Shakespeare and more

Shylock should have appealed his case. At least, that is the consensus of the five of us after watching The Merchant of Venice yesterday. We took the bus to Stratford upon Avon and watched the matinee performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The performance was excellent, as you would expect, with fairly minimal staging. The costumes were contemporary, there was very little in the way of stage sets, which drew attention to the acting and the play itself. And that was great. Stratford upon Avon itself is a town devoted to the Shakespeare industry—his church and burial site, houses that he owned or that were owned by relatives, and lots of Shakespeare themed stuff. Even the row boats on the Avon were named for women in his plays. (See photo below)

River Avon

We continued to be impressed by the love of flowers here, and Stratford really showed that—lots of gardens, well-tended flower baskets everywhere.

Stratford upon Avon

The bus trip (or trips since we changed in the tiny village of Chipping Norton) was also interesting. (Deb asked, “What kind of a name is Chipping Norton?” before being reminded that three of us came from a town called Punxsutawney.) These large buses would roll along narrow rows with trees immediately next to and over the road. The buses often helped to prune the trees, scraping off any leaves and branches that had grown too close. We passed cottages with thatched roofs, over little rivers, and past more fields of sheep. The day had periods of hard rain followed by times of bright sun, which made for a spectacular rainbow on the way back. It was one of the most intensely colored rainbows we can recall, highlighted by the dark clouds behind it.

Shakespeare's church between raindrops

Happy Independence Day! It is not a holiday here—as Steve Martin said about the French, it is like this is a completely different country—so we are planning to spend it in Oxford--in museums, gardens, and possibly punting. Phil has some work to do so he headed out the door early before joining us. (He has been working and has written two work-related blogs that were axed by the editor-in-chief as not being of general interest.) (***Note from Deb: Philip wants his colleagues to know he is working very hard…)

We will try to keep up our blog over the next few days as we travel around some. We hear that we are getting a lot of hits, and we appreciate the e-mails—but not enough comments! Be sure to leave your comments. One of our favorites so far, in case you are not reading them, was Andy commenting that we should all yell “Norm” when we entered a Norman church. We have not done that yet. We are trying to be on our good behavior.

Ray, Linda, and Claire arrive, with the rain

We have visitors! Ray, Linda, and Claire (Phil’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece) arrived this morning for a week-long visit. They are staying at a bed and breakfast about two blocks from us. We walked them around the town trying to keep them awake—lunch at the Covered Market, then through Christ Church meadow, and along the Thames.

Christ Church College

It is a beautiful walk, one of our favorites of the many we have done here. It is remarkably serene for a space that is only a few hundred feet from the busy streets of downtown Oxford. (And the streets are really busy—summer tourists have arrived.) Apparently these old folks have trouble keeping up with us younger ones, and they decided to take an afternoon nap. (The fact that they had just gotten off the plane after flying all night from Nashville had nothing to do with their fatigue.) Some rain had also started so we decided to give them some time off before dinner.

Wolvercote

It's a sunny Monday morning here in Oxford and we are feeling like we need a rest from our weekend forays into the English countryside!

Yesterday we walked the Oxford Canal footpath up to the outlying northern suburb of Wolvercote from our apartment in southeast Oxford. Philip calculated that we covered about eight miles... and our feet could testify to that! But the walk was easy and the sights interesting, so we did not suffer-- it is only this morning that our weary feet are begging us for a rest.

We began at the Hythe Street Bridge in Oxford and enjoyed seeing all the barges moored to the side-- each painted uniquely and often full of pots of flowers and herbs. Some appeared to be lived in full-time, some looked to be used as weekend getaways, and others are clearly used only as party venues...


We enjoyed greeting the residents along the way, many who were using the beautiful Sunday afternoon to spruce up their boats-- painting, scrubbing, working on their engines. One barge of Sunday boaters followed us up the canal several miles, never going more than 3-4 miles per hour. We parted ways at the Wovercote lock, after watching them navigate through it. We had never seen a self-service single boat lock before, and it was fun watching them jump out and move the levers that caused the water levels to change.


We left the canal path at the Wolvercote Lock, walked past the Port Meadow into the village itself. The two notable places in Wolvercote are the ruins of the 12th century Godstow Nunnery and the Trout Inn-- a pub on the banks of the Thames.



The Trout Inn is famous in this area for having peacocks which roam the grounds and for being the place where scenes from the Inspector Morse BBC TV show were filmed. However, it was recently refurbished and locals complained that they ruined it by making it too upscale to enjoy any longer. We did not stop, but did take a photo of it from the bridge.



When we returned to the apartment (by bus, I might add), we watched the final championship game of the European Cup soccer -- with Spain beating out Germany. Philip had been watching all the matches leading up to it, so he had learned which players were the ones to watch. It was also particularly interesting to us, since they were playing in Vienna. A fine weekend, indeed.
--Deb

Cotswolds and more

It is amazing that none of us was hurt. We were standing by the side of the highway waiting for the bus to bring us back to Oxford from the village of Burford after a day of sightseeing. A car coming the other direction on the highway hit the center barriers for the pedestrian crossing, plowed through both of them (called bollards), and came straight for the group of us waiting for the bus. The driver managed to swerve away from us at the last second, careening back across the road and ending up on the opposite shoulder with his car destroyed. Meanwhile, traffic signs, car parts, and parts of the barricade were flying all around us right as our bus pulled up. So we got on and returned to Oxford from an exciting ending to an interesting day.


