Another Walk Around Oxford

  Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Sunday, August 10, 2008

Building

        Like most mornings we were up nice and early at the crack of 7am and headed down for breakfast. Nothing beats bacon and eggs every morning cooked for you. The weather had cleared up and we had some blue skies that we wanted to take advantage of so we headed out and began yet another walk towards city center. We tried to take a new route but kept ending up back at the same roads we took yesterday as everything is built around city center and connects to it like a giant spider web.
 

Crazy Tree

     Having arrived downtown again we thought it would be neat to take a walk down to the University and have a look around. All the buildings were off limits but we were able to wonder around and realizing the size of the complex there is no way you would be able to see it all anyway. Points of interest that we stumbled onto were the Chemistry institute that Scott got a picture by and the Department of Education. We also found a University Park that they took great pride in and it was really neat to walk around. The entire park consisted of different tree's   which were all planted by hand so it was very interesting to see all the different kinds of plants and greens around. Reinforcing the idea that they really take great pride in their park areas and take great care of them.
 

Christ Church 2

     We stumbled onto the Christ Church complex which spanned a good 4-5 blocks square and was huge. Most of the buildings required paying to get into and had huge lines of people waiting for tours. So we took our pictures of the outside and said we would leave it for another day when we were actually making money. To the south of the Church complex was a large park area which had a lot of people just chilling and enjoying themselves. We saw a group of people playing Cricket and decided to find a spot under a tree near them to sit down for some relaxation. We had seen some cricket on TV but were still totally confused by the game and thought if we watched some people play that we might be able to pick up on some of the rules. They were just messing around so it was limited to what we were able to learn but we did pick up on the fact that the pitcher "bowls" the ball at the batter. This consists of a windmill pitch that bounces once in front of the batter. We also learned that if the ball is caught at all the batter is out. Aside from that we have no idea how the scoring works or when the game ends. Some day we will figure out how it works and possibly even go see a game once we know the rules.
 

Geese... No Wait Ducks!

     We had put a lot of miles on our feet by this point and all of us were having pains somewhere in our body so we just lay in the sun for a while enjoying not walking around. Eventually the clouds in the distance were starting to get closer and we decided to pack up and head off before they got here as we didn't want to get caught in the rain again. We found a river that runs through the city and park and followed it up stream. It was a beautiful walk and park and we quite enjoyed the leisurely stroll. Farther up the river there was a smaller creek that met up with it and we followed that.
 

Hiding Under A Tree

     The site we found was very comical and took a while to figure out what was going on but did eventually figure it out. There is a mass of gondolas around the city on most of the rivers but we had only seen professionals driving them before. For those that don't know a gondola looks a lot like a canoe only not pointed on the ends. There is no motor or paddles and they use the large sticks to push them down the river. Watching the professional's drive they looked very peaceful but the boats we stumbled onto were apparently rentals that you could get. You would think driving one of them would be simple but watching these poor souls try to steer these suckers and push them along was a great source of entertainment. Every single boat was slamming into banks, getting hit by tree's that hung low over the river and basically causing chaos. It was very windy and the rain was starting to fall again which added some excitement for the boats. We are defiantly going to have to try renting one of these as we made our stupid comments about how easy it should be. Only way to find out is to try it ourselves and see if it was all hot air and they really are that difficult to steer.
 

Being Kids Again 2

     On the way home we stopped in a playground to let our inner kids out. They had this crazy looking thing that we couldn't figure out so we had to go try it and see what it was all about. We have pictures but it's basically a rail that runs in a banana shape and is mounted to the ground. There is a sliding platform on it and a middle spoke to hold onto. Essentially you stand on this sliding platform and hold onto the spoke and then swing your legs back and forth trying to get as high as possible. It sounds confusing but really isn't. The pictures will explain it better than I can. We then played on the swings for a while and headed on our way home.
 

Being Kids Again 5

     The rest of the night was pretty uneventful as the rain settled in again and kept us confined to our guest house. We headed down the street to a "fast food" place (guy cooking burgers in a truck) and got some of the best burgers I have had in my life. We then tested out if we were actually able to withdrawal money from our banks using the 'hole in a wall' (atms). It worked and after checking our accounts there is a $10 charge for withdrawal but at least we had access to our money.
 

Streets of Oxford 3

   More cards and Olympics and our day was done as we had a long day planned for Monday and knew we needed some sleep. To bed we went with high hopes that tomorrow would bring promising news of a place to live in one of the four viewings we had booked. The guest house we were staying in was getting expensive and we wanted to lock down a place to live by the end of the week at the latest as we couldn't afford to keep living this way. Moving half way around the world with no jobs, no place to live, and no idea what we're doing has its adventure and exciting side but the stress of having no home was getting to us. We pushed it out of our minds and got a good night sleep.