August 12 Penzance to Oxford

Today is a day spent on the train. Luckily, we bought tickets before we left home as the train was very crowded. Not so bad when we got on in Penzance, but later so many people joined the train that they were standing in the luggage area, which is already full of luggage, meaning people have to have large bags on their laps at their seats.

England may be a country of shopkeepers, but it is also a land of what appears to be small faremers. A lovely patchwork of neat fields surrounded by hedges, with small numbers of cows, looking like the alleged happy cows of California. In Penzance, of the subtropical climate, the fields are green and quite golden. The towns are houses that from the train seem more or less identical, small and tall, usually joined to at least one neighbor’s house, usually of a dove grey or sandy stone and with white trim. Some of the rail stations seem to have gone in more for what I would call Victorian ornamentation and are often of red brick.

Once we reached Plymouth, we were out of Cornwall and into Devon. The look of the place changes slightly, and also a good number of people got off the train so it was not quite so crowded. The trees between the fields are taller in Devon, perhaps Devon isn’t a subtropical climate?

We had to change trains in London to get to Oxford, and our train was delayed, but we finally made it to Oxford. We had a bit of difficulty finding our hotel , couldn’t understand the bus driver about the fare, then seemed like we got up too soon to get off the bus – excuse me, alight – and got told to sit down. I think the bus driver hoped he’d never see us again. And of course, then we decided to go the wrong way when we got off the bus, no doubt because I chose the direction.

After checking in at the Tilbury Lodge, we decided to take a bit of time to explore Oxford, since we leave tomorrow morning and I’m not driving a car into Oxford if I can avoid it.

Took the bus back to town, though we could easily have walked, had we known the direction, and walked to the Magdalen Bridge near the Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin). These boats are apparently available for hire, either with or without a rower (poler?) a guy who stands up to move the boat along, anyway.

Then we went up to check out the William Morris garage. With all my research on Morris, I didn’t know he had a workshop in Oxford, but of course he did study at Oxford. Imagine how foolish we felt when we found it was another William Morris – the one the Morris car is named after.

Then we checked out the Bridge of Sighs, John thought he’d help hold it up, as it’s quite old and could fall at any time.

Continuing our trek, we came to yet another very old building. Housing a Nokia shop. The old and the new mix quite comfortably in Oxford.
And of course, the very polite British way of telling someone not to park their bikes there.



Notice today, I finally figured out how to get the pictures more or less where I want them.