Oxford from the Aire: Last Set of Photos

While I'm at it...

Sunday was Gillian's last day here, so we decided to hit up some of the last sights. We went to the Museum of Oxford and then climbed the spire of the church of St. Mary the Virgin: lots of very steep, very twisting steps, but some great views at the top.

Looking down the first flight of steps.

Looking out over the roofs.

More rooftops.

The stairs looked like this. That's my foot, since I was standing in a window-well -- they were too narrow for someone to go up and come down at the same time, which was probably why they built the windows where they did.

But at the top, it was great.

To the right: All Souls College with the Hawksmoor Towers.

To the center: the Radcliffe Camera.

To the left: Exeter (you can see its spire) and Brasenose.

Straight up...

... and straight down.

High Street from above.

Oxford rooftops with the spire of the Lincoln College Library in the background.

More rooftops.

Gillian with All Souls in the background.

Me.

Gillian in one of the arches of the walkway. Because of this, I wondered if fat people aren't allowed to go up. I honestly don't think they'd fit.

The tower once we'd returned to terra firma.

All right, that concludes the photos for now! Not sure when there will be more (hopefully before I go to Scotland in March) but there will be eventually, and in the meantime, I'll try to remember to update every so often.

Boxing Day Wanderings (AKA Gillian takes over the blog)

Editorial Note From Hilary: My sister is insane. I left her ramblings untouched for comedic effect. Er, I mean, I love you, dear.

Hi there. I am the famous sister you see in all the picatures. Since Hilary didn't want to put up all the pictures, I decided to hijack the blog and do it anyway. So. Here follows as many posts as I can get in before we skype the family. Also I have to get up before 5AM tomorrow morning in order to fly to Orlando, Florida. But that is a different story.

ANYWAY.

Christmas Day was really fun - we got up fairly late and opened the two or three presents we had. Books and chocolate, mainly, which is JUST FINE with us. After which we hung out for a bit, and then I got to work making Christmas dinner. Naturally, Hilary's flat is not very well stocked with pots and pans, so I had to improsive, but I managed to roast a turkey breast, mash some potatoes, and make a very retarded version of green bean casserole. We also had some onion bread, a bottle of wine, and chocolate cake, so that was very nice.

Boxing day I came down with a very bad cold, but I didn't want to just sit inside and do nothing. It was also sunny for the first time since I got here, and since I am rather addicted to sunlight, I wanted to get out while we had the chance. So we headed out. I wanted to go up the tower of St. Mary the Virgin. It was closed. I also wanted to look around the Sheldonian Theatre. Also closed.

So I decided to check out the phone booth.

We walked down Merton Street in the sun.

And then, for lack of better things to do, we decided to check out the botanical gardens. That is the archway going into it.

The archway from the other side.

A fountain.

Yeah, basically we just took pictures of pretty stuff.


Fish in a pond.

Very lovely view, where I sat down to rest.

A really cute little crazy bird we made friends with.

After this, we headed to this little restaurant that had signs for a traditional cream tea on the window and a menu full of grilled stuff. Confused, we asked for the tea, and were given it - a pot of tea, two scones, and clotted cream for each. It was lovely! (I LOVE tea).

Then I was really tired and sick, so we headed back and hung out.

Hang tight for Salisbury and Stonehenge pics on the way.

Christmas Eve Countryside Exploring (Photos)

In which my sister had the interesting idea that we go out to do some wandering on Christmas Eve, before doing some shopping and having a fight with our washing machine.

So, off we went to find some countryside.

On the way, we had to take a picture of my performing sister with the proper street sign.

After walking up Longwall Street and crossing South Parks Road into the University parks and heading up the cycle track, this was some of what we discovered.

The bridge to Terabithia, or alternately the other side of the path.

A pair of swans, the only ones among all the ducks.

A country lane, this point as we'd wandered well off the cycle track.

Another lane.

Me in the ivy.

Gillian in the ivy.

Looking out the lane through an ivy-wound archway.

Our shoes after we crossed a shallow ravine with a lot of mud in it. Shortly after this, Gillian took a flying leap across a ditch and did a facer, which she thought was great.

