Sunday rains

The notorious English rains have descended on us . We had been expecting it since we arrived, but the rain has only come in the past few days. It has been a hard, soaking rain accompanied by strong winds, and it has affected our plans a bit. Sunday we postponed a trip to Blenheim Palace and Gardens (hoping for more sun later in the week) and instead walked to Iffley to show them the locks, the village, and the Norman church. (This was the topic of a previous blog.)

Humorous sign we saw in Iffley... worthy of a blog photo
"These horses have been castrated"

The rain cleared enough to make it a pleasant walk along the Thames, with Phil being fascinated by the many different species of colorful snails along the way. He was all set to explain the genetics of shell coiling (clockwise or counterclockwise, which actually does have an important role in the history of genetic thought) but no one else was particularly interested so he will inflict it on his students some day. On our walk back to Oxford, we stopped at the Isis Tavern, which can only be reached by those walking or boating on the Thames. The food was great, the atmosphere is nice, and the prices were (for Oxford at least) reasonable. (And our barista turned out to be a psychology professor on sabbatical.) Since it is only a pleasant 30 minute walk from our flat, we may do that more often.

Back in town, we went to Christ Church and toured inside the Cathedral, dining hall, and so on. It is considered one of the most impressive of the colleges—it certainly impressed us—and was used as the setting for Harry Potter movies.

Christ Church Dining Room

It also has a stained glass window with Alice in Wonderland characters, and a friendly guide was pointing out many things that served as inspirations for Alice. By the time we left and began our walk back home, the rains returned again.