Day Thirty: Oxford, England

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! I came home late last night to a wonderful birthday card from Rob's parents and drawings from Emmaline and Jordan. So cute, I'm hanging them up on the wall! Thanks guys.

Second of all, we are now on day thirty of our trip, which means we have been outside of Canada for a whole month now and loving it. But on more important things... OXFORD!

So, on Thursday night I met up with Rob after his class and we took the bus from Rotterdam Central to the Rotterdam Airport (about a twenty minute ride out of Rotterdam). The airport itself was fairly small, and not busy at all. It was a nice change, although they did make me check my backpack. Not cool. We had a great view out the windows of the hangers and airfield, and the sky here was absolutely insane. The sun was shining in the west, but clouds were rolling in fast, so the contrast was pretty cool to see.


Rob and I got there early so we spent some time on Rob's computer using the free WiFi that they offer at the Rotterdam Airport. We flew Transavia airlines to Gatwick airport, which took about 45 minutes. It's going to take me a while to get used to the fact that one can fly from one country to another faster than one can fly from one province to another back in Canada. We landed in England and had to run for the bus that would take us to Oxford. Of course, check-in had made me check my bag so we had to go pick that up first. However, we made it on the bus just in time, and made it off the bus a couple of hours later in one piece. Except for Rob's jacket which unfortunately decided to take the bus back to Gatwick without us. Hopefully Brendan can get it back from Lost and Found, but my hopes aren't very high for a favourable reunion.

We got into Oxford at about 11:30 and took a cab to Wolfson College where we were staying (a real, old-style London cab!)
The check in went smoothly, although we were starving and Wolfson is not exactly close to the down town food places... so we walked all the way back into town to get some food... Mmmmm, midnight kabob from a truck. We made it back in one piece and managed to fall asleep.

We slept in a bit on Friday morning... we'd had an exhausting day of travel the day before. Eventually we met up with Brendan who took us around to a few different colleges. I believe we went to Merton College and Christ Church College, and I learned a lot about the colleges from Brendan, but of course my memory for names and places is really bad, I'm sorry to say, so I can't quite place the names of these beautiful buildings pictured here. Maybe Brendan can help me out? He also took us to the Oxford market where we saw some very tasty looking wares, like meat pies and pasties, the oldest ham in the world, and fresh produce. We got some supplies for fajitas and had lunch back at Brendan and Judith's. Below I have included a picture of Merton chapel. Each college at Oxford has it's very own chapel and each is unique. You'll notice the difference between this one and Christ Church Cathedral.

In the Afternoon we went to Christ Church and saw the wonderful buildings there. Inside we saw the mess hall, which is full of portraits of Christ Church fellows (or "students" as they are apparently called.) Among the many many portraits of scientists, theologists, politicians and literary geniuses include portraits of John Wesley, John Locke, and Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll), to name some of the people I was more familiar with. We also saw the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral, which we returned to later for the Even Song Service. I think that all scriptures reading should be done with a coral choir dressed in robes. It was an absolutely enjoyable service and the choir, whom Brendan explained to be the 'C Team' of the choirs at the Christ Church, did a marvelous job in my opinion.


After Even Song, we all went to dinner with Judith's parents who were visiting from Austria and Brendan's Mom and two Grandmothers visiting from Canada. Rob and I then went home and watched British TV for a while and drank some PEAR MAGNERS CIDER. Oh man, new favourite cider, for sure.

The next day, Rob and I spent some time just relaxing and hanging out on the grounds at Wolfson. Unfortunately, Wolfson isn't as old and beautiful as some of the other colleges at Oxford (it was built in 1966), but it has some beautiful grounds occupied by lots of ducks and other birds. We had a fun day eating my left over birthday carrot cake, and drinking some wine. Rob was so inspired by the surroundings that we even drew a landscape... and it was very beautiful. (I don't care what anyone else says)



At 5:00pm, Rob and I headed over to Brendan and Judith's post-wedding reception where we met up with Margaret and Yoni, who had popped over from Deal for the occasion. We met some new and not so new friends and had a wonderful time of food, fellowship and fermented grapes. Afterward, Rob and I went back to Margaret and Yoni's room (down the hall from where we were staying) and played card games and Pictionary. I was having so much fun that I didn't realize I had had too much to drink...

...And paid for it the next morning. We were supposed to have gone to a service at Christ Church where the Archbishop of Canterbury was going to speak, but I unfortunately missed it. Disappointing, but at least Rob stayed with me to make sure I was ok. However, we did go to a little town called Iffley for Sunday Roast later in the afternoon. Iffley was an adorable town, like something out of an Old English fairy tale. It had little winding streets and high stone walls and thatch-roofed houses and the biggest slug I've ever seen in my life! And, a wonderful old church, smaller and more simple than the chapels in Oxford, but beautiful in it's own way. The graveyard around it was also intensely interesting, even from and aesthetic point of view, and I took a whole bunch of pictures close-up on old tome stones that had gorgeous, weathered textures. I hope to use them in an art piece soon.



After Iffley, Margaret and Yoni drove us back to Gatwick and we finally got home at about 1:00am. Overall, a successful trip. Next up: Germany, to meet up with Dave and Kirsten. We're going to crash their honeymoon for a few days!