Heading back east

Wed 5 Apr

Left Wyke Farm after another delicious breakfast. A one and a half hour drive to Salisbury where we found a pay & display car park fairly close to the city centre. We walked first to the cathedral clause for the outer view of the cathedral. Renovations were begun in 1986 so there was scaffolding around in 1994 when we last visited - and it's still there. We went in to view the Salisbury copy of the Magna Carta before entering the cathedral itself and attached ourselves to one of the informative tours. We learned a lot about the construction of the cathedral and the efforts made to stop it from falling down. The guide told many interesting anecdotes about those buried there and about the town itself.

This is the new baptismal font with its cleverly reflective surface

We then drove for another 1 hr 45 min to Oxford and checked back into the Oxford Guest House where we'd stayed before. We went to meet Peter and Lesley and went for a walk with them to find a pub for our evening meal. Settled for the White Horse which had a wide range of cheap, tasty dishes.
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Thur 6 Apr

Peter had to drive to Milton Keynes for his work. I had to return our car to Hertz at Osney Mead, so while I drove there, Stephanie and Lesley walked into Oxford city and I met them there.

We first walked down to the river to go punting. The "chauffeur" (well, I wasn't going to do it) was very informative with facts about the city and the colleges and particularly chuffed about Oxford's win over Cambridge in their recent boat race. He returned us safely, and dry, after half an hour then we headed off for a big walk around some of the colleges and the botanical gardens. The walking paths follow the meandering river and show off Oxford's natural beauty very well.

We found an Italian styled café for a cheap lunch then bused back to Headington where Lesley started preparing our delicious dinner.
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Fri 7 Apr

Packed again and took our bags down to Peter and Lesley's place. Headed out for another walk around this part of town as Lesley had found a small stone church in a back street with and interesting surprise. We almost didn't find it due to the meandering streets but finally did, and it's tiny graveyard. And there (yes it is marked) is the grave of C S Lewis, who wrote the Narnia series. We found some other interesting lanes and parks before heading back for lunch.

Then waited outside Peter and Lesley's place to catch the bus to London. Only £11 for seniors. It took us about 75 minutes to get to Victoria Station in London, another 15 minutes on the Tube to Kings Cross and a 5 minute walk to the hotel. It's called "Comfort Inn"; it was a bit small and claustrophobic but it was just for one night.

We dumped our bags and headed out for a walk, eventually back to Kings Cross and St Pancras to check out where we had to go tomorrow. The place was packed, queues everywhere and there was more security in place after the incident in Stockholm. We got a Tube to Trafalgar Square for a look round - Steph was pleased: no pigeons!

Flowers along the Mall, London

"Don't feed the pigeons" Hooray!