25 May Oxford

We had a good sleep in, and then walked in to town to meet up with the others.
First stop on our travels today was just across the lane and down a little from the Frewin gate, (the handlebar cafe) where Ben at last got some decent coffee.  While we stood and waited for the coffee we watched those passing in the street.

You can't see it in the picture above but the lady with the cream hat on by the door is also wearing a fake moustache! This was not the only strange thing we saw - a group of young men came along wearing white lab coats, a group of young ladies with a black bowler hat each, some older ladies and dog - all wearing a feather headbands.  Something strange was going on in Oxford. We started to see lots of deerstalker hats and people with other costumes like policemen. It took a while for Thom to remember that there was some sort of adventure game on in Oxford this weekend. It turned out to be a game of "Sneaky Finders" with 100 teams competing 

Team in deerstalkers

 We made our way to Worcester College (not far away).  Laura was in there recently and thought that it was one of the most beautiful colleges that she had seen .  She thought that we would enjoy it too so she asked the porter on the gate whether she could come in with family? He allowed this and we were treated to quite an experience.

Wow! The large grassed area is surrounded by dramatic sloped grass sides and the end wall is covered with the longest hanging wisteria bunches that I have ever seen.  Beautiful manicured gardens and pretty buildings to go with it. 

looking back towards the entry (where you can see the light coming through in the central arch)
Creatively mowed lawns with strips of various width in the curves. 

 The gardens were fabulous.  So many interesting flowers, and arrangements.

one of the beautiful park-like areas with students sitting around in the wonderful balmy weather.

We were quite taken with this garden surround.

 It was quite a walk around in here.

this tree is a county champion tree. This means it is very special.  I think this one is tallest in the county of its kind. 

the cricket club house. Very quaint. 

I was fascinated by these flowers growing above leaves which are quite some way up the slender stems of this plant.  I think it is miners lettuce. This was growing under some of the large trees.

The chapel is Georgian with some added Victorian decorations.  Apparently some of the decorations are amusing (like dodos and kiwis drawn for the birds of the air) .  It seemed almost orthodox in feeling to us.
A very ornate ceiling, a golden statue of a saint in each corner and ancient mosaics of saints on the floor

beautiful stained glass windows.

While Ben and Laura bought souvlaki in Gloucester Green (paved) Thom showed us his favourite games shop.  This is actually a games cafe called Thirsty Meeples.  You pick a game from the walls of games and sit down with one of the employees to learn how to play while you have your food and drink.

Thom was heading for a cricket match, so we all headed off down along the path beside the river towards Iffley (where Thom and Laura used to live) .  The rowing was on, so we enjoyed the excitement of that and the people enjoying the summers day. 

poppies growing by the path

Just a general shot to show how the area at the side of the path grows.  It is lush and green at the moment. 

Brasenose rowers preparing for a race. 

vegetables growing on the top of a canal boat. 

We walked on to the Isis pub after waving goodbye to Thom. It was a beautiful sunny day.  We watched more rowing on the way there, and then sat in the sunshine under the trees at the large wooden tables and 'people watched' while we drank our Pimms and cider.   Eventually a Scottish piper arrived in full regalia. We assume he was there for the wedding reception which was due to happen, and Trevor became desperate to leave before he started his performance. So we walked back to the cricket field and found that Thom was wicket keeping.  We sat and watched him do his thing.

Brasenose cap, Aussie cricket supporter pants. 

We headed home after the match finished (with a satisfying win to Brasenose) .  Thom created a wonderful lasagna with lots of veggies in it, and we sat and relaxed over that and some wine before heading off to Brasenose to play board games in the common room.

We played a game of mysterium - which involves the ghost (Thom) supplying visions (cards with pictures on them ) to the players , who then have to interpret their vision and discern who the murderer is, where the murder occurred and what the weapon was. This is a cooperative game, but it sure had us out of our comfort zone, even though we managed to win as a group in the end.

We also met Thom's great friend Eric at last.

Trevor and I walked back to our digs, arriving just after midnight and found that our beds had been set up again in the same crazy way.  The top sheets were turned back both at the top and bottom of the beds.  The quilt was doubled and laid across the bottom half only of the bed!  Does anyone sleep with their bed like this???

We opened our windows to let in some cool air, and fell asleep until 4am when the light started coming in to the room and the curtains had to be closed to keep it out so that we could sleep some more. The Cherwell guest house has been very quiet for sleeping  (possibly because our room is at the back, near the car park) .