I woke early this morning, just after 5:00. I saw the sun come up and heard the morning birds. I can now recognize quite a number of them: an English Robin, a Jackdaw, a Chaffchaff, and a few more.

Saying farewell to the lovely Painswick Hotel was not easy. We enjoyed our stay there: the lovely room, the good food, the kind people and the beautiful countryside. Even the tiny lanes had a beauty of their own. We might even miss the challenge of finding a pullout when you least expect it.

We enjoyed our last breakfast. I was disappointed that no crumpets were on the buffet. I was bold enough to ask, only to hear that the first batch had burned and the second would not be ready for another half hour. We dragged our luggage down the stairs and checked out. The server suddenly appeared having kindly boxed a few fresh crumpets for a snack on the road. How kind.

As we were driving away from the hotel, we passed a couple, each with a dog, walking up the hill. Rick commented that he could count on one hand the number of people he had seen walking around Painswick (and The Cotswolds in general) without a dog. He wasn’t wrong

The drive to Oxford was uneventful., mostly on major two lane roads. We dropped off the rental car and took an Uber to the train station. I used the Bounce app to find luggage storage nearby so we would be free to wander Oxford.

There was filming of some sort going on. Some of the streets and buildings were blocked off entirely while others were filled with equipment and trucks. Luckily, we managed to see the things that mattered most to us.

Along the main pedestrian street is Blackwell Books. It is a famous and particularly large book store spread over 5 or 6 separate shops. Each housed one or two particular specialties. We popped into a couple of them, looking at science, children’s books and new fiction. The shops were beautifully organized; it would have been easy to spend hours in any one of them. I did come away with a signed copy of a new novel by a Pulitzer prize winner, and could not resist purchasing one of the Blackwell cloth bags. Why not walk around looking like a reader?

Partly because we were looking for a washroom, we decided to go into the Oxford Science Museum. There were a number of interesting displays. I really loved the astronomy instruments, a detailed display on vaccinating and treating tuberculosis over the ages (I know, a little dark), and some beautiful, ancient, microscopes.

The main draw was a chalkboard that Einstein had used in a 3 day lecture series on relativity and cosmology in May 1931. The mathematical equations on the board were from his new model of an expanding universe (the Friedmann-Einstein universe).

The formula famously contains a mistake converting megaparsecs to centimeters resulting in a final density that was about 100 times too big. (I don’t have any idea what that means either.) He corrected these figures in 1945.

There were originally two chalkboards in the museum, however a well-meaning cleaner wiped the second one clean. The chalk on the board had not been fixed with any paint or chemical. Even now, only a fited piece of glass protects it.

Alas – there was no washroom for the public. IWe have discovered that benefit to taking a tour is that they always know where the washrooms are!

We were not able to go into the Bodleian Library – which didn’t really surprise me. It is a working library and Tuesday was a school day. Established in 1602 by Bodley, it is Oxford’s primary research library. With 13 million (!) printed items, it is the second largest library in Britain.

I did get a photograph of the exterior of The Bodleian as well as the Radcliffe Camera that has housed the science library since 1740.

We stumbled on the famous Bridge of Sighs quite by accident. It was one of the things I wanted to see most, though I can’t explain why. Perhaps becasue it si so iconic. The Rialto style Herford bridge, connects the Old and New quadrangles of Herford College. Hertford is one of 43 colleges within the Oxford university system. That means there are a lot of very smart people walking around. We could occasionally overhear a conversation about history, philosophy or science.

There were more beautiful buildings than we could even take in.

St. Mary’s Church was a lovely stop. It is the main church for Oxford. Built in the 13th century, it has been used for lectures and has housed the library.

We took the tour of Christ Church College, certainly one of the day’s highlights. The staircase is represented in the Harry Potter movies and the Hogwarts dining room is designed after the main dining room, used daily for meal service. Tours must operate around meal times.

The college was originally founded by Thomas Wolsey in 1525. Unable to secure an annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour with the King. The College was re-founded by Henry VIII in 1546. (Makes me pause and think about our neighbours to the south, though this blog is no place for politics.)

Christ Church has an impressive list of alumni including authors (Lewis Carroll, W.H Auden), philosophers (John Locke, the father of Liberalism), 13 prime ministers, and scientists (Robert Hooke and Albert Einstein).

We have to talk about Allice in Wonderland. The entire story of Alice was created during the 47 years that Charles Dodgson (his nom de plume is Lewis Carroll) was at Christ Church College as a student, a mathematics lecturer and a sub-librarian.

The character of Alice is based on the real life Alice Liddell, daughter of then Dean, Henry Liddell. Aspects of Dodgson’s real life influenced many aspects of the book. The White Rabbit was designed after Henry Liddell himself; was notorious for always being late. The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree designed like one on the Quad. The Queen of Hearts is a blend of Lorina Liddell, the Dean’s wife, known to be very strict, and a satire of Queen Victoria. There is also a sly reference to Henry the VIII, with the use of “off with their heads”.

(I know that was a lot – but believe me I could have said more. I went down a real rabbit hole on this one – pun intended.)

One final note on Alice: there is a myth that Lewis Carroll used mind altering drugs while writing Alice in Wonderland. There is no evidence to support this and the rumour only became prevalent in the 1960’s. Having read the book, I can see why someone might assume drugs were involved.

Tour complete we returned to the train station, picked up our baggage and waited for the time to board our train. There were about 20 minutes of total chaos when I was unable to retrieve the train tickets. WIFI issues were preventing me from getting my email. Although I was usually much more prepared, I had neglected to load them into my Apple wallet. Rick and I were both working frantically on a few different options to access the tickets. The obvious solution was unavailable as the ticket office was closed. No train tickets meant no train to London. I finally decided to just ditch the WIFI and use cellular. Tickets in hand, we boarded the train and were on our way.

Our arrival in London went quite smoothly. We navigated multiple trains and then a 10 minute walk to our hotel. The room is simply beautiful and for the first time we have real AC. This will be a blessing as it is quite warm in London at the moment and we are on the 3rd floor.

Covent Market is about 100m from the hotel’s front door. We walked there for a look about and a light dinner at a french restaurant, I had tuna tartine which was perfect, and Rick had his favourite french onion soup.

We are now back in our room, taking it easy and preparing for a few busy days ahead.