The weather does not look that great and, in fact, it wasn’t most of the day. We are up early and Julie goes out for a reconnaissance.
Yep, out before 8:00
Julie comes back after 9:00 and gets ready to go out again. She has a formal tour scheduled at 11:00. She also confirms that it has been raining. Maybe not so good for the York Race goers but I imagine they had a good time any way. I had been blogging and my back was a bit sore so I laid down on the bed just to rest the back and immediately passed out until about 11:20. Clearly Julie was gone by then. Apparently she missed the start of the tour but managed to catch up with the group.
The footpaths look quite wet
Tea, Teddy?
But naturallyThe Tour leader – She was FrenchLocal Hero
It looks like it has gotten quite wetSmurfs?
Walking the old city wallsMight be a bit wet up on the wallThe Huge Church from the wall
An ancient Roman artefact?????
Julie finally returns around 1:45, the tour was to have finished at 1:00. It was advertised as free but the leader asked for donations. I was feeling a bit peckish by then as I had a bit of ham on toast at 7:00 AM so suggested that we go out for a late lunch / early dinner. Julie changes clothes and we get on the road, the rain seems to have slowed by then.
My God, the slug is a chain!LOts of people out on the river in spite of the weatherWe aimed for the Whippet Inn which was highly rated. The lady guard outside told us that they were normally reservation only but checked inside and because we were in a shoulder time, we were let in
In fact, there was only one other table in use when we were showed in although the place did start filling up later on.
Julie perusing the menu, one of our favourite wines, eh GB?Our server waiving from the bar
The salad on my plate magically disappeared. As well:
Julie ordered a side salad. Note the destruction of the Pork Skin starterIt wouldn’t be a meal without an Irish Coffee
Well, that was the best restaurant meal we have had in England on this trip – it was really worth while and the Whippet is highly recommended. On our way out we peek into the special side room.
I have forgotten what the red sashes were about but the reason for their gathering
Well, that is enough for me for the day so we walk back to the farm. Fortunately, the rain isn’t too bad. But Julie is not finished, she is to go on a Ghost Tour at 8:00 PM. The tour was a disappointment and largely covered the same ground as the earlier one so no new photos except the following weird ones:
So it is to be goodbye to our Boat Hotel. After a usual breakfast, scrambled eggs + smoked salmon for Julie, Mexican omelet for me, we say goodbye to our hosts for the last 5 nights. We drag our suitcases a little ways to the nearby Hotel from which Julie had booked a cab the night before. Once in the cab it is about a 10 minute trip across town to the train station at Staines. The driver is a local, born in Staines, and tells us a lot about the history.
We get to the station and fortunately there are elevators so we don’t have to lug bags up/down stairs. We are headed South towards London and there are lots of trains – we take the third one which is not a milk run but still stops at Vauxhall where we are to transfer to the Victoria Line. We get seats that are wide enough to hold our bags. As the train proceeds towards London, it gets quite full – it is a work day after all.
At Vauxhall we need to transfer to the Underground. We meet a couple at the elevator who guide us through the various directions and elevators until at the last place, the elevator to the Victoria line is a bit full so Julie takes the escalator instead. When the three of us get to the platform, there is no site of Julie anywhere. The train arrives and the couple needs to get on it so I say goodbye. When the platform empties, Julie comes into view from the other end of the platform.
We board the next train and I am fortunate to get a seat while Julie rides shotgun with the suitcases. We reach Kings Cross which is our last interim London stop. We cross over to London Rail because our destination is North to York. We have over two hours to kill so I spot a table and chairs in a Pret a Manger and settle into it with our suitcases for the next two hours. Julie goes for a walk and finds an outdoor food market and the following are some of her photos from it.
Outside Kings Cross Station
Smoked foods shop – did I detect a Smoked Salmon Bagel coming out (apparently it was not that nice)
Too healthy for me
Pretty impressive and varied collection! Julie comes back and decides she would like drinks. So she gets into the long queue at the Pret – it was pretty much like that the whole time we were in there. There were a number of girls serving and they did a good job, still there were long queues.
Coffee and water with the aforementioned bagel
I then go for a walk, first of all to the Loo. I am disgusted to see a very long queue of people waiting to go into a Harry Potter shop. Amazing. We see the same thing at a Harry Potter shop in York.
