OXFORD in Spring

 Oxford is a place we have always driven past and never visited so this was our chance. Five day's off in a row and we took the break to talk to our new best friend property search agent George.  This is his Oxford home, bit noice huh?  Had a cuppa and a good long chat playing with his dogs before parting agreeing he was charging too much to make it worth our while.  He did offer me a franchise opportunity tho....  

Anyway, we were really down that way to see Oxford university colleges and buildings so after a quick park up underground and the payment of extortionate parking fees we called into the tourist info centre and got the good oil on what to do.  Just across the road is the oldest college, Balloil.  Famous for many things and students like Aldous Huxley, Graeme Greene Nevil Shute, and Harold Macmillan (the lousy prime minister that agreed with De Gaul to dump the commonwealth nations (yes, including Australia)so england could join the EU, france kept it's colonies, anyway that's why the queen still has our passports, yes I'm bitter) Balliol have gone on to educate the likes of Boris Johnson (current London mayor) and a good bunch of the Obama administration to be masters in everything from literature to quantum physics.. 

 It was there we started taking too many pics because like all Oxford colleges there are nice buildings, gardens and things.  Here follows lots of pics.

 This dragon was in the chapel window and I loved him. Other painted and stained glass works were also great, the age of the college goes back in parts to the late1200's.

The fellow's garden with its collection of stone fragments from the earlier 1272 chapel.

  examples of accommodation buildings in the college.




We left that college and strolled down the high street until we found the oldest Saxon tower in Oxford and climbed it to look at the views.  Here they are.

 

 

There were bells inside the tower, re-done in the 1950's but still impressive. And this is the tower...

Just down the road on the way to the pub for lunch we passed the Tom Tower gate into Christ Church college, with its guard in his threatening bowler hat.  You can see he is guarding the cathedral behind, lest anyone should nick it.  
 But we were heading to the Head of the River pub for a well earned pint and a slap-up meal before walking the loop through the gardens and by the river up to the covered markets and the bridge of sighs. (as is our depth of research the markets were closed, but hey, we are used to that sort of thing, the galleries we wanted to see had been closed too)

 The gardens were pleasant as we made our way

 past Christ Church's back door with the tourist queues filing in for a looky at the cathedral.  We didn't bother.  Just another bloody church.

The cricket club that featured in the Morse TV series was much more to Gail's interest

 But we did walk via the botanical gardens with the Magdalen (maudlin) College spires in the background.

 Here is the obligatory shot of the Bridge of Sighs, actually just a Victorian footbridge to look like the Venice original but so much a part of Oxford we had to see it. Besides it is right near the Turf pub, a bit of a student institution, and another Morse set.

 

And after a short visit we headed off to find the Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera. 
 And that was it for the day, we were pretty well knackered and headed off to our hotel for a sit and a bed picnic of wine and cheese because the next day we had plans to do the Castle tour, a posh lunch and some hours at the Ashmolean, Britain's first public museum....

I thought the Oxford Castle Unlocked tour thing sounded naff but it turned out to be entertaining, informative and amusing.  Genuine and interesting guides saved it from being a bit of fluff and they interacted with us to ensure we enjoyed the whole thing, including the walk up to the top of the tower.  Amazing that it closed as an overcrowded and filthy prison housing six men to a tiny room..... in 1996.  There were many a horrific tale told.

 Part of the old prison is now the Oxford branch of the Malmaison 5star hotel chain.  We usually get a great lunch in their Leeds branch so we took ourselves in for a belter of a lunch.  Again fantastic food and service, a wine list that would take an afternoon to read and a room formed from the old guard's room and adjoining cells, walls knocked through appropriately.  Quite swank.


This here < is a shot of the Tom Tower, behind a tree,  where that guard stood guarding Christ Church College.  A very Oxford type of street scene.

Anyway we made it to the Bodleian Library and there was a Romance of the middle ages display on.  Had to steal a few pics of the original Grail story from which all the Artherian legends came.  Beautiful illuminated texts which, sneaking pics as I was, lost something in the non-flash interpretation of these wonderful tomes.  But you get the idea.