A bit of rolling countryside.

A cool-looking tree.

Gillian up a tree on another one of the narrow muddy lanes we discovered.

Me up the same tree.

Another lovely little lane.

A bridge. Obviously.

One of the gates evidently meant to keep cows out. For the record, we did not see any cows.

After this, we returned to civilization and walked down Longwall, back down High Street, and off onto Cowley Road to my Sunday haunt coffee shop, where we had a bit of a reprieve and something to munch on.

Where we had the coffee sabbatical.

This is fairly self-explanatory.

Well, that concludes the mini-edition for today. We're going to midnight mass at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin tonight and then Christmas tomorrow! Have a good one!

Winter Solstice At Oxford Castle (Photos)

We have been very busy over the past few days, so I haven't had time to sort through all the photos we've also been very busy collecting. (Except the Hall of Jewels at the Tower of London and the interior of Westminster Abbey. Fun-killing yahoo camera Nazis. Grr). Anyway, here are the pictures from Oxford Castle, where we went to celebrate the winter solstice. And a lovely time was had by all, as usual.

This is what we call the faerie hill, also known as the mound where the original Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built in 1071 by Robert D'Oily, one of William the Conqueror's vassals. Since I have been big into this period of English history lately (my new project has a lot to do with it) this was especially cool for me.

Definitely a very atmospheric shot of a tree. Look out for the Little People...

The passage underneath the hill, found at the very top. Very sadly, it had a gate in the way, because we were extremely curious.

The gate. Complete with CCTV. Dammit.

The castle as seen from the hill.

The tower of Nuffield College also as seen from the hill.

The castle again as seen from the hill, and the tree as it looks like from the top. The tower in the background is St. George's Tower (remember this name, as it's where we actually went up BEFORE these pictures on the hill were taken, but I rearranged the order to make a more logical progression). St. George's Tower dates from pre-Conquest England and was likely already standing when Robert D'Oily set out to build the rest of the castle.

Gillian in front of the tree. As you can see from her hair, the wind was howling.

A closer shot of St. George's Tower through the branches of the trees. Where we head off to....

...climb a lot of very twisty, much-darker-than-this-but-my-camera-has-flash-control-problems stairs!

Very very twisty stairs. 101 in fact, all the way up to the top of St. George's Tower.

The roof of one of the rooms on the way up to the top.

A vaguely spooky view of a lantern on the stairwell. I think...

The arrow slits at the top of St. George's Tower.

Gillian in one such arrow slit.

Me in the arrow slit. I am pissed that this picture turned out blurry. Blame the wind.

The faerie hill and the Nuffield College spire as seen from the top of St. George's.

Another shot of Nuffield and the hill.

Gillian demonstrating how much the wind was roaring at the top.

The doorway back down the stairs...

... the very very twisty stairs...

... all the way to the haunted Norman crypt. This was me attempting to show how dark it was down there, but my camera retaliated for me turning off its precious flash by making it blurry as heck.

So I capitulated. Besides, it wasn't quite THAT dark. But apparently quite haunted. The electric candles break all the time and other weird things have been reported.

The passageway leading out of the crypt.

Gillian in the crypts. If she looks slightly leery, it was because the tour guide had just told us that one of the chief two ghosts is supposed to haunt the corner directly behind her -- a priest with piercing eyes, who is notably unhappy about anyone coming to the crypt who is not a fellow priest or the corpse of a convict to be dressed for burial. So Gillian gave the corner one or three suspicious looks over her shoulder before she turned her back on it. (The other ghost is apparently a monk named Bernard, and since he doesn't do anything but stand and stare, nobody is sure how they found out that his name is Bernard. That and sap people's energy and break candles. Sounds interesting).

The vaulting in the crypts.

Gillian in the old prisoners' quarters, giving her best unhappy face.

That does it for the December 21 pictures. Next post: London! (We took like 70 photos, and it would have been twice as many if they'd let us take pictures inside Westminster. I can't even describe that place, it's simply jaw-dropping, and may have to raid Google to see if I can give a sense of what it's like).