O is for OXFORD

This week, I'd like to share my visit to Oxford, England.  I'd known Anne, who lives in Oxfordshire, for several years through blogging and on Facebook but we had never met in person.  We arranged for me to come up from London by train and she'd meet me at the station.  (her photo at right) Well, it was as if we'd known each other forever!  We got along so well and she had planned a fabulous day for us.

First stop was Cafe Nero, a well-known coffee chain in England where we had lovely cappuccinos and talked and talked until we figured we should get going on our walking tour.  Long story short, she took me on the most fascinating walk all around the center of Oxford where I saw the most magnificent architecture ever!  You'll never see architecture like that here in western Canada!  We went to Christ Church Cathedral and its memorial gardens all the way down past University College to High Street.  We walked over Magdalen Bridge before cutting back and going down under the bridge to where you can rent punts at the Boathouse there.

We headed back up High Street past St. Edmund's Hall and Queen's College where we found a lovely place for lunch and then ambled into Mr. Simm's Olde Sweet Shoppe where we spent ages admiring all the shelves full of varieties of candy and cookies.  Again, you would never find a place like this where I live; my grandchildren would think they'd died and gone to Heaven!  We then cut through a narrow alley to view Radcliffe Camera, passing a quaint little cafe "Vaults Garden."  The next stop was one of my favourites because I'd seen the location many times while watching "Morse" and "Inspector Lewis" on BBC Canada and our Knowledge Network - the Bodleian Library. If you're an afficionado of these shows, you'll know that Morse loved opera and Lewis is beginning to understand it.  Hence, the music from Puccini's "La Boheme" in my slideshow.

Then it was up to Broad Street and a foray into Blackwell's Bookshop, apparently very famous in England, before passing by Trinity College on our way to St. John's College. Anne had decided that we would go and take a look inside this college because the church, in particular, was well worth a look.  However, it was closed to the public, so we chatted with the porter at the office just inside the gate and he allowed us to take a look at the courtyard and take a few photos if we wanted.  While Anne was still looking around, I continued chatting and mentioned I'd come all the way from Vancouver, Canada, and when he realized how far I'd come, he said to go along inside the church.  How obliging and kind!

It was beginning to get a bit dark by then so we decided to go to a lovely French restaurant that Anne had discovered once while in town.  We headed up St. Giles to the "Pierre Victoire" where we aced a lovely table in the attic area, even though we didn't have a reservation, it was 7pm and it closed at 8pm.

Anne had to catch her bus home and I had to catch the train back to London so we parted ways somewhere along George Street.  Anne asked me to text her when I got home, but that wasn't until after 11pm because I got lost somewhere along the way between the underground and the DLR - not a good time of night to be wandering around East London!  But I made it home safe and sound and went to sleep with visions of one of the most beautiful cities I've ever had the pleasure of visiting and of a new "real" friend that I hope, one day, will visit me so I can return the pleasure of being tour guide! Enjoy the slideshow!