Day 6 - Oxford

I write to you now, from the train from London to Chester.  Supposedly, there is Wifi available on this train, but I’m having trouble with the connection.  The girl next to me is reading, “Fifty Shades Darker,” I want to let her know that there is much better quality smut on the internet for free, but I can’t figure out a way to do that politely.  Maybe she’ll read this off my screen and save me the trouble.

Day 6 – Oxford

These things are awesome.  I found them at the convenience store on a train platform.  I really want to try one.

We arrived in Oxford with high hopes, but I’m dismayed to say it was one of the less interesting stops on our trip.  Matthew and I decided to do another commentated bus tour, and used this to get partway to our B&B.  We were greeted by a disgruntled gentlemen who spent the rest of our stay retreated in his room immediately after giving us the key.  He did, however, recommend that we walk along the channel instead of the road to get into town, and it was admittedly much nicer.  There was a greater variety of waterfowl than we encountered at Dumbleton, and Matthew mistook a white duck for a mute swan.  In all fairness, it was a rather large duck, and at first I thought it was a goose.  Further along, there were indeed mute swans, much to my glee.  I’ve noticed that in Canada, cyclists approaching you from behind will shout out what direction they are passing you in.  Here, however, you’re lucky if they ring their bell, instead of just rushing past within a foot of you.

 We found another large cathedral that was one of the highlights of the town, (I’m dismayed that I’m beginning to become desensitized to the wonder architecture in Cathedrals,) and considered paying the admission fee.  We were put off upon discovering that the cathedral itself was closed, and they were asking 15 pounds in order to see some halls.  No thank you.

Dinning Hall in St. Merton's College

We wandered around instead, entering one of the St. Merton’s College, one of the many that make up the University of Oxford.  Each college is where the students eat and sleep, as well as attend classes.  The dining hall reminded us of a very Christian Hogwarts.  We ended up getting lost around the grounds, but found our way out of the labyrinth eventually.  It was indeed very nice, but now I don’t feel jealous of Oxford students the way I did before.  I wasn’t actually that impressed. 

We took the sightseeing bus again, around the city.  I was pleased to hear that the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum were free admission, but they were both closed by this time.  Matthew and I wandered around a nice market area for a bit, finding a magnificent hat store, which was closed, and an even more amazing cake shop.  The cake shop had both impressively made and designed cakes, as well as cake decorating supplies.  What intrigued us the most were the large bags of “cake ends” that were being sold for one pound per bag.  This shop was also closed.

I’ve named this the Oxford Problem, where everything seems to close at 4:00pm.

We opted for a cheap dinner, and milkshakes at “Shakespheare’s”.  We were both very impressed by both.  We bought “pasties” at this strange, pirate themed Cornish pasty place that I keep seeing everywhere.  We were both amazed.  For about $5.00 CAD, I bought a vegetable and cheese pasty.  Now, imagine a hot pocket.  This hot pocket is 2-3 times the size of a normal hot pocket, and is made with real pastry, and is stuffed with stew.  Yessss…  So good.  Very dense and filling, at a great value.  I was also impressed at the range of vegetarian options, about 4 out of the dozen or so choices.

The milkshakes were also pleasing.  The variety of options of mix-ins was outstanding.  I had caramacs and cookie dough in mine.

We also checked out this place:

Shout out to co-workers at Mountain Gems:  It's like a gem store in here!

We took the nice scenic walk back to our B&B, and that is about all I have to say about Oxford.

-Found the problem with the train wifi.  They expect me to pay for it.  Nope! -

P.S. If you appreciate reading my blog posts, find anything particularly interesting, or funny, please let me know.  I don’t know what you guys like, dislike or what to hear more about unless you tell me.  Comment!

You know you’re in England when: 

These are everywhere

Bye~

- Elise