Well Thad and I have now been together for 4 years. How creepy. I suggested that perhaps we should call it quits and start from scratch to make it less scary but he didn’t agree. Oh well.
To celebrate, we decided to pop up to Oxford for the weekend. Even though we’ve been living in London for almost 3 years, we have seen shamefully little of the rest of England, instead heading overseas whenever we had a spare few days.
Oxford is only an hour away from London so we caught the train up in the morning and spent the day exploring the town. Having not read up much about the place, only knowing that it had some universities and some vague connection with Harry Potter, we wandered around aimlessly for a while. As it’s quite small, we could easily cover the whole lot by foot.
Our first stop was Christchurch University. It was a beautiful, imposing building, with ivy creeping up the walls and curling around some of the windows. Just as interesting to Thad and I, however, was the fact that there was a FIELD next door. With GRASS and TREES and no buildings! Oh god it was nice to be out of London. We considered frolicking in the newfound space but instead stepped inside the university.
Built in the 1500s and obviously carefully looked after, the university was beautiful, with the church being a highlight. We had the luck of being in there when the organ player was practising which definitely added to the mood.
Emerging from the uni, Thad and I agreed that one university was enough and decided to find a place for our picnic. What!? You have to PAY to get into the Botanic Gardens? This was certainly against our principles so we ate on a park bench instead.
After lunch we just wandered, stumbling upon the Bodleian Library and peeking in random doors and courtyards. We also popped up to the top of the Carfax tower to see a view of the “City Of Dreaming Spires” and considered writing to the Mayor and suggesting the name change to “City of Dreaming Spire”.
Exhausted, we headed to our accommodation, The Barn. Just out of Oxford and set along a little canal, this lovely little B & B was a converted barn with a very friendly owner. She kindly picked us up from our bus stop and drove us there, as well as giving us loads of information about the neighbouring area. We had dinner in the local pub before heading to bed.
The next day we went to Blenheim Palace, which was nearby and, despite the absolutely extortionate entry price, would have to be my favourite palace that I’ve been to. Although the interior was general Palacey stuff, rugs and ornaments and old furniture (we didnt see much of it anyway cos we lost each other, so both Thad and I rushed through the whole thing trying to catch up with the other person), the gardens were amazing. They had a butterfly house, giant chess boards, a brilliant hedge maze (way cooler than Hampton Court’s) as well as a beautiful lake with rolling green hills, sheep, pheasants wandering around. Aahh.
Oh well, back to the Big Smoke ey.
