London: Day Four
We decided to head out to Oxford today. A train out of Paddington Station will bring you to Oxford in about an hour. From the train station it is an easy walk into the center of town. By the time we hit town it was lunch time so we began looking for a place to eat. I was getting a bit frustrated, because all I could see were really touristy looking pubs. Then it began to sprinkle. The sprinkle turned into a rain shower and we finally ducked into a church coffee shop. Turns out the food was great! A limited menu, but all organic and delicious.
After lunch we decided to take a guided walk of the colleges. Our guide, quite in contrast to the eloquent and well-spoken Nick, was a rather odd fellow dressed in threadbare clothes. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair disheveled. I almost backed out of the walk, but a decent looking chap who had just finished a tour with the guide was gushing about what a great walk it was. Well our guide, whose name we never caught, was actually full of knowledge about the colleges, having attended Queen's College himself. He took us onto the grounds of some of the colleges and kept spouting stories and statistics. Brad and I would exchange glances with each other as our guide would stop for a long pause (was he organizing his thoughts?), teeter precariously on his own feet (was he ill or drunk?) and then launch forth into another soliloquy. We stuck it out for about an hour, then the weather got the best of us and we sought shelter from the rain. We wandered about a bit on our own when the weather had cleared up a bit and were appalled at the stiff admission prices to some of the colleges.
We got back to town around 4 p.m. -- enough time to head back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes and head out for dinner. In the evening we did another guided walk with Nick. This one was a ghost walk in the City of London. The City of London is a distinct district within the London metropolis, and if one is to believe Nick, it is full of ghastly gorey ghost stories. We also got a good dose of history and viewed some more interesting architecture, both modern and historic.
We decided to head out to Oxford today. A train out of Paddington Station will bring you to Oxford in about an hour. From the train station it is an easy walk into the center of town. By the time we hit town it was lunch time so we began looking for a place to eat. I was getting a bit frustrated, because all I could see were really touristy looking pubs. Then it began to sprinkle. The sprinkle turned into a rain shower and we finally ducked into a church coffee shop. Turns out the food was great! A limited menu, but all organic and delicious.
After lunch we decided to take a guided walk of the colleges. Our guide, quite in contrast to the eloquent and well-spoken Nick, was a rather odd fellow dressed in threadbare clothes. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair disheveled. I almost backed out of the walk, but a decent looking chap who had just finished a tour with the guide was gushing about what a great walk it was. Well our guide, whose name we never caught, was actually full of knowledge about the colleges, having attended Queen's College himself. He took us onto the grounds of some of the colleges and kept spouting stories and statistics. Brad and I would exchange glances with each other as our guide would stop for a long pause (was he organizing his thoughts?), teeter precariously on his own feet (was he ill or drunk?) and then launch forth into another soliloquy. We stuck it out for about an hour, then the weather got the best of us and we sought shelter from the rain. We wandered about a bit on our own when the weather had cleared up a bit and were appalled at the stiff admission prices to some of the colleges.
We got back to town around 4 p.m. -- enough time to head back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes and head out for dinner. In the evening we did another guided walk with Nick. This one was a ghost walk in the City of London. The City of London is a distinct district within the London metropolis, and if one is to believe Nick, it is full of ghastly gorey ghost stories. We also got a good dose of history and viewed some more interesting architecture, both modern and historic.
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