Holiday ABC!

A is for Angels

Lots of them, in stone, in stained glass, in mosaic just about everywhere you looked, not forgetting of course ‘The Angel of the North’.

B is for Baby

How we travelled, had the hood down most days, don’t think Mother Ruth approved of my hat, she kept suggesting baseball caps with Oxford University emblazoned across them.

C is for Cathedral

Initially when first mooted this trip was going to be a Cathedral crawl turned out only one was bagged, that one being Durham, but what a beauty.  Its grandeur comes from its strong powerful lines, and while other Cathedral’s make me – at least – stand in awe this one made me feel tightly held and secure. 

D is for Durham

Our first stop, the park and ride, the hill, the Cathedral, some shopping and from afar the castle.

E is for Emoticons

From the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, they have a whole range of them for now I will share with you this \(^o^)/ which is hosanna.

F is for Film

The Pursuit of Happyness, well paced and first class acting.  In parts it was a bit predictable but definitely worth watching if you haven’t already seen it.

G is for Graffiti

They have a whole other class of graffiti in Oxford!

H is for Heavy Rain

Big fat drops that soon turned the M1 into a stream and reduced visibility to less than 100 yards.  Why do people still drive at high speeds in such weather?

I is for i-pod

Which from Dusty to The Priory Nuns provided the sound track to our backing vocals throughout the week.

J is for Jail

Or maybe more correctly prison, which made up two sides of a square with Oxford Castle making up the other two and was where ‘The Oxford Passion’ was held, an outside production by Creation Theatre.  Some great one liners – which it seemed as if we were the only two who got the joke – songs to make you tap along and sing as you made your way home; with the use of costumes and space being excellent, if only they would come on tour.  All in all it was one of the highlights of the week for me, despite the midgets!

K is for Keble College

A wonderfully different looking Oxford College built out of brick instead of the local sandstone, and unfortunately the only college we got to.

L is for Lanes

Country Lanes rather than Motorways to get to Banbury and Chipping Norton the drive was better than the destinations, sorry anyone from Banbury or Chipping Norton, they are nice enough wee places to live in but not what I was expecting with my tourist hat on.  We did find the Arts Centre in Banbury but it was closed due to the recent floods and down another wee country lane we found a pottery however they didn’t have the soup bowls Mother Ruth has been looking for.

M is for Mosaics

These are in Keble College Chapel, glorious but hard to describe them with any justice and no pictures of them so all I can suggest is you go and see them for yourselves; I doubt you will be disappointed.  For me it was another highlight of the trip.

N is for No-Brainer

If you ever go to a Creation Theatre production, upgrade your seats to the premier ones, for £5 more you get a £3.50 programme, front row seats, a poster and a free interval drink, what a bargain!

O is for the Oxford

For it’s spires and bicycles, its fine architecture and college quads, its meandering river and soft weeping willows, I can’t remember ever seeing so many weeping willows in one place before.

P is for Palace

Blenheim by name, a bit of a disappointment if truth be told.  The gardens by Capability Brown are stunning and the outside of the building is magnificent but once inside the doors the rest didn’t quite match up.

Q is for Queens Lane Coffeehouse

Supposedly the oldest coffeehouse in Oxford and certainly one in which you will get good food (although I didn’t fully understand why I would want 2 whole pickled green chillies with my ploughman’s) and a warm welcome if our experience was anything to go by.

R is for Red

The colours of my toe nails after a pedicure.  Well a holiday isn’t a holiday without a wee bit of pampering.

S is for Shopping

It was a joy to be with someone who you didn’t have to explain that shopping is good manners.  After all if someone has gone to all the trouble of finding a business premises, drawing up a business plan to get the bank’s support, stocking it with lovely things, getting staff, the staff having bothered to get up and go into work even if they didn’t really feel like it that particular day, all in the hope that we might pop our head around the door then it would be extremely rude to walk past!

T is for Tour

On an open top bus, seeing the sights of Oxford from the trees rather than the tarmac.

U is for University

Well what else could it be for when visiting Oxford?

V is for Verger

One verger, sorry I have forgotten his name, in particular who kindly waived the ban on taking photographs in Durham Cathedral to allow two visiting priests from Scotland take a picture of an altar frontal dedicated to St Margaret of Scotland.

W is for Windows

All kinds and many of then with ornate iron work over them, not just plain iron bars but ones with style.

X is for Xercise

The narrow twisting steps up St Mary’s university church tower to get views over Oxford.  Okay so that might be a bit of a cheat but was struggling with ‘X’.

Y is for Yes

Yes I would go again; for me this was just a taster, I look forward to going back and seeing all the things I missed, the colleges, the Cathedral, the Castle, …

Z is for Zzzzzzz’z

After Mother Ruth read a bedtime story!