5 Aug 2011

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE



more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. On Monday morning I left my friends in Eastbourne with a heavy heart and took the train to London. From there I went by bus to Oxford. It was a very nice journey because I saw much more of the landscape than I would have if I would have taken the train.




I arrived at the Balliol College (see Wednesday post below) and spent the afternoon by walking in this beautiful place.



I had booked a student room and just imagined who slept and studied in this room during the year ? I was lucky, I had nothing to study, I was only a fake student.



Having breakfast in this huge hall where parts of the Harry Potter films were made, was very impressive ! I felt like Mrs. Potter although I have never seen a Potter film, only extracts

2. To see the most of Oxford with the less of effort, I bought a sight seeing bus ticket for two days so that I could "hop" on and off as I wanted. That's the best way to visit a city you have never seen before. With the ticket you got a pair of handsets and could listen to the explanation of each important building or place.

3. I made the first trip all around sitting on the right sight which allowed me to take pictures from all buildings and important places on the right, and then I did the same tour sitting on the left.






Oxford is a paradise for bikers ! I thought I was in Amsterdam.




I visited the Christ Church where Alice (Adventures inWonderland) had lived with her father who was the Dean.



The little shop where she bought her sweets and I of course the Cheshire Cat and other little souvenirs.



Of course I couldn't miss to visit the Macdonald Randolph hotel, featured in the Inspector Morse television series several times, and where there is now a Morse Bar.

4. On Wednesday my blogfriend Janice from Jabblog came to visit me as she lives not far from Oxford. It was so nice to see her " life" at the entrance of the College ! As it was lunch time we went through Oxford looking for a nice Pub to eat outside, but only found one with no garden. But it didn't matter we had a lot to chat and I even forgot to take a picture of us in the pub. After lunch we went back to the Balliol college, and we sat there at the "Buttery" in the colleges' beautiful park, far from the huzzle and buzzle of Oxford, which is real terrible ! So many people ! you could hardly walk and on top it was very hot.

Late afternoon she returned to the station and I went along with her, we still hadn't chatted enough. She took the train and I took my sightseeing bus for the 4th time, not listening to the explanations, which I now knew by heart, or almost.



Here we are in full beauty or should be, unfortunately my camera has got some troubles and we are "striped". It's really annoying. I hope Janice's pictures are better !

5. The next day I had to leave and for the first time since I had arrived in England it rained cats and dogs ! My intention was to leave Oxford very early and spend the whole day in London, but with all this rain I changed my mind, left Oxford only around 11 arrived at Victoria station where I had to take another bus to get to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar. I was quiet wet from the short walks from bus to bus and to the station. I couldn't go outside so I hang around for more than 3 h in this train station which is far outside the London city center ! At least I could write half of this post while drinking my x's cup of coffee !

Ponctually I arrived in Brussels, where Mr. G. picked me up.

14 comments:

  1. Oh that dining hall is HUGE and I thought it reminded me of Harry Potter films. You sightseeing with earphones, reminded me how we did several castles (some haunted, whoo-hoo) in Derbyshire. Thanks for the lovely tour. How great to get to meet another blog friend, Have a great weekend, Gattina! (((hugs))) Jo

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  2. It's always so annoying when a camera packs up, especially if you want to make a special photograph! I hope all the others came out fine.

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  3. Oh how fun! I am off to Cape Cod, so I don't have time to write much now! But will write you more when I can!

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  4. WOW...love all those pics....how wonderful that you had such a lovely week visiting that part of England. (i actually have a friend whose daughter is going to be doing a one year study at Oxford this year for her junior year of college!) Happy FFF

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  5. Welcome in Waterloo, Gattina! What a nice trip you had in Oxford! And the place you were looks so interesting and original! Nice you could meet your blog friend! I'm sure the witch of the film Harry Potter is responsible for scratches on the photo! hi hi!!!

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  6. I definetely have to visit Oxford next time I'm in UK! Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

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  7. Hello Gattina! I really enjoyed reading about your trip to Oxford. The next time we go I'll definitely look into the bus idea. Christ church is so beautiful. How fun to be able to hop back and forth like you do to England. The 11 hour plane trip with several time zone changes makes it hard to travel there as much as I'd like. That is so weird about the camera...
    Loved all your photos!

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  8. What lovely pictures -- what a great trip! It just looks and sounds wonderful. How neat to meet a blogging friend there, too.

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  9. What a wonderful visit to Oxford. The Professor and I have been there two times and many of those places look familiar to me.
    Isn't it FUN to meet another blogger?!

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  10. Looks like a fun visit! I'd love that tour of Oxford.

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  11. What a wonderful trip you had! I would love a sightseeing tour like that. Love your pictures!

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  12. My boys are Harry Potter fans, they'd have loved to see the sights.

    I'm glad you arrived home safely after all of your fun travels. I love those sight seeing busses. Sometimes we take them around New York even though I've lived here most of my life!

    Thanks for sharing your memories and your photos.
    -Catherine

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  13. Well, Harry Potter doesn't interest me in the least, but I associate Oxford with Lord Peter Wimsey in the Dorothy L. Sayers books.
    If I were to go there alone, I'd love to have a student room at Balliol. I visited Oxford with my parents, my brothers and my sisters-in-law in 1996, so we rented a house in the suburbs.
    I'm glad you enjoyed your visit with Janice. I just love her blog, with all her wonderful pets!
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  14. How fun to eat where some of Harry Potter was filmed. I have seen all the movies although I don't remember much about them since I only saw them once and didn't read the books.

    I love going on sight seeing tours too. I never thought of taking the trip twice. I will have to tuck that bit of information away for future use.

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