Finally, it is time for our train. As we are boarding it is clear that there is no room for our suitcases as the previous passengers had used up all of the luggage racks. A nice lady conductor organised for our bags to be put in the unused Driver’s compartment.
It is a very fast train and York is the first stop but even so it took around 2 hours to get there. When we arrive there is confusion as to whether we can get our bags off of the train. There are others in the same category as us and eventually the driver comes down and unlocks the carriage where we then get our bags out.
Well, that’s when the chaos increased dramatically. There were people everywhere and it was hard to move with our bags. When we got out the door of the station there was traffic madness in a small roundabout in front of the station, it took just one car to stop and wait and the whole traffic flow was stopped. We were told to go in a certain direction for a taxi but that was wrong. We eventually found the taxi queue, well away from where we had been told, and it is a quite long queue. Still it moved relatively quickly and we waited perhaps no more than 30 minutes. When taxis picked up passengers, they had to drive into the roundabout madness. Then once you got through all that, the streets of York were just as bad, hardly moving at all. People told us that this was all caused by the York Races which were to be held tomorrow and everybody from England is coming here.
So we are in a taxi and moving slowly away from the station and into the old town. The driver was very knowledgeable and told us about the best restaurants in town, many of which we end up going to during our stay. We finally reach our apartment which is obviously an old warehouse in a docks area that has been converted to residences.
We are met there by Rebecca, the maid, who shows us how to get in and spends a lot of time telling us about things in the apartment and around town. She mentions the York Races as well. The apartment is on the fifth floor and is quite nice, there is a lift fortunately.
The Kitchen AreaThere is an upstairs loft with lounge, TV and dining table which we don’t useNice bedroomModern and clean bathroom
Julie goes out to get supplies and there is a nearby Waitrose.
Julie returns with the supplies, perhaps the most important is laundry pre-packaged, multi-style washing material. She has not had any laundry done for several days so starts her first load. I too have quite a laundry debt but will wait until tomorrow to start clearing it.
We decide to go out to look for food as it has been a long time since breakfast. Things go wrong – we make the wrong turn on the first direction, the streets go round in circles, Julie is using Google Maps but the GPS is frequently showing the wrong location, I am getting grumpy as my back gets sorer. Eventually we find our way to the destination that would have been so much easier if we had not taken the wrong first turn. That is the Shambles market.
The Ostrich Burger – Kangaroo?The Boys Hamming it up for the cameraHonky Tonk piano primarily for the kids
We don’t stop at the market and walk around for a while longer. Eventually we decide on the Mumbai Lounge, which had been our taxi driver’s primary recommendation. We arrive without a reservation and they are very popular but able to give us a table in the downstairs area – we are the first there but it eventually fills up.
Julie in the cornerThe Menu had lots of interesting sounding dishesTandoori DuckMAKHANWALA Lamb – like a butter chicken but with special cheese addedGarlic NaanA spicier, tomato based chicken curry
Julie felt that all of the dishes had too much added sugar. I didn’t notice and found the dishes interesting. We depart.
Outside the Mumbai Lounge
But we are not finished yet! We decide to go into the Golden Fleece by legend the most haunted pub in England.
The History of the Golden FleeceWe asked the Guard out front if he had seen a ghost, he said no but lots of Spirits, as in the liquid kindThe entrance to the ladiesand the MensA few wise headsA colleague waiting to greet us out backA very nice waitress ageed to make Julie an Irish Coffee and a drink for her friend at the barCheers to the three of us
It has been a very long and eventful day. Even though music is coming in the Fleece, it is time to go home.
I am doing something a little different here by lumping 5 days at Oxford into a single Post. The reason is that with Julie studying most of the time, there are not a lot of activities. So here we go:
Tuesday – weather cool and cloudy
We are off to breakfast but on the way we try to go to the laundry room as I am just about out of clean clothes. However, the entranced is blocked off by construction. We walk around to the other side of the building but it too is blocked off. A construction guy shows Julie a way around the blockade and down to the laundry room. Julie comes back and states that it is a total mess, an absolute disgrace.
Any way, we head upstairs for breakfast which is a typical small room.
