Dumped by a Bus

Dear Bloggees and Bloggettes --

Greetings from scenic (and we do mean scenic!) Oxford from Brad and Glen, who have seized control of the all-powerful blogging machine for the moment, so the world is in big trouble, indeed.

But to begin: We arrived Monday midday after sleeping, or attempting same, on the red-eye from Newark to London, in various positions only a contorsionist would enjoy. After dropping our suitcase off at our hotel, an easy 15-walk from "downtown" Oxford, we walked over to Sara's room in stunningly attractive and historic Lincoln College, and met her equally attractive and gregarious friends, Jessie, Alli, Annie, Teri, "Jules", and . What a wonderful group of girls they are, and it was readily clear that they had become a close knit "family" over these past six weeks. We felt adopted into their family instantly, and have continued to feel a part of this engaging group ever since (well, as much as a couple of 50-somethings can!).

Tuesday Glen and I were off to London for a day of sightseeing. We hopped a bus into the city, but when it started to rain en route our bus driver announced that his windshield wipers didn't work, so he was having to drop us off in a little town short of London, and would be calling in for a replacement bus, which would arrive . . . sometime. Fortunately, we were close enough to London by that point that it turned out that this little town was served by the London Underground (or "Tube", as they say), as a helpful Englishman (or "bloke") informed us. So after being dumped by the bus, we made the final 45-minute leg of our journey by subway, being sure always to "mind the gap" when entering and exiting the train.

We have decided to write a book, the title of which will be: "How Not to See London." A few details (just to tempt you to buy the book, soon to be published by Oxford Press, of course): After the bus fiasco, we arrived in London's Leichester Square to buy discounted tickets to "Wicked," only to be told that "Wicked" tickets are never discounted; then we went to to The Globe Theatre, only to be told that there was an early matinee so we couldn't go into the theatre; then we went to the War Rooms to see the new Churchill Museum, only to be told that we would have to go through all the War Rooms (which we had already seen) just to get to the museum; then we went to Parliament, only to be told that the tickets were sold out for the afternoon; then to Westminster Abbey, only to be told that it had closed three minutes earlier; then we went to the Dali Museum (which had a special Picasso exhibition -- gotta love Picasso!), only to find it already closed, and finally to the Eye (the giant ferris wheel on the Thames), where the ticket line stretched to the outer suburbs of Paris. But along the way we (1) mastered the Tube, (2) saw the Tate Modern Museum, (3) became certified experts on the London pedestrial bridges, (4) worked off enough calories to account for our last 87 meals, and (5) had a delightful meeting with Sara and her Breadloaf classmates in the City prior to a play they were seeing.

So all in all, . . . it was a good day.

Which brings us to Wednesday (yikes! only Wednesday? we're already on the second volume of this blog entry!).

And . . . here . . . we . . . go (only five minutes to finish this post!):

CoveredmarketCroquetPaddleboatsJerichocafeLiterarytourBlackwells
bookstoreSt.maryofthevirginHeadoftheriverTheturfrestaurant
BlenheimpalaceWoodstock(charminglittletown!)cocktailreception
incourtyardThebearpubZizzi'srestaurantBodleianlibraryNewscafe
GRADUATIONReceptionHightabledinnerChristchurchcollege
JesuscollegeTrinitycollegeMertoncollegeNew college

In short: We had great fun this week! Love to all, Brad&Glen