Rainy Day and Roses

Saturday broke gray and rainy. As the day started with a memorial for our great forum friend, it was somewhat appropriate. We met at Folly bridge, over the Thames, and then walked down the (thankfully paved) tow path down the river some ways looking for a quiet, peaceful spot.

Found a lovely spot, but given as it was a mere 100 yards beyond the string of boat houses for the different colleges, 'quiet' doesn't really fit the bill. It was Saturday morning, and rain or no rain, the rowers were out training and their coaches were riding their bikes up and down the tow path yelling instructions to them. It wasn't all that bad, and certainly added local flavor to the scene.

The ceremony was very nice, with readings from her closest friends. And the drizzle let up just in time for the ashes and rose petals to be spread. At one point one of the passers-by asked if someone had fallen in the river. Well... in a manner of speaking, yes. Jackie was always a fan of humor, I think she too would have laughed at that.

Unfortunately our camera batteries were shamefully dead this morning. We took quite a few pictures with Ted's camera - I hope to see them, some day. ;-D I snagged these from the forum.





Dave and I headed back to the Hostel at this time - needed to charge batteries, both of the camera and ourselves. He was suffering quite a bit of pain with all the walking, and we wanted him to be as rested as possible for the walking tour later that day. Actually, this was the trip that led us to seeking out the local busses, and we happened upon the perfect bus that went from the train station next to the hostel right downtown near the Mitre. We rode that bus many times after that!

However, we dawled a bit too long in the room and missed the meeting time for the walking tour. *shrugs* We did our own.

Christ Church College:




This is also Chris Church College, this one I captured Thursday night as we were pub hopping.



We meandered around behind the college quite a bit, and ended up getting turned around. Found these lovely rose gardens:



And later bumped into the entry for the Botanical Gardens. LOL Exited on the street, picked a direction and eventually stopped to consult the map. Good thing we did because we were headed the opposite direction than we'd intended! Conicidentally, where we found a map was right at that Magdalen Bridge, home of the boat house we were to be punting the next day.

So we turned around to head back up High Street towards the Castle where we knew there was a medieval festival that day. Along the way -- we bumped into the walking tour folks! So we fell into step with them - retraced our steps, and went right back to get a private tour of Magdalen College. Chris, our leader for the tour, is on the faculty at Oxford and thus has the ability to conduct self-led tours of the colleges. I was very glad to catch up to see at least this one.

The Chappel

(For fans, click on the picture for a larger version)

Dining Hall - similar to the one at Christ Church college, where the Harry Potter dining hall scenes were filmed.


The quad




Our group


After the tour we grabbed a bite to eat at the cafe inside the college. Dave and I got a very nice chance to chat with Chris and her husband David, center below.



Chris was part of the planning committee and again someone who I'd worked with over these months. Chris admitted that meeting me in person had abolished her impression that American women were bossy and scary!

Lol - bossy I get, but she thought I was scary? Oops!