We met up with our traveling companions at the gate (left to right): Brett and Andra Opalinski, Elaine and Jim Thomas, Bishop Bob and Faye Fannin, and on the other side of us, Lisa and Ed Degrenia. We were fortunate to have some time to visit before boarding.
The couples were somewhat spread out on that flight. Nothing remarkable as we headed to Atlanta. In Atlanta we went all the way from Terminal T to Terminal E and got lunch at the food court – Panda Express! Then we gathered at the gate again. We were accompanied by quite a large group of young people traveling with People to People. The flight did have moments of turbulence but, by and large it was a good flight, just long. We were served dinner (chicken with spinach and carrots) and breakfast the next morning (egg sandwich and fruit).
We landed in London at Gatwick Airport about 8:00am London Time (3am USA). Customs was smooth and easy and thankfully everyone's luggage arrived as well. We were met by an Educational Opportunities (EO) representative who made sure that we found our bus and driver Darrin. He was a bit late and we were a bit early so we waited outside until we met up. Darrin is very outgoing and friendly - he owns his own transport business and this was his first contract with EO for a tour of this nature.
We had another companion on our trip as well - a John Wesley doll, compliments of the Thomases. We photographed John throughout as he "returned" to England.
The drive to Oxford took about 2 hours. Oxford is northwest of London. The first hour or so was mainly major interstate – the second hour we were able to see more of the beautiful green countryside and a lot of sheep and cows on farms. When we arrived in Oxford at the University Club for our accomodations, the rooms were not quite ready. The Fannins were staying at Harris Manchester College in the dorms, so they went to check in and the rest of us set off on our own walking tour of the town. We encountered the famous bookshop Blackwell's which has over five floors of books (and that's just one of three stores they have in Oxford!). We also managed to find the library, an ATM, a pedestrian shopping area, and the mall. And we began to experience our first taste of English weather which changes its mind quite often. One of our tour guides even mentioned that it's not unusual to experience all four seasons in one day. We got hit with an afternoon shower at one point and layered on and off the jackets repeatedly.
We arrived back at the University Club about noon and checked into our rooms. The basement houses locker rooms for the cricket club. The first floor here is all reception and dining areas. The second floor is all meeting space. The third floor houses the guest rooms – just fourteen all along the backside of the inn with a view of the green space behind. We were in room 12. Inside, the rooms were sparsely furnished but very pleasant and quite sufficient for our needs. No air conditioning but with the windows cracked open we had plenty of circulating air.
Then it was back downstairs to walk around a bit with the Fannins. We walked through the courtyard of the library, a building we had encountered earlier but weren't sure about. And learned more about where we were and the culture. Oxford University received its charter from the government in 1214, meaning that higher education has been ongoing here for almost 800 years. It has 38 different colleges that make up the university. Harris Manchester is the smallest (about 75 students) and was only admitted as part of Oxford back in 1996.
Earlier the bus driver had described Oxford in terms of “towns and gowns.” Towns refers to those people who live here year round (about 100,000) while gowns refers to the student population (about 40,000). Wednesday was the last day of the official semester and we noticed the students dressed up in their uniforms and gowns with flowers pinned to their gowns. They wear the uniforms on exam days because if “they dress smartly they will test smartly.” Over several days they take 9 different three hour examinations. On the first day they wear a white carnation. On the middle days they wear a pink carnation. And on their final day of exams they wear a red carnation.
We stopped for lunch at a great little cafe called Puccino's. We both had sandwiches: Debbie a “New Orleans” on a baguette and Daryl a “Madrid” on a panini. Huge portions, both served with salad and definitely delicious. By this time everyone was really winding down so we went back to the rooms and had an opportunity to nap and finally take a shower as well as change clothes. The noises drifting through our windows at this time was a game of cricket being played on the field next to the inn.
Bishop Fannin had wrangled an invitation for all of us to attend the end of year Garden Party for Manchester College and so we met at 4:30 and walked down the street to join in the fun. At this point it seemed like walking around the set of a Hugh Grant movie. Women and men were dressed in all manner of attire from the very formal to the casual. There was an ice cream man in costume scooping up treats from a freezer on the back of a bicycle. There was a wonderful jazz band playing and several tents set up with really great food – sandwiches, petit fours (desserts), candy bar, and drinks. When one of our group asked the steward of the college what was in the drink, he replied “it's slightly alcoholic but lovely!” About halfway through the party, there was a speech from the president of Manchester college mentioning the two retiring faculty and staff as well as honoring the gardener for her lovely work in keeping up the grounds. We took some time to explore around the garden and also the chapel and its windows.
We were invited for the banquet in the dining hall but they were full up. So we were given access to the balcony so that we could hear the choir the choral call to dinner. Then we left and the Fannins led us into town for dinner. Along the way, scores of young men walked by us in the opposite direction carrying a lot of beer to celebrate the end of term. We stopped at the Copa for dinner where we had a wonderful meal of fish and chips, which also came with mushy peas. Very delicious! Ours did not come in the traditional newspaper, which we thought was due to the type of restaurant we were in. But Bishop Fannin let us know that the newspaper had been outlawed several years before because of health reasons.
We stretched our legs some more after dinner, walking down to Christ Church and the gardens. Although we could not get in, we still got some lovely pictures. Across the street from Christ Church was a shop about Alice in Wonderland - the author, Lewis Carroll, was a student at Oxford and wrote the book about the dean's daughter, Alice. It was really lovely to walk through the town - we got such a sense of history and permanence, even with the new mixed into the old.
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