There is also another long table perpendicular at the end of the roomAnother look, they don’t do things small at English collegesThey serve hot food (after 7:30) as well as a traditional cold buffet
Julie goes off to school, leaving me behind. I decide I will brave the laundry and take my stuff over. She is right, it is a hopeless mess. However, the washers are commercial grade and do a good job in 31 minutes. The dryers are also commercial grade but the one that I select does not dry. So I select another one which works fine but the total drying time becomes 98 minutes. Still it is great to have a bunch of clean clothes.
There is a daily service to the rooms so it is our turn. I have a map and decide to walk into a near part of Oxford. No photos today. I make the mistake of going to a Burger King, which can be alright in Australia (generally known as Hungry Jacks) but is terrible here. The burger I order is as dry as an old chip, the fries not much better and then I spill 99% of the drink everywhere. I go to a Sainsbury to pick up a couple of bottles of wine and return to Keble. Since the Internet is not working, I do a bit of reading and snoozing.
I am to meet Julie at the Kings Arms again for dinner. I walk up there and she was there already, apparently had been outside for a while but moved in when it was too cool. We order dinner:
Salmon (naturally) Salad for JulieBangers and Mash for me
It was supposedly Lamb and Leek snags but I could not taste the leek. Having said that I burped up leeks for the next day.
A pie on a nearby table – looks goodThe Kings Arms from the outside
Wednesday – weather improving
Today is Julie’s next major exam. After breakfast she “gowns up” to catch the bus to the exam place.
Gowned up and ready to exam
In the mean time, I get adventurous and take the big, for me any way, walk to the train station. The point is to pickup the train tickets I had pre-booked in Australia for our later departures around Britain. I went to the Kiosk and did very well getting 4 sets of tickets, including one expired pair that I had mis-booked. I also buy tickets to get from Oxford to Windsor on Sunday, although I got the wrong date (again) for the tickets. Julie eventually solves this problem the next day.
I go to the square where I had had the souv the first day and discover that there is a market going on which includes a number of food stalls of various cuisines. I select some Chinese chicken dumplings which are quite OK. Back to the room to fight the crap Net.
Julie believes that she did OK on the exam. They have a sumptuous lunch. The following are snacks after work.
Beef
It was agreed that we would go to Jericho Tavern this evening for the famous “horseshoe sausage”. Julie and Son Peter had been there on their last visit. We agree by email for Julie and I to meet at the Lamb and Flag pub nearby.
Front bar of the Lamb and FlagJulie in exam clobber outside the Lamb and Flag
We walk up another 15 minutes to the Jericho, after all the walking I did earlier today, but felt alright.
The Jericho
We order at the front bar. The salad that Julie wanted is finished for the day and there is only one horseshoe sausage left. We go out to the back patio and it is less than salubrious. One guy there has a black tattoo over his whole head except for part of his face.
The service is quite slow but eventually things start to happen.
Julie perusing the menu closelyThe CondimentsThe famed Horseshoe Sausages – the best part was the onion ringsJulie’s Bean SaladJulie’s Irish Coffee
There was a bit of a sad story in that an older couple came in and the Wife was clearly suffering from Parkinson’s or something similar. I guess she was not allowed to drink alcohol but every time her husband left the table she took a big slurp from his beer.
Thursday – Weather Improving
Another day of study for Julie with the difference being that she is to attend a special dinner tonight. The following is some of the food available at lunch.
In the mean time, I walk out to town again. I turn down an alley way called the Friars Walk and end up in the same square as yesterday. It has a different set-up but largely the same food vendors as yesterday.
The Food StallsI had a Hungarian Goulash which was spicy and very nice
Julie goes to her dinner that evening.
The Menu
Dessert
In the mean time I go out to a local place called the Parsonage which Julie had pointed out the night before.
The Entrance to the ParsonageThe Parsonage Courtyard – it eventually filled upI ordered a caraffe of Malbec (Argentinean)Rabbit Pie – pie was full of rabbit and the sauce was rabbit broth with chicory, nice
Back home, I managed to stay awake until Julie came back.
Friday, weather quite good
As per usual we have breakfast early and then Julie goes off to school.
