EUROPE & DC '23 • Day 28: Oxford, UK

COLLEGE TOWN

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Christ Church College, Oxford - The inspiration for the staircase at Hogwarts, right before the sorting

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EXPLORING OXFORD (AGAIN)

Now that Sarah is all moved in, we can take a couple of days to just wander around a bit. We've been to so many places on this trip, none of us are in a hurry to go see a lot more stuff. But before we could do that, the van had to be returned. The Enterprise return location in Botley, was only 5 miles away, BUT, there has been ongoing roadwork on the way there and it took us over an hour. Then, the gas station that Maps (and Google maps) said was nearby, no longer existed. So we had to scramble to quickly get gas and not be late for our return.....just made it. The walk back into Oxford was considerably faster than the drive.

Obligations complete and now it's time for lunch and we decide to see if the market we noticed last night was open. Lots of excellent ethnic choices to be had, and I assume Sarah will be trying this place out often. While sitting at a table and talking to a nice English couple we are joined by a student looking for a seat. Almost immediately, there is an intense discussion regarding mass transit, which is the topic our new tablemate is researching. Whew, brazen and full of opinion. Oh yeah, American. The couple we were already talking with, thought English, now live in Boston, where their grandchildren are. They had lived in various places around the world (including London) that had mass transit and were pretty well versed in what is, and isn't a good system. But our young new friend (well he looked like he was Sarah's age, but turned out to be in his early 30s) wasn't having any of it. He insisted that Boston had a good system, or San Jose (if you can believe that). Anyway, we had to disengage after a bit. Sarah continued that conversation and we returned to other topics like football (soccer) and Abba.

Before letting the whole day get away, we walked over to the Christ Church College & Cathedral. As a student, Sarah can enter to university related buildings for free. Without her student ID though, she had to bust out her acceptance letter to get us through the doors! Created almost 500 years ago by Henry the VIII, it's a beautiful setting. What a place to do your studies.

And a short walk on the canal trail. Maybe we can walk the whole thing next time. I think we did over 20,000 steps today as it is!

After a month of eating out, I am seriously done, but we did want to have one more nice dinner with Sarah before we went home. So twist my arm: Moules Frites (Mussels and Fries). Ah, so good, but such a large portion I couldn't actually finish them.