Wednesday, October 7 "Oxford"

Good morning, everyone!Today we traveled to Oxford, England which is only about 30 miles from the Sherborne flat. We decided to use the Park and Ride because we were told the traffic in Oxford is awful and boy were they right. It can also cost 20 pounds a day to park near the City Centre. So we caught the bus and got off right down the street from our first destination. One of the main reasons we wanted to come to Oxford was to walk in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis and J. R.R. Tolkien who wrote "The Narnia Chronicles and Lord of the Rings". These two men were professors at Oxford University, more specifically Magdalen College. Their favorite watering hole was a little pub called The Eagle and Child. They spent their evenings there with other scholars in lively literary discussions and discussing their most recent books and essays.

The room where the authors hung out is called The Rabbit Room and is located just by the cash register. They have photos of the authors and a handwritten note that they left for the owner one night, drinking to his health. We arrived right at lunch time and were able to get a table and order some food.

The fish and chips were delicious, some of the best we've had and we split the order, having plenty. The portions of fish and chips are much larger than Long John Silvers at home, as you can see. And we had to save room for our now favorite custom, coffee and scones.  We looked around for souvenirs;  but as we have noted in other places, their is less commercialism here. So...no t-shirts!

Our next stop was Christ College which is both a cathedral and a college. First founded by King Henry VIII, it is the only institution of its kind where a church has a college and a college has a church.

The actual dining hall where students eat all their meals at Christ College was used to film the dining hall scenes in the first two Harry Potter movies. They are the scenes where large platters of food come floating down from the air and is also the room where the Sorting Hat does its work.

  Now that we had done all that walking, it was time for us to find somewhere to rest and take in our afternoon tea, okay, coffee and scones. We found a very nice place on the walk back to the bus and enjoyed some refreshments.

Surprised you! Just so that you don't think we are stuck in a rut, it isn't scones this time, but rather a delicious cheesecake called Sultana. It had raisins in what tasted more like a mouse and a thin lemon custard spread on top. Tomorrow we head back to Edinburgh and will take most of the day in travel. So, till a Friday.