Drinks available
I wait to go out until the knock from the cleaner at around 11:00. I go down the same Friars Walk but today there is no market. That is OK I grab some fried chicken from the shop that I had had the souv on the first day. We are having an early dinner tonight.
So I head out around 5:15 to walk past the Kings Arms and turn into the White Knight. Julie is already there talking with a group of Australians.
The White Knight Bar in the backgroundSalmon salad for JulieChicken Korma Curry for me – note the Argentinean Malbec we orderedIrish Coffee for Julie
The reason for the early dinner is that we are to see some live music, an Australian group we had never heard of before called the Spooky Men Chorale. It is to be held in the Sheldonian Theatre which is across the street. This theatre was built in the 1660s which is an amazing old building.
Julie went on ahead of me because we do not have reserved seats. I am able to find her straightforwardly, up the stairs to the mid level.
Down towards the stageThe crowds across our level
There are no photos of the acts, not permitted. The warm up band was called The River and basically did Swedish harmonies, probably about 12 in the group. The main band, the Spookies, are 17 men dressed in black with various kinds of weird hats. They sing with plenty of harmony. Lead by their leader, they do a number of comedy numbers and patter. I missed a lot of it due to my poor hearing. They do a set of Georgian music, which we have had experience in the past due to our tour of Georgia two years ago. A large group of men, called the Mens Choir joined in from the seats and then at the back of the stage. Among the other types of songs they were doing was a long tribute to Jim of Jim’s Mowing etc. Then the last two were a song about 3 brothers with the last surviving being Bharria Ghibb – a take off of the Bee Gees with their version of staying alive and then a tribute to David Bowie as an encore with all the Spookies spreading out amongst the audience. It definitely was an experience.
This is Julie’s last day of study at Oxford this trip. She is supposed to finish early today. After breakfast she goes off again and I make another sortie into the laundry room which seems even messier than earlier in the week. Still it is a relief to have almost no dirty clothes. I take a hike down the Friars Walk and the market is again there. Several other cuisines are represented today include Venezuelan, Ethiopian and Sri Lankan. I get a Sri Lankan chicken curry meal which was quite tasty.
Meanwhile, in Julie’s lecture, there is discussion of Richard Feynman and his involvement in the investigation of the Challenger disaster. I had indirectly studied under Feynman while at Caltech.
The Great Man
Julie does arrive back earlier around 5:00 because there had been shopping stops along the way. We had decided we would have a quiet night to enable suit case packing and early bed time ahead of our early departure tomorrow. So we go across the way to the Eagle and Child pub which had been recommended by a colleague at breakfast. It used to be known as the bird and baby. Apparently Tolkien and other famous authors had regularly drank there.
Although crowded, Julie managed to get a table in the back patio shared with a musicologist from Finland.
Settled in the Eagle and Child
The back patio was clearly an add-on with the wall behind us a more modern building which had the bricks painted. What’s more there was air conditioning.
ArtworkThe Pies looked impressive – see the next tableSalad with salmon for JulieBurger with bacon for meThe Long Narrow pubJulie about to exitOutside
So that is the end of the chronicles about our times in Oxford. Tomorrow we set off on a new adventure.
Well, with Gusto Gastronomica finished, it is time to fly from France to England. We go up to the 8th floor for one final breakfast. We pack and are ready to go to be picked up by taxi at 7:15. Downstairs, checkout and we are on our way to the airport.
Now I will have to say, except for the punchline at the end, this is one of the better flights. Driver picked us up on time. Drive through traffic, sometimes heavy, but get to airport in good time. There was a queue at bag drop but it moved through smoothly. There was no queue going through security in spite of warnings that there would be. We find a lounge just on the other side and are able to have some drinks etc. We exit immigration through no queue – we have had some horror waits at Lyon airport in the past. Board in good time, we are nearer the front and manage to get overhead storage which can be, and was for others, a serious issue. We are in Economy (yuk) but the people in the row in front of us did not push their seats back so there was a reasonable amount of room. Flight went smoothly and at the end, only a 10 minute place in a holding pattern which is not bad for Heathrow. All of this is acceptable.
What did go wrong? We take the long walk from the gate to immigration. As we enter the room, we see squillions of people waiting in long and many serpentine queues to get through. Just what I need is to stand in a slow moving queue for 2 hours and that is what it took. Horrible! I have vowed never to fly into Heathrow again.