Yeah, okay for the academics, no these two are not the grail story,  I did take the grial book pic but for some reason it didn't copy across in order ..... so here it is now. out of sequence but.... pretty neat huh?

And here she is outside the Ashmolean museum Oxford,  www.ashmolean.org if you want to look in.

 And a few hours in there was all quite enough for one day too,  so we went to the pub.  The Trout Inn. Yes another Morse TV set pub.  Getting a theme as to why Gail may have been keen to go to Oxford?

 I was quite pleased , nice pub, by the water, near a canal, good ale, and a peacock.

 Gail was happy to sit inside for lunch

 And I was happy to join her as it was rather past lunch time.  The pub was a nice place to end our Oxford three night holiday as these pics of the place and surrounds show.

 Awwwww, the furry animal shot....

 Another Oxford visit is in all likelihood possible some time in the future to do the thousand things we didn't do.  If we are allowed to stay in England that is.

April foolishness

 No, we still do not have our passports back from the Border Agency so we remain stuck in Merri Olde Inglund..

You would wonder after last month's heatwave and the impending drought through 80% of England just when this shot could have been taken.   Well, it was early April and the last, I think of the winter snowfalls on our way home from a day in Guisley.

 All was not so cold and wet though because we discovered two litre bottles of this stuff for sale in Costco in Leeds.  I know, I know, pre-mixed cocktails.... why would you.
  Well , All I can say is we have paid a lot of money for far worse Margarita's in classy bars around the world.  As spring gave us a few good days we hopped into the back yard to try it out. You are welcome to come and try a few with us anytime.

 It has been a bit of a doggy month, We had Graeme and Kate come visit us with Bentley the Great Dane again. A proper long afternoon tea of cheese, crackers and wine which eventually resulted in Graeme walking home and bringing back pizzas for an evening meal at around,  I dunno, too late to be thinking of cooking....  Great night and we even had more Margaritas, and they were very nice.  

We also went for a nice long dog walk with Lulu,  Megs  Angela and Rob.  Rob picked us up from home and we walked from Clifton through the crop fields to Bramham, the long way.  Met up at the Swan pub with Dylis and Max, owned by Clare and Paul and we all got a few wines and ales around a raging fire while some local muso's played classic pop and folk tunes and sung a bit in the background .

 But of course no month would be complete without some of our cheese man's recommended product. Every Thursday Wetherby has a street market, it is a market town you see, and the cheese man lays out about fifty different cheeses.   He knows everything about them, their origin, their history, their flavour profile..... I just ask him for the strongest brie, bitterest blue and biggest cheddar and have a tasting spree before buying.  I have learned that un-pasturised milks make the best cheese.... go figure.  These four were all supurb, the other one is a gouda-like something or other, equally head-filling.

 Whenever we drive anywhere north/west it has become mandatory to detour past Ripley Castle so Gail can get her fix of Ripley Ice Cream.  This is a shot I took while we walked around the castle estate to exercise away some of the calories.

 April is also the month when the Wetherby Lions celebrate the anniversary of becoming a chartered Lions group. Its a black tie affair with the Mayor and police chief in attendance. Gail is on the far right of this pic. It was a good night, reasonable food, great chat, few speeches and many toasts.  A classical guitarist playing in the background was a nice touch.

 Regrettably, while spring has told the flowers to bloom it has not bought many warm days so we have had to eat inside most of the time. To that end we are trying out little village pubs we have not been to , there are thousands of them up here.....

 This one is Chequers Inn at Bilton-in-Ainstey, about 7 minutes east of Wetherby.  The food was very good and the service willing. We had spinach and watercress soup followed by a swarm of tiger prawns in a garlic and herb sauce with salad and four types of home baked breads to sop up the juices.... Yes, rather nice and with a classy Sav Blanc from Chile, a rather pleasant day out, and just across the road were chooks ranging through farmyards and nice horses in fields....  really quite lovely.

So April finished with not many highlights really.... Next month we are having a few days in Oxford, then perhaps will head down to London for a couple of days in the big city....Catch up with Trish and Cora perhaps, Maybe Peter and Pauline.... who knows. Maybe we won't go,,,,head off somewhere else....look at something different. Such is life.