Oxford and London Saturday

This was a tougher schedule! We were up early, and still were rushed to get checked out and down to breakfast by 7:30. I got downstairs before Kaylee, and in her rush she left her nice new charging cord and adapter sitting in the wall in the room. She was pretty upset. Fortunately, the new one I got has 4 USB plugs in it and works great, so we could both still plug in tonight, and I had extra cords. But still, that was a good converter/adapter. :/

It was about an hour drive to Oxford, and we were all really tired when we got there. But Oxford is a neat old city, very bookish and stuffy and old school old school, if you know what I mean. Ancient colleges everywhere with old English architechture. We wandered around town, had coffee underground in a crypt of a church next to tombstones, went past the oldest known standing theater in the country (world?), went souvenier shopping, went through several old school buildings, including an area that was used in the filming of Harry Potter, which you could recognize right away if you’ve seen any of the movies. Very ornate, not medieval, just...old school.

A break for lunch, more exploring, then back on the bus for a couple hour drive to London. We are in the “Premier Hotel” here, in the middle of town, right next to a convenience store, all of which is very handy. We hit most of the famous spots on foot. We walked to Trafalgar Square, through Soho, through the theater district, all around downtown. We walked and we walked and we walked, and last time I checked we ended up with 22,000 steps today. My feet, back, legs, neck, all killing me. I could use a masseuse and a chiropracter and an aspirin. I can do something about the aspirin at least. ;) We walked to the train station, rode the tram or train above ground for several stops, got off at the “Tube”, which is the London Underground, got on the Tube and went several stops to downtown, and walked, and walked. We had Indian/Pakistani food for dinner, which I surprisingly liked and which wasn’t as spicy as I expected. They must have Americanized it for us. ;)

London is like New York City in a lot of ways. It’s got everything, it’s bustling, it even has a few giant TV screens outside of buildings lighting everything up like daytime. More like Vegas, they also have lights of some sort on every building downtown, lighting it up very colorfully and brightly all down the main strips. Very pretty. We were warned about crime, to keep our stuff on our person tucked away, and not in our backpacks, as backpack straps are sliced and pulled away. Getting an entire 40 people on and off of trains and tubes without losing anyone was a challenge too. I think our tour guide deserves a beer and a bonus after this one. He had to get passes for every one of us, and half the time somebody’s pass would fail, and he’d have to get someone...it was chaotic. The bad part where it’s like cities in America, was the chaotic, only increase the rudeness. He warned us that people here will walk right through you, over you, butt in front of you, cut you off, and expect you do to the same. He said “In America you have personal space. Here, you do not. You cannot be nice. You cannot give space. It will be taken from you. Be aggressive or you will get left behind.” He wasn’t kidding. When you have a bunch of teens, a couple smaller kids, and a crew of adults all trying to get somewhere, they have to be able to stick together through a herd of people all trying to just bludgeon their way through the middle of you. I do fine as a body blocker. But that’s where I had the most trouble—huge, huge crowds of people in downtown London, cramming into you as you get on a tight tube going underground right next to black walls, inches from it. It was hot, it was close, it was crowded, it was loud, it was everything I struggle with. But it was also over with pretty fast and at least I could mostly just stay crammed up against my own people. That helped.

When we got back, five of us hung out and played cards for awhile before coming up to the room to crash. My feet are still talking to me and they’re not happy. ;)

It’s 11:17 pm here, and we have to be up at 6:30 am again. Tomorrow is a bus tour of London, and we’re doing a play at the Shakespearean theatre. Looking forward to it!