Barbara & Tom walking and eating in Oxford

20 June 2006 17:13

So I got a little more sleep, used the "power shower" (some little box in the shower stall that makes up for low water pressure) which probably woke half the building, made a couple cups of tea, read in the sitting room for awhile.

Barbara had planned to be up early for our first walk of the day before breakfast. She hadn't slept well so I walked by myself. I didn't want to walk the busy street again so I took the cross road. It was lined with parked cars in front of lines of townhouses. I've always heard the term "semi-detached" and that must be what these were. They looked like very nice places to live, even as close as they were with such tiny yards. They looked like a big improvement on American-style single family homes and condos. I think some were old and others just looked that way.

I was walking toward something parklike and noticed a little bridge at the back of a small carpark. I followed a couple of girls with a couple of dogs along a trail. The trail led into a huge field - I couldn't see the perimeter. Someone had mowed wide paths into the grass and weeds and people walked their dogs along the paths. I assume that once the paths begin to get worn or too "fouled" by dogs (I saw little evidence of this fouling), they would just start mowing a different path. I followed the paths (but not the girls) for at least a mile before I'd made the circuit and returned to the road. I wound around a few more streets of semi-detached's before going back for breakfast. (about 1.6 miles according to my pedometer.)

Barbara still wasn't up. She hadn't had my jet-lag problem and stayed up too late reading. I was just about to give up and eat without her when she came out. Breakfast started with individual pots of tea and coffee, incredible granola, fresh squeezed oj and yoghurt. There were a few more items on the side-board but this seemed like enough. Then we discovered the menu card. Barbara ordered poached eggs with bacon (sort of like canadian bacon, nothing like american bacon), mushrooms and tomatoes. I had the gruyere omelet. We both had incredible fresh, heavy, whole grains bread. We felt much better about our out-of-the way hotel now.

I showed Barbara the dog-walk fields then we went to the internet cafe to discover that nothing of interest was happening outside of Oxford.

We continued the "shiny object" method of tourism. A street name had the word "park" in it so we followed it. After many locked gates or discouraging signs we found our way into campus parks. We're not exactly sure where we were. According to maps it was a sort of "there be dragons here" area. We eventually came out on a busy street somewhere in the dragon area and found a security guard in front of a new elaborate mosque. he didn't know where we were either and gave us a choice of up the street or down the street. We picked one and came to a busy, slightly touristy area. We'd gone over five miles and were very ready for some lunch. We tried the Oxford Pub because of all the food it boasted "any time of day" but they weren't serving food. The bartender did give us water with lots of ice (which was very unusual) along with Barbara's wine - choice of red, white, or rose house brand.

We were going to find our way back to yesterday's soup pub when we were attracted by a potato leek soup sign. I had the soup and "chilli" that could never be called that in Texas. No meat at all, mostly butterbeans. Barbara got an organic beef burger. It was all delicious, including the enormous pot of tea.

We found our way back to Barbara's favorite bookstore. I gave up looking for a history book after discovering that the only thing that met my needs was An Idiot's Guide. I was not going to walk around the store carrying An Idiot's Guide to anything. I finally discovered that they had an entirely separate (semi-detached) store for maps and guidebooks but it was inexplicably closed.

Barbara found another Shakespeare book and was ready to go read and relax so she hopped a bus.

I needed to find cash. I seemed to have lost all my bills - 40 or 50 pounds. I also was determined to figure out how we were supposed to get to Painswick on Thursday. I found my way to the bus terminal and two very helpful ladies spent quite awhile finding out how to accomplish it. You take somebody else's bus to some other town and find another bus there to Painswick. The rail information was quicker but much less helpful. "Stroud - 3:45." I found maps that showed the bus destinations, but have no idea about Stroud.

I zigzagged by a few shiny objects trying to find my way home, found a Mango Mule (yoghurt, mango, lime, & ginger smoothie), was about to sit down with my map and figure out where I was when I saw the bus I knew would take me home.

I had time to write and get a delightful nap before we headed back out to watch some footy at the local pub. We could barely get in the door and were very lucky to claim some wall space to stand against at the front of the room by the tv. The perspective on the tv was lousy but it was great for watching the crowd. They went nuts when England scored. I had some obligatory fish & chips - and peas. It was real fish with skin and a few bones, not the glorified fish sticks I'm accustomed to. We lost our spot on the wall and went home before Sweden tied the game. Very disappointing because England hasn't beaten Sweden in 38 years.

I walked about 12.5 miles today.