Meg's & Lon's Magnificent Adventure: Buckinghamshire, Oxford and Stratford upon Avon, England

Megs Typing

We left the sunny days of Cornwall behind and travelled the few or so hours to Buckinghamshire to spend the night with Elona's sister Michele and her family. It was celebration time. Michele and Simon were celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary. Congratulations and thank you for a wonderful evening. The Bastion clan was almost complete with Vene and John also being in town for dinner. Michele, Simon and the boys then invited us to our first Donkey Derby the following day.

Donkey Derby - 5 donkeys and some very brave volunteer riders (from the local pony club). The donkeys assume a different identity in each race with a new name, new colours and new rider. The unpredictability of the donkey cooperation to race is often a major decider in the race winner (those poor brave jockeys). Well done Michele who picked the winner in race number one and pocketed a fiver. The Donkey Derby is not all about the Donkey races; there were games of skill and chance, for example the crockery smash - where for a pound you purchase the opportunity to throw 3 balls at dinner dishes!!!!!!! Jimmy and George (2 of Elona's nephews) also tried their skill at the boot camp style obstacle course, and the hammer of strength. Elona and I tried the money tree - 50p for your choice of money bag.......I chose one with 14p and Elona scored an entire penny in hers!!!!! Fairy Floss didn't come in pink or blue, but white and was called Candy Floss - this prompted yet another of those strange conversations we have regarding the origin of words.... Where did we get the term Fairy Floss from?????
See Photo - it was a fantastic day!!!!

We decided to mix things up a little and have inserted pics throughout the post so please keep reading to the end.....

Buckinghamshire

Candy Floss????? No Thanks Simon I am all good.

Harry helping his Auntie Lon enjoy the local Candy Floss!

George - now you see it.......

now you don't ...... Sugar highs for everyone today - Yeh!!!!

Who is taller?????? HARRY!!!

This one is an optical illusion -

Harry is actually a smidge shorter than Vene though he took the higher ground.

Run Donkey Run!!

Sisters

Some of the Bastion Clan

Go Jimmy, climb that rope wall - well done! My little Jack Bauer!

George's agility at dodging obstacles. Another Jack Bauer in the works!

George and the rope wall.

SMASH THOSE DISHES - Jimmy

Lon looking for a lucky ticket or two. This game is called something strange sorry can't remember the actual wording though it was very "English", it is run the same way as the Red Cross numbers at the Royal Show or the Ekka. The two boys that had their turn just before Elona won - first picked up a beautiful florally photo album (he didn't seem all that impressed and tried to negotiate his way into a different prize without success) the second boy was really lucky and won alcohol unfortunately he needed to go home to get a parent to collect it.

Elona unfortunately was not so lucky :(

Next game - the money tree.....wonder what is inside??????

Wait there is something in the envelope (that costs 50p)

Elona won 2 pennies - We have a winner!!

Here is a game that everyone gets a prize they like - you pay the man and they give you food.

George's turn at the Strong Man's Hammer Hit!

Jimmy collecting his prize after his turn at the Hammer.

Oxford

After a cup of tea following the Donkey Derby and a farewell to Vene and John and a see ya later to Michele and family we headed off to our next destination - Oxford!!!

Oxford - well... the accommodation was sketchy - but it was clean and we could make tea and coffee and we were only in town over night. The next morning we set out to explore the sights. Given our limited time we decided to take the CitySight Seeing Tour (the big red bus). It was amazing; just over an hour where every building on every street has a story that has made the history books. Well worth visiting if you are ever in the area.
Elona typing,

We also sampled some of the best Cornish Pasties and Cornish Sausage Rolls from here; West Cornish Pasties Co!!

Ok for something a little different we are going to give you fun facts about Oxford under each photo this has nothing to do with the true fact that we can't remember what went with what in the photos!!! I promise!?!?

The first colleges of Oxford were built in the 13th century, but it wasn't until 1878 that women were admitted to the university, 1920 when they were awarded degrees, and 1974 when the last of the all-male colleges opened their doors to women.

Hitler was intending to use Oxford as his capital if he conquered England which is one of the reasons it was not bombed.

As you walk around the Colleges, be sure to look up once in a while. All over Oxford's buildings are gargoyles (technically 'grotesques' as these don't spout water) - some in the shape of faces, some animals, some entire people. The keenest of eyes will spot the funnier ones - the one picking his nose, the one going to the bathroom...

Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, was a real girl named Alice Liddell. She was the daughter of the Dean at Christ Church College, who was a friend of Charles Dodgson (A.K.A. Lewis Carroll), who taught at the College. Dodgson spent much time with Alice and her family, and immortalized her in his books.

This is where the graduations take place :)

Hey just by the way the Oxford people don't even really know about these heads!!!

The Great Hall at Christ Church College was used as inspiration for the Hogwarts dining hall in the Harry Potter films. The staircase leading up to the hall was actually used in several scenes in the films.

The name Oxford comes from the old term 'Oxanforda' which literally meant a ford (shallow crossing) in the river where the cattle (Oxen) could cross safely.

