A Roast and A University

Even though we've been to London several times, we've never had an official British Sunday Roast... until yesterday. We researched the options (and there are tons) ranging from small pubs to fancy restaurants, and we chose a bar in Notting Hill called the Mall Tavern. It was a loud, lively place but the food was great, and I'm glad we had the experience. Even that carrot was good! The sticky pudding for dessert was the best! I'm already searching for recipes online!

Today was our day to go to Oxford. The head of the planning committee did not realize that the trains from London to Oxford are twice the cost if you leave before 9:30. Lesson learned. But we'd booked a 10 AM tour in Oxford so we had no choice.

Oxford is incredibly beautiful. The buildings are just breathtaking, and everywhere you turn is something spectacular. We started in the downtown area and the Blackwell's Book Store. It looks relatively small from the front, but once inside, it is huge. Multiple floors and books on all different levels. I did a walk around the vast room we were in but didn't see any fiction books. Our guide explained that they are on one of the other floors!! I could have spent all day there.

We toured the Bodleian Library and New College. Lots of little alleyways and small gardens along the way. The church in New College has an alter like nothing we've ever seen..... just rows of statues! All from the 1300's!! Beautiful.  Here are just a few random shots from the tour.

After a quick lunch downtown, we walked to Christ Church which is mammoth and so pretty. We tried to tour it but they were having lunch and we couldn't get in for over an hour. We will plan to go back to Oxford and next time spend several hours there. It was hot and we were tired, so we walked back to the train. We had a few Underground snafus when we were back in London, so to reward ourselves for making it home, we stopped at the pub down the street and ordered some new kind of spritz that we loved!