Tourist in Oxford

Sunday morning we woke up early and started gathering things for our day out in Oxford. Ange had been in touch with a former colleague from the University of Southampton and had arranged to meet in Oxford after decided that it was mostly a central meeting place for us (she lives further away in Birmingham). Five miles donw the road, I realised that I had forgotten the camera (leaving only the phone camera) which was most unfortunate because Oxford is lovely...

I took a different route to Oxford than I had when we went up for my interview at Oxford Brookes. While scenic, it was considerably slower. Then when we got to Oxford, I made the critical error of following the route in Oxford chosen for me by Google Maps. Cripes. I ended up in the "Buses Only" section of road all through the centre. I managed to get off, only to head in the wrong direction. Ange patiently tried to navigate us through the center of Oxford with our less-than-suitable map. The map is of the UK generally; however, for cities, it throws and olive branch by giving you a 2" by 2" mini detailed map of the city center.

With only the occassional road actually named on our map, we were in a bit of trouble. Further, unlike North America, the posting of street names in the UK are a bit hit and miss. In fact, often they're just missed. So we started out driving tour of Oxford center. At one point we thought we had it worked out, only to be foiled by a road closure... and then another road closure... and another.... it seems they were having some sort of run in town which seemed to arbitratily close roads in all directions. Or, at least, the directions we wanted to go. But, we prevailed and finally found the car park we were advised to park in.

Alison and her husband and two young children met up with us on the high street. It was a great day of exploring a stunning little city. Alison's husband had gone to uni in Oxford and showed us all over. We visited his college and ate our picnic lunch on the steps of the library. We also visited the Oxford Natural History Museum, which was an excellent choice with three young children in our company as it was voted the most family friendly museum in Britain. So much to see and touch. Importantly, to touch. Anna was well pleased with the cheetah and we returned to him many times to both pat and to laugh at. To Anna, he was a very funny cheetah. The funniest she's met, in fact.

There was also a french market in town (like the one that visited Henley) that was advertising itself as a Chrismtas market but was, in fact, just a regular French market with nothing Christmassy about it. Still, it was excellent and we had French goodies.

In the end, it was a great day! It was a little short, which is to be expected when it involves cheetahs and non-Christmas French Christmas markets which make everything far too exciting for a nap. Mind you, even dad needed a nap! And the company was great. I'm sad that they live so far away!

Tomorrow, we move into our new house! Hooray! This, of course, is presuming that Countrywide Letting Agency doesn't come up with some surprise thing that we needed to do but haven't, despite us asking if there was anything we needed to do. I am sure it will provide some sort of story that isn't entirely interesting but that I will recount in great detail regardless.