport back in 2012 with my parents and sister; we were coming back from Orlando, Florida after spending a week in Disney World. And now, here I am, sitting aboard a British Airways double decker plane, casually sipping on Heineken and Red Wine, sitting beside some of the best friends a person could ask for, and geeking out to J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beast movie as I head to England. The trip started off on a positive before we even landed, in fact, before we left Heathrow Airport I knew luck was on my side. More on that later, but I must first mention about how efficient and frankly easy the check in process was for getting into England. I had very little memory of ... read more

Ahh . . the joys of long distance air travel. We cannot really complain but we were ready to drop by the time we reached Helsinki. The Finnair A340 from Singapore onwards was just that bit more cramped and was significantly noisier than the previous A330. We found it difficult to snooze. Thankfully, the leg from Helsinki was short and in a brand new A350; perhaps the most technically sophisticated plane around. It still had that “brand new plane” smell. Note to Qantas: buy some A350s. Sunday morning and Heathrow welcomed us efficiently and we were soon at our Kensington hotel; only three and a half hours before we could check in. After twenty-eight hours of air travel, we felt badly in need of a shower; not to mention cleaning of teeth. Trying not to stand ... read more

Oxford 2015 The first thing that I noticed when we arrived in England and especially in Oxford were the colossal buildings and amazing architecture. It made me exited to explore the city and gather background knowledge about these buildings. A picture is worth a thousand words so I let them speak for themselves. Here are some photos I took: *Note by the editor: many of the pictures cannot be pasted in this webblog due to technical issues. A link to view this blog on google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByhPB03GyAGTUml3X1pvMUwwZzg/view img=https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/PHzLflBJoYsY6JPM_ckJ1ZwCpFwzq19VKPcGdsvowDb1T2shxrBnFXB3jLZ5d8VE9QCmlx1cdcD9rENECTa8NU8ILJZz_K3n-RVW-TDaXbTu0db3JD4PrP_newBO-PWv_mBmqyTEavCWyie3Uw img=https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Ni1Lyp0dH4g6jl2ZkOkjEsQg4z3N9e_oOefGLAfWIu10ghmd32qrHuA59J6zh4J1vzCNjYvtlS7nyDALZKPU1... read more

Day 1 After a 10 hour busride full of happy singing, we finally arrived in Oxford. We barely fit into the train that blasted us and the bus through the Chunnel. From what I’ve heard, Oxford supposedly is one of the best places to study. We’ve come here to find out. The whole group went to the Mitre. There we had, for some of us the first, fish and chips. The desert was delicious even though Daniel Gibb wasn’t happy about desert as he scolded personnel at the mitre not once, but twice about the missing ice cream with the pie. Afterward, some others and me decided to head into the ‘euro bar’, in celebration of Lynn’s birthday. Day 2 After our English baked beans, scrambled eggs, tomato, toast, sausages and bacon by ... read more