It was a gorgeous day, so we walked from the train station into Oxford, which is a very pretty, small college town.
River Thames |
Sheldonian Theatre |
Bodleian Library |
As we walked out of the courtyard, there were a few tourists in front of us asking if we knew where the Bridge of Sighs was. At first we wanted to reply, "umm, sorry you're in the wrong country, that's in Venice" - and then we turned the corner and saw this:
Hertford Bridge (at Hertford College) is also known as the Bridge of Sighs, due to its similarity to the one in Venice, which I saw last summer :) We walked under the bridge and down a somewhat sketchy alley to grab a pint at Turf Tavern. This is the pub where Bill Clinton allegedly "did not inhale" while he was studying at Oxford ~ they even have a sign for this out on the patio!
Next up, we toured through Trinity College campus, where Lauren attended. It was beautiful!
the dining hall |
The grounds were absolutely immaculate. Apparently you aren't allowed to drink red wine out there because if you spill, it might stain the grass. I mean...seriously??!?!
From there we walked toward the River Thames. We passed Christ Church, which is where many of the scenes from Harry Potter were filmed. We had no cash and didn't feel like spending the entire rest of our day in the ridiculously long line, so we just took pictures from the gardens. So pretty.
Afterward, we hung out at a pub called The Head of the River, which as the name suggests, sits right on the Thames. I had my first Pimm's cup and watched some other tourists go punting. It was a very cliche afternoon ;)
don't mind if I do! |
After our Pimm's, we made our way back towards the train station. We stopped by two pubs where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to be regulars. There were all kinds of plaques and signs with some cool information about their group of writers that I have since forgotten. Perhaps it was that last pint... ;)
photo op! |
We had such a great day in Oxford and I'm lucky to have a co-worker who is fun to travel with. We were especially glad we planned for this day trip ahead of time, since we had no real free time during the week to explore London. We've both been there a few times before (see my past trips to London here), so we were fine having a low-key week until our last night. After four very busy days in the office, we spent Thursday evening in the Trafalgar Square area and enjoyed quite a few pints - we deserved it! :)
And once again my crazy travel luck kicked in big time on the way home. Our flight was overbooked, so when we checked in, they were asking for volunteers to take the next flight which was only an hour and a half later. I put my name on the list and was super excited when I was selected - I figured a little extra time at the airport was totally worth $500 in travel vouchers. (I do this quite often, which helps fund some of our vacations.) Even better, I got on the plane and was bumped up to first class! I mean, seriously - you can pay me to sit up there every time. Please and thank you, Delta.
Though I have to admit I was rather spoiled after our Emirates flight, and Delta could not even compare. Since