After enjoying Alice in Wonderland, Queen Victoria contacted Lewis Carroll to say that she would love to receive more of his books. Lewis promptly sent her the book he just completed: The Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry.

The bell in the tower of Christ Church Cathedral is called the Old Tom which strikes a unique 101 times at 9.05pm every evening. Originally, this was the curfew time for students in the city and the bell rang to signal their return back to college - things have obviously changed but the tradition lives on.

The University of Cambridge was actually founded by Oxford students who were fleeing Oxford following riots that erupted in 1209 between students and townspeople.

On Broad Street in the centre of Oxford, there is a cross built in to a cobbled patch of the main road outside Balliol College marking the location of the site where the protestant Oxford Martyrs (Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley (16 October, 1555), and later Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (21 March 1556)) were burnt at the stake for heresy. When the Catholic Mary I succeeded her brother, the Protestant Edward VI, as Queen of England in 1553, she went about returning England to the Catholic religion. During her reign, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed and as a consequence became known as Bloody Mary

he Ashmolean Museum in Oxford was the first museum in the world to open its doors to the public when it officially opened in 1683. It's treasures include the lantern that Guy Fawkes had when he was arrested for his part in the Gunpowder Plot on 5th November 1605.

Oxford has more published writers per square mile than anywhere else in the world

Oxford University is the oldest English speaking university in the world, dating back to 1249. It boasts 39 colleges including Christchurch.

Inspector Morse created by crime writer Colin Dexter was filmed in and around Oxford.

Rock bands Supergrass and Radiohead come from Oxford.

Oxford's Botanic Garden is the oldest in the world, having been founded as a physic garden in 1621.

We found another Pylone shop - excellent!

Only in Oxfordshire are you likely to see anyone playing Aunt Sally... a pub game that involves throwing sticks at a blob of wood. A lot of people take this very seriously.

The Bear Inn claims to be the oldest pub in Oxford, dating back to 1242. It has a tremendous collection of snipped-off ties. Bereaved owners are given a free pint.

The C S Lewis Nature Reserve at Headington is the woodland that inspired the forests in The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Banbury Cross is not the one in the famous nursery rhyme. That one was knocked down by Puritans in July 1600. Whoops.

Best selling authors JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis were both Oxford dons, and frequented its many pubs.

Next on agenda is Stratford upon Avon - the home of Shakespeare!

We arrived in Stratford mid afternoon and checked in to a very nice hotel - YES!!! Only draw back was the numerous sightings of ghosts that staff had been witness to over the years - all reports say friendly ghosts so that was a relief. First port of call - where else other than Shakespeare's birthplace. We were welcomed by the wonderful staff employed by the Shakespeare Theatre Company and given wonderful information and anecdotes. We only had time for the one place that afternoon so we set off to explore the town and ended up at the local pub for a feast of bangers and mash and of course a local larger - YUMMM!

Elona typing - I can't believe she didn't even mention the Christmas Shop - how could she not mention the Christmas Shop???!!! I even made her take photos of me in there!!! I'll put some in so you don't miss out :) Now to tell you about the Christmas shop I have to tell you about the lovely Scottish man who owns it, along with a number of other Christmas (I wish I had begun spelling Christmas like Xmas now that I've had to type that many times but oh well) what was I saying oh yeah he owns a number of the lovely (Ha) stores one in particular that has a 15 Ft tree in a little town called Crieff. "You won't know it" he says but did say that this town was home to Ewan McGregor - well well who knew?? And hows this for a bit of useless information - did you know that Ewan's uncle was in the first Star Wars movie??!! Hhhhmmm the things you learn :) A very interesting man who told us all sorts of family stories/information about the McGregors; apparently the granny is lovely and Ewan looks after her well but the mum is, so this man says - a little snooty - hey she's Ewan's Mum, she's just proud!!

Day 2 has us investigating the other Shakespeare homes including his daughter's where we met the most lovely man; Andrew who is part of the Shakespeare Theatre Company and gave us some insight into Rowena Cade from Cornwall who built Minack Theatre - well she wasn't all alone which makes me happy :) No not telling more except to say that we spent more time talking to this lovely Cornish man than we did looking around the home. On direction from Andrew we shared a fabulous lunch at The Windmill Inn where we experienced Yorkshire Pudding Wraps - yep you read right - they were fabulous. again nothing like a pub meal!!

Heading back to the car we passed The Grand Emporium of Dr Thaddeus Bombay - for all you weird people who don't know...this is a Harry Potter character and in the movie is the Wand Shop and on entering this is exactly what it was with numerous other potions and bits and pieces. To top it off they had a coffee shop that sold...yes you guessed it Butter Beer and I have to say we both thoroughly enjoyed it and no end of questions/probes could get the owner to give us the recipe. I purchased a wand here for Mandel - yes I had to do the whole "Run your hand along the line of Wands, the right one will pick you" thing even after I said it was not for me but my daughter. Anyway I not only purchased a wand (and yes it jumped out into my hand...no not really but it's a very nice one :) but I also got to put Mandel's name into the Registry of Wands and she receives a certificate - pretty cool really :)

From here it was in the car and a drive to the beautiful country of Wales.