Christ Church
Punting on the Isis
New College
The Bridge of Sighs
Radcliffe Camera
Even steeples need repair
Well, we're off to Oxford, but first, as intimated yesterday, some fabulous news came out today about Stonehenge. The results of a four-year geophysical survey of the site were announced last night at the British Science Festival in Birmingham. They have revealed 17 previously unknown neolithic structures, including circle and oval henges, burial pits, and the remains of a 33m-long building being reported as a 'house of the dead', and which dates to about 6,000 years ago, about 1,000 years before the bluestone circle, about the same time as the long barrows in the Stonehenge landscape. All this has been done without turning any soil, so all these new finds are totally undisturbed and can be examined archaeologically at a later date. This has turned all we knew about Stonehenge on its head, so it is little wonder that the guides yesterday were somewhat excited! To find out more, do a search on the lead archaeologist, Vincent Gaffney, or on the name of the project, 'Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes'.
Anyway, Oxford. Will these damned powers that be of these cities ever get it into their heads that people in their motorhomes, genuine tourists, might like to use their Park and Ride facilities? Again, height restricted! We went into a retail park and asked a girl at the counter of a Bootes pharmacy what we could do. She was a magnificent ambassador for Oxford, and told us of a car park very close to the heart of town that we would be able to use. And our Garmin, given the proper instructions, guided us in to it quite smoothly (although with the huge amount of roadworks about, it took a little longer than we expected).
We went into the town, found the tourist information centre, and bought a city guide that had a good one-hour (or so) walk that we could do. Well, we did the walk, taking at least twice as long over it as suggested, and got a really good feel for the city. Much of Oxford is pedestrianised, so it's easy to get around by foot. We went by such places as a couple of towers, one dating back to Saxon times and the other to the 13th century, Christ Church and its meadow, Merton College, the river Isis (which is what the Thames is called here), Magdalen College, St Edmund Hall, The Queen's College, the 'Bridge of Sighs', the Sheldonian Theatre, The Bodelian Library, Radcliffe Camera, the Covered Market, Blackwell's Bookshop, the New Bodelian Library — lots of things to see. Warren particularly wanted to visit Blackwells as, while he was a librarian at the University of Queensland, he recommended quite a few books for purchase from their catalogues.
In Blackwells
In Blackwells
We then walked back towards the van, to a market that was being held in Gloucester Green, which we wandered through for quite a while. Then, with a couple of hours to go before our parking expired, we decided to go to the movies, at the Odeon — we went in to see Luc Besson's film 'Lucy', abut a woman whose brain utilisation, due to a drug accident, went up from the usual human 15% to fully 100%. Interesting movie! From here, we went to the van, and left for Milton Keynes and Bletchley Mansion, the place where the English broke the Germans' codes in World War II, where we will visit tomorrow. We've parked off in a layby on the A421, a little too close to the traffic for true comfort, but at least it's light!
Distance driven — today, 76 miles ( 122 km ); to date, 7,421 miles ( 11,943 km )
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