Finally through that horror story and not surprisingly our bags were off the plane and then carousel ages ago. My back and legs are stiff as boards after all the shuffling in the queue. We take the relatively long hike to the bus terminus as we are bussing up to Oxford. After we get there, our bus shows up shortly. There is a fair bit of poobah as the passengers unload and get their baggage, the bus is cleaned out, baggage loaded into the bus hold and finally we are let onto the bus. The weather by the way, is cool, cloudy and drizzly. We stop at Terminal 5 to pick up more passengers and then at several stops along the way. When we reach Oxford we drive around in circles, it seems, and eventually reach the bus terminus. We get off and go to a nearby square where taxis can be hailed. There are fast food shops around the square. I am tired, thirsty, sore and hungry so decide to grab something to eat.
A Lamb Donar – a highlight meal at OxfordStunning enviroment too – near full rubbish bins and seats covered in pidgeon droppings
We catch a hansom cab to Keble College which is where we will be staying for the next six nights while Julie studies. We check in and are lead to our room:
Does not really remind one of the Sofitel or similarAn added bonus??? in the roomAs it can be seen it is quite crowded in the room with that piano
At this point I should say something about the Internet, or lack thereof. There is a global “Cloud” which is supposed to work. It does on the phone but not the PC and no one can explain why. I get it working with a trick but over the 6 nights here, it varies from bad to worse to not at all to virus like symptoms. This is the reason for delays on this Blog update.
Julie goes off to do some study. I have a brief nap and then go out for a walk around.
Keble College is like a number of old Colleges at Universities around Britain. It has very old buildings, circa 1850s, huge grounds and the buildings within the grounds are also very big.
One building on the main quadrangleThe building on the opposite side of the quadrangle
The Main ChapelOur room, just around from the main entrance, is the window covered by bushes above the bench
All of that large area in the photos is just over a quarter of the grounds and buildings of Keble College. Another College nearby is as big or bigger.
I have agreed to meet Julie at a pub just down the road, the Kings Arms. It is about a 10 minute walk but I am so stiff and sore and frozen from that immigration wait that it is hard work. I arrive early and have just ordered a drink when Julie arrives. It is crowded but we get a seat in the bar area. I am not hungry at all, and Julie has had a snack in the afternoon, so we do not contemplate a meal.
Pork Crackling – much better than the Lyon Bouchon but after a while too richAn Irish Coffee – sort of
We go back to the room. Julie had asked the front desk for the piano to be removed which they said they would do. Come 10:00 PM, still no removal so Julie goes to the front desk and brings back the guy on duty. With great difficulty, as the piano is very heavy, they push it out of the room and into the unused room next to ours. It becomes the housekeeper’s problem now.
Yes, the stay in Dubrovnik is in its penultimate day as is the overall trip which started long ago in Germany. Tomorrow we start the long trudge back to Australia. We have breakfast in the room with items from the Bakery and Store by Julie. I didn’t do much of anything, other than the Blog, mostly by design for the winding down stage. Julie goes walking about, I think a lot of it outside the walls of the old town, including a market.
Cheeses
I have no idea what this is
3 hours across the Adriatic supposedly
A cheap Syrah
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
There were a number of cheap / potentially good value wines there. But we really did not need any more since we are departing tomorrow. In fact, we still have a bottle of Rose in the Fridge which we are to polish off.
Milos Rose
We have made a reservation for Proto Seafood restaurant again. We end up sitting outside in a laneway as the hostess tells us there will be quite a rowdy crowd on the terrace this evening.
We end up moving down one table as the wind was quite annoying on that first table.
Settled in at ProtoSnails
The picture is hazy and is a reflection of the dish as it was not very nice at all, big, tough offputting flavour and nowhere near enough garlic.
Julie’s salad looked OKSea Bass
Julie had had that dish the other night but this was not nearly as nice.
Steak for me
I am not sure why I ordered steak, I almost never do in a restaurant. It was OK but overall my ordering was poor. In fact, both of us agreed that we were quite disappointed with Proto this time, I guess you should never go back.
Irish Coffee for Julie
After that it is back to the apartment, finish off the Rose and then to bed as we commence the long journey home tomorrow.
