We started the morning with hot chocolates at The Paperboat Cafe on Folly Bridge. There is something different about British chocolate. I imagine it is purer, involving less preservatives and chemicals. In any case, it definitely has a slightly more bitter and chalky flavor that is to my liking.
We got up close and personal with Folly Bridge by getting on the water. Oxford River Cruises took us out on the Thames, which the locals call the Isis in this stretch.
The other people who were supposed to be on our cruise didn't show up, so we had a personal guide and boat. The weather was beautiful and sunny, the calm before Storm Austen would batter southern England and Wales.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) had its origin in a similar boat trip in this section of the river.
Caudwell's Castle was built by Joseph Caudwell in the mid-1800s. He adorned his brick fortress with Greek- and Roman-inspired statues and a couple of cannons. Our boat guide told us some wild tales of Caudwell, who eventually ended up exiled to Australia.
We wandered around Oxford for the late morning and early afternoon, as we awaited our departure time for parts west. The British love their brick and straight lines in their architecture. And they love narrow stories. I described it as "brickish and upright."
We visited the History of Science Museum in Oxford. They have a blackboard Einstein used in a lecture on cosmology while visiting the University of Oxford in 1931.
We stayed in a 300-year-old cottage in Moreton-in-Marsh, in the Cotswold District, wandering about the town and taking in the sights. The main floor of the cottage was a Thai restaurant.
Dinner was in the aforementioned Thai restaurant. I ordered Crazy Tiger, which was sirloin steak and vegetables (including some mouth-numbing peppers) in an excellent nuea-yang style sauce. A Schweppes Lemonade helped cut the heat a bit. Scrumptious!
Caudwell's Castle was built by Joseph Caudwell in the mid-1800s. He adorned his brick fortress with Greek- and Roman-inspired statues and a couple of cannons. Our boat guide told us some wild tales of Caudwell, who eventually ended up exiled to Australia.
We wandered around Oxford for the late morning and early afternoon, as we awaited our departure time for parts west. The British love their brick and straight lines in their architecture. And they love narrow stories. I described it as "brickish and upright."
We visited the History of Science Museum in Oxford. They have a blackboard Einstein used in a lecture on cosmology while visiting the University of Oxford in 1931.
We stayed in a 300-year-old cottage in Moreton-in-Marsh, in the Cotswold District, wandering about the town and taking in the sights. The main floor of the cottage was a Thai restaurant.
Dinner was in the aforementioned Thai restaurant. I ordered Crazy Tiger, which was sirloin steak and vegetables (including some mouth-numbing peppers) in an excellent nuea-yang style sauce. A Schweppes Lemonade helped cut the heat a bit. Scrumptious!
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