Oxford

 

 After St Paul's on Saturday instead of taking the train back to Lingfield to stay the night with my grandparents we took a train to Oxford. We had worked it out perfectly so that they got into town to pick us up at the station about 10 minutes after we got there. We went and had fish and chips for dinner and one of my grandparents favorite places. The English have the equivalent of our truck stops every so often off the major motorways. Theirs will normally have a hotel, a place to get gas, and then a small shopping mall type area. It has a food court and a small grocery store. We had our fish and chips there. The highlight though was after dinner Jason and I stopped in to grab things for breakfast and we saw Ellie Goulding. Of course neither of us had our phone and the men with her (I am assuming bodyguards) gave me a funny look when I moved closer for a closer look. So we didn't meet her, but it really was one of the highlights of my trip. 

Saturday had been a very warm day, humid and hot, without a cloud in the sky. The funny thing about the English is they don't believe in air conditioning. They think that air conditioning makes you sick because it is just recycling old air. So we get to the hotel, it's hot and they don't even have air conditioning. It was a long night. We had our window open just hoping for the rain to come. By morning it was raining, and it felt so good.  We went to church, I love going to church in other countries, I am always amazed how it feels the same as being at home. 

After church we drove through Oxford, found parking and walked to Christ's Church College. We were hoping to tour and see what inspired the Great Hall in Harry Potter, but the line was so long. And we were all tired of lines and decided to see the city instead of spending our afternoon in a long line. We had a lot of fun, we even found the college that had their math department and my grandpa took Jason in and told them we were thinking of applying for their masters program. So we have all that information in case Jason ever feels ambitious:)

We ate lunch at a fun little pub (I of course found something on the menu with Yorkshire Pudding, why do I love that stuff so much?) went to an old bookstore where I found the complete Robert Browning poetry printed in the 1800's, and a few doors down from that we went to the Eagle and Child. The pub that C.S Lewis and Tolkien sat and talked and wrote at. 

Ok now for pictures:) I spent the whole day trying to figure out why I looked so tired. I knew I was tired but I couldn't believe how tired I looked. Finally realized that night that I forgot to put on mascara. So that was fun:)

 

A kissing gate. We had to try it out.