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After a couple of relaxing days in Bath, we started the last part of our journey in the UK. From Bath we headed across to the east on the back roads, through Marlborough, up past Wantage and onto Oxford. Oxford is a bit of a funny place - there's the old university part in the centre, but it is surrounded by a thick belt of 1930-40's dormitory suburbs, for the car factories that were there. It's not like the movies, but interesting in its own way. But, it is always really busy with tourists, and expensive to stay in. The best way I think, is to stay outside of Oxford e.g. Abingdon, Kidlington, and then use the buses to get into Oxford.
We parked at one of the park and ride stations to catch the bus into the centre, as driving and parking is always a nightmare. We wandered around the old covered market, and through the old colleges - doing a lap around the Bodelian Library, All Souls, Magdelan, Merton and Christ Colleges, before going inside the Balliol College. It's one of the smaller ones, but interesting nonetheless, and a lot less tourists than the main colleges like Christ - and a lot cheaper. Being out of season, it was possible to wander through the main halls.
While we didn't on this trip, a couple of trips ago I went on one of the "free" walking tours that was lead by a former student - you tip them at the end. It was quite entertaining, and provided a lot more background to Oxford, its traditions, culture and view of everyone else. Well worth the hour or so, if you want to get a better idea of the university side of Oxford.
We spent a few hours wandering around Oxford, and then jumped back into the car and headed onto our last UK stop, at Watlington. I know Watlington and its pub, The Fat Fox Inn quite well, as it is usually my first overnight stop once I get off the flight from the UK. It's about 30-40 minute drive from Heathrow. It's a picture perfect English village - something STBMrsK was after, in the attempt to replicate Escape to the Country, and find a little "something" for GBP500k! When we were sitting in the bar, we were talking about how the place looked like something out of Midsomer Murders. The barmaid, overhearing us, passed us the brochure which set out the places in Watlington which had appeared in that show, which episodes etc. So we set off to do a lap of the village, check out the scenes and sample the other two pubs.
That night we started the process of repacking our bags, to get ready for the morning drive to Heathrow. I had booked through Avis, as they have a depot in the Terminal 5 carpark, to save us the hassle of getting to the hire car yards up on the northern edge of Heathrow, and using the shuttle bus.
The check in for our flight to Toulouse went smoothly, and as I was only SG at that stage, we went into the BA Galleries Lounge for a coffee and light lunch before boarding our flight. The lounge was busy, but we were able to find seats, make a coffee and things to eat. Being a new lounge it was light years ahead of what I was used to at the old BA T3 lounge. As we were on holidays, we also had our obligatory glass of bubbles to get into the right mood for the flight and our destination - we would need it.
We parked at one of the park and ride stations to catch the bus into the centre, as driving and parking is always a nightmare. We wandered around the old covered market, and through the old colleges - doing a lap around the Bodelian Library, All Souls, Magdelan, Merton and Christ Colleges, before going inside the Balliol College. It's one of the smaller ones, but interesting nonetheless, and a lot less tourists than the main colleges like Christ - and a lot cheaper. Being out of season, it was possible to wander through the main halls.
While we didn't on this trip, a couple of trips ago I went on one of the "free" walking tours that was lead by a former student - you tip them at the end. It was quite entertaining, and provided a lot more background to Oxford, its traditions, culture and view of everyone else. Well worth the hour or so, if you want to get a better idea of the university side of Oxford.
We spent a few hours wandering around Oxford, and then jumped back into the car and headed onto our last UK stop, at Watlington. I know Watlington and its pub, The Fat Fox Inn quite well, as it is usually my first overnight stop once I get off the flight from the UK. It's about 30-40 minute drive from Heathrow. It's a picture perfect English village - something STBMrsK was after, in the attempt to replicate Escape to the Country, and find a little "something" for GBP500k! When we were sitting in the bar, we were talking about how the place looked like something out of Midsomer Murders. The barmaid, overhearing us, passed us the brochure which set out the places in Watlington which had appeared in that show, which episodes etc. So we set off to do a lap of the village, check out the scenes and sample the other two pubs.
That night we started the process of repacking our bags, to get ready for the morning drive to Heathrow. I had booked through Avis, as they have a depot in the Terminal 5 carpark, to save us the hassle of getting to the hire car yards up on the northern edge of Heathrow, and using the shuttle bus.
The check in for our flight to Toulouse went smoothly, and as I was only SG at that stage, we went into the BA Galleries Lounge for a coffee and light lunch before boarding our flight. The lounge was busy, but we were able to find seats, make a coffee and things to eat. Being a new lounge it was light years ahead of what I was used to at the old BA T3 lounge. As we were on holidays, we also had our obligatory glass of bubbles to get into the right mood for the flight and our destination - we would need it.
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