{England} Oxford & C.S. Lewis

When my sister and I planned out our time in London we knew that we wanted to take at least one day trip out of the city. We looked at a lot of different options, but the one that ended up sticking was Oxford. I thought it would be cool to see the university, and my sister was thrilled at the idea of checking out anything CS Lewis related.

CS Lewis' house in Oxford is still there today and it's actually used as a place for university students to come and live in for a year or so at a time. I think there are maybe 4-6 students living there at any given time. If you email the foundation ahead of time you can come and tour the house. My sister managed to get that setup and we did a tour of his house with about 6-7 other people led by one of the students living there.

Now I have to admit that even though I like CS Lewis, I really did't know that much about his life. My sister and this one guy who were on the tour were huge fans and were practically giddy with excitement throughout the entire thing, so that was amusing. If you're a CS Lewis fan and ever end up anywhere near Oxford, I'd highly recommend going to see his house if you have the time. I greatly enjoyed it and the guy who did the tour was awesome. He had a lot of great info about the house and CS Lewis' life and was just generally fun to talk with.

After touring the house my sister and I ended up going back to the center of town and wondered around aimlessly for awhile. We ended up grabbing lunch at what I would call a Chipotle equivalent. I've discovered that these exist in every place you go. While I was in Boston there was one, in Philly there was one, in Dublin there was one, in Oxford there was one. Sometimes they're small chains and sometimes they're a lone entity, but the restaurant concept is everywhere. It's somewhat become a tradition of mine to try them in every city that I go to. So far nothing has lived up to my beloved Chipotle.

Oxford is a beautiful city, but having done zero research about what to see there left us a little bit underwhelmed after lunch. We ended up walking by a sign for a guided walking tour and jumped on that idea. I'm so incredibly glad that we did as it's one of the most enjoyable things I did during my entire time in England. The next timeslot almost got cancelled because my sister and I were the only ones signed up, but at the last minute two other girls showed up. We got to do the entire tour with just four people and our tour guide.

As soon as the guide learned that my sister and I were interested in CS Lewis he pointed out anything that he could in the city relating to Lewis, so that was pretty cool. What I really loved about the walking tour was that we'd pop into a doorway that I almost hadn't noticed and then suddenly we'd be in a gorgeous courtyard of one of the colleges. And then we'd pop through another doorway and we'd be in a stunning chapel. If it weren't for the guide I think we would have missed out on some of the real beauty of the university, not to mention I never knew how the colleges all worked to make up the entire University and it was cool to hear about that from someone with a lot of knowledge.

To end the day my sister and I stopped for a beer at The Eagle and Child. For anyone familiar with Lewis and Tolkien, you'll know that this is the place where those two (and others) met to have drinks and discuss their writing. My sister was so excited about being there that she almost couldn't drink her beer.

Oxford ended up being the only true trip outside of London that we managed to do, so it was my only real taste of English countryside. It was a nice contrast to the hustle and bustle of London and I'm greatly looking forward to seeing more of England's beautiful countryside next time I can get over there.

{England} Mind The Gap

I looked at my calendar today and realized that I arrived home from my Europe trip over a month ago. It feels like it was just yesterday but at the same time I feel like a year's worth of stuff has happened since then. I had intended to blog about the trip either during the trip or right after, but that obviously didn't happen. But nonetheless, here we go...

I have to admit that going into my trip that England was actually the least exciting for me of the three (technically four) countries that I was going to visit. I knew I would enjoy seeing London, but I saw it as something basic that you really should do on your first trip to Europe. It wasn't something that I was giddy excited about. Little did I know that I was going to fall in love with British culture and just London in general. It's an amazing city with an endless list of things to do and lots of fun quirks. Even though they speak English like us, British English uses fun words in place of some of ours and I find those differences amusing. I also found the stereotypes about Londoners being reserved and unfriendly to be largely inaccurate. It didn't hurt that every single guy had a hot British accent, since you can't really go wrong with that.

I spent four and a half days in England, about half of which I actually spent in London itself.

Some of the highlights and/or things I did in London itself were:

(click on pictures to see them larger)

The Tube - I loved it! I've decided that living in a city with mass transit is something that I need to make happen at some point in my lifetime. I love figuring out the best way to get from point A to point B, I love maps, and I loved spending a lot of time walking around a city instead of driving. It's no wonder that a lot of Londoners are quite slim.

 

A bike tour - I wanted to find something to help me stay awake that first day when I arrived in London. My sister went to Edinburgh for 24 hours, so I was on my own as far as keeping myself awake. The night before I the trip I stumbled upon the idea to take a bike tour and I'm so incredibly glad that I did.
It was a "night tour" (however, it wasn't dark until after 10 PM) that covered most of the major sites south of the Thames. I loved exploring the city on bike (left side of the road anyone?), the tour guide was awesome, and it was just me and a family of four so it practically a personal tour. It was a fantastic way to orient myself with the area (my hostel was by the London Bridge) while also keeping me awake. Plus, the tour ended with a stop at a local pub where I got to have my first beer in Europe. It was a house ale that was utterly fantastic and I'm incredibly bummed that I can't get it again.


Big Ben - Of course I had to go see him. I got some better shots of just Big Ben, but this is one of the only decent shots I got that actually has me in the picture.






Speaking of classic pictures...

Continuing on...

British Museum - I've concluded that I'm not much of a museum person. As much as I can appreciate the fact that this museum has some pretty awesome stuff in it, I was over it in about five minutes. The wall to wall people didn't help matters either.

Science Museum - However, I did greatly enjoy the Science Musuem. I guess it's just the engineer in me. The Google exhibit in the basement was fun, so make sure to check that out if you go.








Buckingham Palace - I happened to accidentally end up around Buckingham Palace about 20 minutes before the changing of the guards, so I decided to stick around and watch. I ended up squeezing into a front row spot when someone left, but it was on the side that seems to be further away from most of the action. While it's fun to be able to say that I've seen the changing of the guards, I actually left partway through it because I got bored. And then I couldn't cross the street to get back to the Tube station because of course that was when the horse procession went down the street. But it is cool to be able to say that I've seen it. One more touristy thing that I can check off!

Thames River - There were multiple times during the trip where I got to walk (or bike!) along the Thames and I loved it every time. When I go back to London I want to rent a bike and just bike along the Thames for a good long bit of time. You can see some major landmarks along the way, not to mention that at night you see all of the locals hanging out at various pubs and you feel like you get a true idea of what life is like in central London for the locals.

 

Kensington Palace - I was trying to avoid doing too many things with entrance fees since there are so many free things to do in London, but I'm glad that I went ahead and paid for this one. I felt like it was a deep dive into the royal history of England. The garden was beautiful!

 

Hyde Park - One thing that I wish I had spent more time exploring while in London were the parks since they seem to have so many amazing ones. I only got a small taste of Hyde Park, but it was fantastic. Next time I'm in London I want to rent one of the bikes and just spend a couple of hours exploring around Hyde Park.

 


Westminster - I had intended to actually go inside of Westminster, but as things turned out it ended up only being something we stopped by briefly. Someday when I go back I want to see the inside of it, since I'm sure it's as stunning inside as it was on the outside.





More about the rest of my time in England to come soon!