Andrea Finally Goes to Europe–Windsor and Oxford

 

April 16, 2014

Wednesday morning, the 16th, Brennan and I and my parents got up and said goodbye to Davis and Melissa and Bea for a few days and loaded into the rental car and drove about an hour, hour and a half outside of London to Windsor Castle.   This was definitely one of my favorites and one of the few things we took the time to go inside.

Here we are at Windsor, looking pretty cool with our recorded guided tour headphones

We must not have been allowed to take pictures inside, because I don’t have any.  It was amazing.  It was like a museum of incredible works of art, and architecture and history.  I loved every room and every minute we spent there. 

After loving every thing about Windsor Castle, we stopped in the charming little town around the castle at a little pub for a very English lunch

 

Fish and Chips

After lunch we drove another hour or so to Oxford University where they take their education very seriously and tourism…not so seriously.  I think we arrived around 2 and everything was pretty much closed.  We walked around the lovely town and admired the stunning and imposing buildings from the outside.  When we came to Christ Church, we realized they were allowing people in so we got in line, when the lady asked us if we were here for the concert, Brennan quickly said we were and we were in!  Each college has it’s own courtyard and surrounding smaller buildings.  Christ Church is one of the most distinguished colleges in Oxford.  It was incredible.  We walked through the courtyard and entered the stunning cathedral where we found some seats for a baroque Haydn Easter Concert.  Wow!  What a treat.  My Mom, especially was in heaven.

I think we left a little early, as it was getting late.  We found a restaurant in Oxford and enjoyed a nice meal, (but it took a while because we once again had a miscommunication on our order), but our waitress was so sweet.  She tried to pay for the meal that got ordered mistakenly with her own money.  We didn’t let her.  As we ate, we tried to find a hotel in the Cotswolds to stay in that evening, but because it was late, and we wouldn’t be there before 10, we couldn’t.  Things work differently there than in the US, I learned that .  What we lack in culture and old things, we make up for in customer service!  Anyway, whooped and getting a little discouraged, my Dad surprised us and booked us each beautiful rooms at an Oxford hotel.  We were thrilled to be able to drive across the street and have luxurious lodgings in that historic place.    

Here are Mom and Dad in front of Magdalen College where CS Lewis taught