Oxford
World Trip Two
Thursday, July 23 2009: Prestatyn to Oxford, England
Our hotel in Oxford.
After many train changes and four hours we landed safely in Oxford. I
must say that even though we had to change trains several times the trip was
very pleasant. Julia and I continued our Gin Rummy battle which has been raging
across the world since we left home on March 31.
Julia will deny it, but I am in the lead. We are staying in a very nice hotel
which is right in the center of town. This is our present to ourselves for all
the hard work we put in, in Wales.
Julia moved to Oxford when she was 17 years old, so she does know the place in a
way that has been tempered with time. But she did remember a restaurant walking
distance from the hotel and it was still there. We enjoyed some really good food
and wine and Julia was flooded with memories of her first years away from home.
Friday, July 24 2009: Oxford, England
You have to always watch out for dinosaurs.
This was a day of sightseeing and visiting museums. I had no idea how ancient
the architecture is in Oxford; so many interesting old buildings. Every
time you turn a corner you have to pull out the camera. Our first museum for the
day was the Pitt Rivers. This is a really unique museum.
Part of the space is dedicated to very accessible natural history displays; such
things as dinosaur skeleton replicas and 4 billion year old rocks. But
everything is very open and well explained. The other part of the museum is a
collection of things pilfered by British explorers over many hundreds of years
of exploration. The items range from shrunken heads to Stone Age fire starting
devices. I have never seen a collection like it before.
Many old buildings.
We then went to the Museum of the History of Science. It consisted of a
reasonable collection of scientific instruments over the ages. What struck me
while looking at these instruments is how they started with a focus on light and
ended with radio. What they did not know is that they were the same thing just
at different wavelengths. We
started with light manipulating instruments as we have eyes evolved to see at
this wavelength.
It was not until our minds and knowledge had developed that we were able to
manipulate and understand radio.
The evening ended with a visit to the picture theater to see the new movie
Public Enemies. Julia was really drawn to this movie as it starred Johnny Depp
and Christian Bale, two of her major heart throbs. It was a good movie.
Saturday, July 25 2009: Oxford, England
When Julia first came to Oxford at sweet 17 years of age her best friend at
nursing school was Tracey. So
it made Julia really very happy to see Tracey again and meet her fiancé Mark
today. We all met at our hotel and then wandered off through the very busy
Saturday morning streets of Oxford to a pub, well located right next to the
Thames.
Old friends and new embrace.
Believe it, or believe it not, the sun was out in full force and it was even hot
in Oxford. We chatted and laughed, I learnt some new things about Julia's scandalous
past, all while watching people embarrass themselves as they tried to punt down
the river. I
am so happy to have met Tracey and Mark and look forward to attending their
wedding in August next year if we can.
Enjoying some really good food from a really good English chef.
Jamie Oliver is a terrific English cook (I know it sounds like an oxymoron),
whose food Julia and I both love. So it was fantastic for us to end our last
evening in Oxford by enjoying dinner at Jamie's Italian restaurant. We were not
disappointed as the food in his restaurant is just a nice as made by Julia at
home from his cook books. I like Oxford.
Trip stats
Miles Flown: 22,236
Miles Hiked: 366
Miles Skied: 2
Miles Driven: 6,001
Miles Sailed: 110
Miles Trained: 180
Miles Bused: 338