Saturday, 27 May 2000 Oxford
Forgot to write yesterday because of total exhaustion, so I’ll recap two days.
Friday. Let’s just say it rained. A lot. It basically rained all day. We caught the bus to head downtown and meet the guy who was going to be our guide to Blenheim Palace. Unfortunately he had to have four people to go to make any money and Sheryl and I were the only ones. He did give us solid directions to get there and we followed them, again by bus. We did have to walk the long driveway to the Palace. In the rain.
The Palace was beautiful and huge. It was where Winston Churchill was born unintentionally. There were many huge rooms and tapestries that covered two walls and a library that seemed to stretch on forever. We ended up having lunch there and headed back. In the rain.
We napped at the Dial and then headed out to find the Kilns, C. S. Lewis’ home and Holy Trinity Church where he worshipped. In the rain. We found Kiln Lane and walked up a drive but aren’t sure if we actually saw it, getting soaked the whole time. We did find Holy Trinity and his grave. The church was closed, so we didn’t get to see the Narnia Window, where there are paintings of characters and events from the Chronicles. We saw the back of it, but not the front, but oh well. We would have actually worshipped there Sunday, but our schedule wouldn’t permit it.
2005 note: We did not actually find Lewis' home. His house is on Lewis Close, which we passed, but did not walk up. We ended up walking all the way up Kiln Lane wondering where it was. Oh well, maybe next time.
We headed back in the rain and finally got back to the Dial and collapsed and bathed and warmed up and slept.
Saturday. No rain. We taxied to the rail station and went to Salisbury. We’d decided we really couldn’t get to Avesbury and Glastonbury, so although that was disappointed, we really wanted to see Stonehenge. In Salisbury we hooked up with a Californian named Keith. We ended up staying together most of the day.
We got tangled up some on how to get to Stonehenge and ended up spending a couple of unintentional hours in Salisbury. We finally got out to Stonehenge and it was a neat site. To think of four thousand years of history, even to the fact that we really don’t know exactly what it was built for and the preciseness of it was amazing.
Well, tomorrow we head to Edinburgh by train. I’m not looking forward to the trip as much as I am to being there in Scotland.
2005 Thoughts
Post Trip Thoughts
Day Thirteen
Day Twelve
Day Eleven
Day Ten
Day Nine
Day Eight
Day Seven
Day Five
Day Four
Day Three
Day Two
Day One of the trip
Intro
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4 comments:
was it raining? ; )
I don't know what would have given you that idea.
Isn't Blenheim gorgeous? My friend Whitney and I decided we want to live there when we're rich and old, one of us in each wing.
I have to admit to being unimpressed by Stonehenge. I mean, it was cool and all, but I didn't really get anything out of it that I couldn't get from pictures. Especially now that you can't actually go up to the stones and get a sense of how massive they are. Or test Diana Gabaldon's theory of time travel.
I have very fond memories of Salisbury, though.
I would never let Sheryl go back in time to marry some young Highlander...
I haven't read the books, but Sheryl absolutely adores them.
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