Oxford at last!

After a hectic couple of weeks of train-hopping across Europe, staying in each place for four nights at the most, and hauling heavy bags on and off trains, it was a relief to arrive here in Oxford a little over a week ago. The apartment Boak rented is just as cheerful, clean and bright as it presented on the internet, and we’ve been very comfortable here. It’s on the top floor of a small double-storey block of apartments, only a couple of years old, down by the river and five minutes’ walk from Christ Church, and a little further to High Street and The Broad (where the famous Blackwell’s Bookshop calls siren-like to us!).

We had left the little village of Corbie in Northern France around 11am to drive to Lille. In spite of recent news reports of riots here (and in Paris) we saw no evidence of property damage or unrest. After dropping off our rented car, we caught the slick, fast Eurostar train through the cross-channel Tunnel, enjoying a delicious 3-course lunch with wine as we traveled, and arrived at London’s Waterloo Station around 3.30pm (having moved to another time zone). Next we hailed a London taxi (always love traveling in these!) to take us across to Paddington Station where we caught a train to Oxford, and used the services of yet another cab driver to deliver us to Friars Wharf. As you can imagine, by now we were rather weary and cold, but we received a warm welcome from our landlady’s friend who had thoughtfully turned on the central heating.

After an excellent night’s sleep we woke to this idyllic scene, the photo taken from our little deck....

A path beside the river leads to Folly Bridge. This was where Charles Dodgson hired a boat to take young Alice Liddell and her sisters on a picnic, spinning the tale of “Alice in Wonderland” as they rowed along.

The autumn colours are glorious right now.