Oxford

Today we got up and took a double-decker bus back to Heathrow, then from its central bus station we took a luxury coach to the town of Oxford (about an hour away through countryside). Our first excitement upon being deposited roadside on Broad Street was that one of our cameras was accidentally left on the bus. Luckily in the UK there are those handy red phone boxes (not like in the US where every pay phone has been ripped out and dismantled) and Don called the bus company and the bus was only several blocks away at the Gloucester Green station, so we hot-footed it over there and reconnected with our camera. Then we strolled through the town and our second excitement was that this was “Open Day” for many of Oxford’s colleges – prospective students and their parents were arriving for tours and interviews, the town was full of well-dressed beautiful young people, and many of the colleges were open to viewing and we could walk through their courtyards and pick up information. In addition, we got ourselves on a walking tour hosted by a delightful elderly gentleman who used a long umbrella as a cane, and who was full of tidbits from the history of England and the university and who enthralled us as we peeped into various of its colleges. There are 39 of them, separate colleges, within Oxford University. The education is a 3-year program, run on the tutorial system, and there are still elements of the old formalities, including required robes at dinner, and full white-tie tuxedo robes for final exams. We started with Balliol (which, again, we were familiar with from both Three Men in a Boat and To Say Nothing of the Dog—and rather star-struck to see it for ourselves) and Trinity, and also got into...

Keble (see its gorgeous dining hall, set for the 3-course dinner) and into Christ Church (where some of the Harry Potter films were filmed). We saw the Bodleian Library and dined at the University Chapel café and climbed the Carfax tower (99 steps of an old Norman tower) to see the view of the entire city.

And yes, we went punting.

There’s a small boat rental place at the Magdalene Bridge, where you can hire a punter to take you out, or you can hire a boat and get handed a pole and have about 30 seconds of instruction and then get sent out on a small, shallow canal with no current. Thank heavens we weren’t actually trying to do this on the Thames, but rather on a side canal of the Cherwell River, moseying along at about duck-and-swan pace and gently knocking into the other boats full of Japanese and Indian tourists. We had an hour, during which we only got the punt stuck in the mud a couple of times but no one got wet and we drifted by a small boys cricket match and picnicking families on the banks. It was lovely.

Back at the pub across from our hotel we snagged a late supper of fish and chips and something called “mushy peas” on the side, which was exactly what it said it was. Tomorrow we will check out of EasyHotel, put our luggage into storage in Heathrow, and spend the day at Hampton Court (Henry 8th’s palace) before getting onto our evening flight to Dar es Salaam.

Halle in front of a poster. Just thought it was a fun shot.