Oxford and London

Today we went to Oxford. Because of the tube strike, we had to use buses to get to Paddington. We had it all figured out, and got the right bus number only to find out it only went to Euston. So we had to get another bus and were advised to catch a different number which would get us near Paddington, then walk the rest. It was crowded, and took nearly an hour as the traffic was crawling.

From Paddington we caught a train to Oxford. A pleasant enough trip. On arrival we jumped straight onto the double-decker tour bus (shameless tourists we are) and did the circuit.

So we were surprised to find there is no single Oxford University at all, rather a collection of colleges that combine to be the university. So the tour was "that's so-and-so college" and "that's so-and-so college" with the odd anecdote thrown in. Altogether quite interesting though and it is a lovely place.




We then proceeded to walk around and take in some sights for ourselves, plus look though the shops which certainly had some unique and interesting things to see.

By mid afternoon we decided to head back, but went another round on the tour bus. We had a different tour guide who provided us with a different set of anecdotes and was more informative so this was great fun.

After a quick train ride back, we found a bus to Marble Arch and proceeded to walk up Park Lane. Here we passed all the fancy car dealerships. I decided I'd take a Pagani Zonda, while Helen was fancying an Aston Martin DB9. All this was a distraction however as we were heading to BMW Motorrad to view the range of BMW motorcycles. Doing a straight foreign currency conversion, they are actually good value. We kicked the tyres for a while before heading out into a very busy peak hour London. The tube strike really created chaos.

Helen wanted to visit the Louis Vuitton store in Knightsbridge (I will blog that seperately) so went there via bus. This is an interesting ride and one I always enjoy. From there we doubled back to Regent Street by bus again, to see the new Apple Store.

After that we went and found ourselves some dinner at TGI Friday's before heading home for some sleep. We got to sleep around 10:30pm. Still a bit jet lagged, we thought getting to bed late would help us sleep through.

Postscript - We did get a good nights sleep, until I got a mobile call from NZ about 3am our time, after which we stayed wide awake. The only reason I had my phone on was to use the alarm feature, as we had to get up early to catch the Eurostar. Next time, I will put the phone in flight mode!