Oxford

 

We only spent one night in Oxford, but that turned out to be just right. Oxford surprised us by feeling even smaller than Bath, even though it’s actually a considerably larger city. The historic center is very compact, with one beautiful old building seemingly piled on top of another. The University of Oxford doesn’t have a traditional campus. Instead, we learned it has grown together with the city for more than 800 years, so colleges, libraries, academic buildings, shops, houses, and streets are all mixed together. The university itself is also made up of 39 independent colleges, each with its own buildings and community.

First train ride in England. It only took us two attempts to get on the right one!

Sheldonian Theatre

These two gondolas collided shortly after this photo was taken, at which point the woman currently seated relieved her husband of his gondolier duties and took over.

Oxford has an amazing botanical garden. Brace yourself for possibly too many plant photos.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

One of the colleges we accidentally gave ourselves a self-guided tour of before realizing we probably weren’t supposed to be there.

Ok, last one, I promise. In my defense, this one was not taken at the botanical gardens. Also, it is a freak of nature: a flower with no leaves! I looked it up and learned that it’s known in Britain as a naked lady. Its leaves emerge in the spring and die back over the summer, leaving the flowers to seemingly come out of nowhere when they finally bloom in September.

Albert Einstein's blackboard!

Museum of Natural History

This is 100% how I would arrange my insect collection.

Dinner at the hotel was a delicious wild mushroom risotto, one of my all-time favorite dishes.

A Few Reflections on England

As we near the end of our time in England, I wanted to write down a few of the things we’ve noticed and learned along the way. I was surprised to find England more disorienting than Italy, the country I’ve traveled to most. I think it’s because England feels relatively similar to the US, which somehow made all the little differences stand out more, whereas in Italy I expect everything to feel different. So, here is my list of essential words and phrases for traveling in England (you’ll notice my definition of “essential” is mostly food related):

• Hiya - One of our standard greetings on the trail.
• Are you alright/ok? - The standard greeting from service professionals. (They’re not actually concerned about you.)
• Crisps - Chips. (Yeah, theirs makes more sense.)
• Chips - Fries. (I’m not so sure.)
• Rocket - Arugula (It can pack a bit of a punch.)
• Toastie - A hot toasted sandwich, often involving cheese. Not necessarily pressed like a panini. (We should adopt both the food and the word.)
• Courgette - Zucchini. (This one started to grow on me.)
• Abergine - Eggplant. (Let’s start adopting this one. I never cared for the name “eggplant.” Or better yet, go with melanzane if we’re keeping zucchini. We’ll go Italian; the British can stay French.)
• Lift - Elevator.
• Way out - Exit. (I think we’ve made the better choice. I like the finality of “exit.”)

Other things you should know:

Pickle and cheese sandwich - This is actually more of a cheese and chutney sandwich, which it is also sometimes called. Not bad, but I was a bit disappointed, as I do love a good pickle and cheese sandwich.

Scones - There are two very controversial discussions happening in England around scones. First, how do you pronounce it: “scone” to rhyme with cone or “scon” to rhyme with gone? The Brits themselves are unable to agree, including on which pronunciation is more posh. And second, do you put the clotted cream on first or the jam? We have strong opinions on both fronts that we will refrain from sharing, as this blog is not suitable for political commentary.

Tipping is not really a thing - Restaurants often add a service charge of around 10 percent to the bill, and that’s generally it. There isn’t the same expectation to tip on top of it, and often the card machine doesn’t even prompt you to. It really highlighted how out of control tipping has gotten in the US. This was a welcome change that I would happily adopt at home.

English Breakfast tea - For a country we think of as obsessed with tea, we were surprised by how often the tea on offer was basically just English Breakfast. It’s fine, but it’s nothing special. I drank two cups of it every morning while we were there, and I wouldn’t be sad if I never had another cup.

Walking on the left - You might reasonably assume that because the British drive on the left, they also walk on the left. They do not. As far as we could tell, there is absolutely no agreement about which side of a sidewalk you should walk on. We spent three weeks trying to detect a pattern and eventually concluded there isn’t one.

And finally, if you order a salad in England, you’re going to need to ask for more dressing. 

That's all you need to know. Well, that and how to cross the street, but we'll cover that at our last stop in London, where we head next for a few days before we head home!