July 18, 2014

England Part 2 London and Oxford























After we got over a bit of jet lag and David finishing up work, we took a bus on Saturday to collect Nicole in London. We were able to meet her new boyfriend Ehsan and walk around Nottinghill. I really wanted to see this pub covered in flowers, and since it was really close to where Nicole lives we were able to fit it in. After some dinner we hopped back on the bus and headed back up to Oxford.
Oh Oxford, you are a beauty! I could have easily filled this post with many more shots of all the gorgeous buildings and surroundings of this city. The lighting was go beautiful there, and all of the pictures above were not edited at all. We were able to see a lot because we went on Sunday and when David had to go back to work Monday, Nicole and I went back and roamed some more. The natural museum was stunning in both architecture and content. I took way too many photos of this place! The round building that I uploaded two pictures of was my very favorite. It is called The Radcliffe Camera and you can read about it here. Many of the buildings were used in the TV version and movie version of "Brideshead Revisited" The photo after Nicole with Ehsan, is the garden near Christ Church. So much history it would make your head spin, but some fun facts are that the dinning hall was copied for the dinning scene in the Harry Potter movies. We didn't get to go in because there were hoards of kids on study tours and many tourists, so we opted out. Also, Lewis Carroll studied and taught at Christ Church and you can read about how he was inspired to write Alice in Wonderland here. Towards the bottom of my pictures you will see the little shop that is across the street from Christ Church, and it is the very same building that little Alice would go to by her sweets. It is a darling little gift shop selling all kinds of Alice in Wonderland goodies! While we were there, there was a special festival to celebrate Alice in Wonderland. If you go to my instagram, you can see the little cup that I bought for myself, it is really cute.  The picture of Nicole with the tiny milk container was the evening we had to say good bye and but her back on the bus back to London. It was such a short visit with her, but we had some fun in with the time we had together. That tiny milk container kills me! Grocery containers in England and in Europe for that matter are so pint sized because of their lack of space. When we lived in France, it was very hard to get use to some of the packaging like the milk and rice. I felt like I was always at the store! After Nicole took off, we had a really nice dinner at Jamie's Italian. We have now been to three of his locations, and have always had wonderful meals. I highly recommend them if you are in England.
I would easily go back to Oxford if I was asked to again :)   Come back tomorrow for my Germany posts!

2 comments:

  1. What fun! All of these sites are right up my alley. I love the photos and sm glad to hear you had a nice trip.

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  2. London and Oxford are just beautiful! So glad you were able to spend some time with your daughter. I am loving all of your vacation photos!

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