As Deb said, “One minute we were 'moo-ing' with the sheep, and the next we’re dodging flying road signs.” (Neither of us is good with foreign languages, as you can tell by the 'moo-ing' at sheep.) The young woman who called in the traffic accident and then boarded the bus to Oxford with us said that she had lived in Burford all of her life and it was not usually this exciting! We assured her that we believed her. So maybe we should back up and tell you how all of this excitement began.



We took a bus this morning to the village of Burford in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are a region just northwest of Oxford with gently rolling hills, villages next to small rivers, and the scenery we associate with “English village”. The region has been famous for its wool for centuries. Among the many little villages, we picked Burford because it is easily accessible by bus. Burford, like many of the villages in the Cotswolds, has a Sheep Street on which the sheep were herded into High Street. It is a steep walk down High Street to the Windrush River—actually a creek—with stone houses, narrow lanes, and the local church and cemetery. This particular church was begun in Norman times (like the one in nearby Iffley that we discussed two weeks ago) about 1100, with many later additions and renovations. The most recent additions were made about 500 years ago.


One of the more interesting parts of the church was the crypt of the former Lord and Lady Tanfield who had been the lord of the region in the 16th century. (Notice the skeletal figures underneath—maybe some of you will remember our classic trip to the Czech ossuary during the last sabbatical.)


Although their death figures are impressive, the more interesting part is that they were hated during their lifetime by the locals. Their ghosts reputedly ride through the streets of the village periodically—not today, however. Today the church was hosting the local Beer Festival.


The rest of the village has old shops, pubs, coffee shops, and antique places. After spending most of the day in the village itself, we walked out of town to a footpath along to the river, in the middle of pasture with dozens of sheep. As we stood there, the sheep gradually moved closer until they were nearly surrounding us. It was very peaceful. Phil was trying to remember what he knows about the inheritance of coat color in sheep—always the geneticist, even on sabbatical.



So that was our day. It has something for everyone. Sheep, stone houses right next to narrow lanes, an old church with a ghost, a lazy river—and a car crash!
--Philip

Ashmolean Museum

Our routine is getting pretty well established by now. Phil goes into the lab, a walk that takes about 30 minutes. But thanks to a Fathers Day gift subscription to Audible.com from Andy, he can “read” as he walks so he is getting well-read while he is well-walked. He is usually the first to get into the lab, and is able to complete some lab work before going to work on each day’s requests from the editors. Meanwhile, Deb does her daily errands, does laundry (which has to happen several times per week since we did not bring our complete wardrobes with us), and wanders around town. The evenings are spent watching the European Cup soccer match, reading, blogging, or occasionally heading out for a walk or a pub. It is a nice life. Not too many worries, deadlines, or other responsibilities.

This afternoon we visited the Ashmolean Museum named for Lord Ashmole who cleaned out his attic and donated a lot of the stuff. It has a very impressive collection of antiquities, so we were trying to learn about the Minoan civilization, the Egyptian dynasties, and other things that we are sure our teachers skipped over in school. (But if the British ever came to a museum on the Revolutionary War, we would show them—we studied that every year.) We are reminded that it was Oxonians who discovered and excavated these ancient civilizations, and this was the first university museum.

Ashmolean Museum

The rest of the museum is an interesting mixture of art, musical instruments, glassware, and other things. Like the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, there is a nice collection of paintings from the Italian Renaissance. (It seems like every Italian man alive during the Renaissance was an artist, in the same way that every American teen-age boy is a rock guitarist.) Also some English landscapes, including Turners and Constables, and some early 20th century ones by the Camden Town school. (Which we only had heard of because Phil read a mystery once that involved some of those artists.) When we were in Vienna, we “discovered” Gustav Klimt and ended up with a Klimt-inspired dining room. None of these artists has inspired us to re-do a room in the house yet, but we have only been here three weeks. The Ashmolean is undergoing a major expansion, so quite a few of the galleries were closed and some of the things we had heard about—such as their collection of Delft china, the Lawrence of Arabia ceremonial gown, and an Oliver Cromwell’s death mask—were not on display. (They do have a bust of Oliver Cromwell in which he looks to have a soul patch.) But it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours, and worth further exploration.

One clarification from yesterday’s blog. The rich literary tradition and the distinguished authors of Oxford DO NOT include any one in the picture.
--Philip

Photo Gallery

Today's blog entry is a small gallery of photos taken around town, so you can get a feel for everyday Oxford.


This photo was taken from the towpath along the Thames, behind our apartment. This portion of the river has quite a bit of action on it, with rowers, barges, and sightseeing boats. You don't see people punting on it-- I suspect it is too deep.

Oxford has a rich literary tradition, and Lewis Carroll is one of the distinguished authors educated here. He also went on the become a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford. This is a quaint shop is on the site of a Victorian candy store, said to have been frequented by Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Carroll's Alice in Wonderland adventures. It contains all things Alice!














These next two photos were taken in Oxford's Covered Market. It is reminiscent of Seattle's Pike Place Market, or Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market but on a much smaller scale. And instead of salmon or cheesesteaks, this market offers Oxford Blue Cheese and Cornish pasties!































The athletic fields next to our apartment bear historical significance in the world of track & field (and give you a clue to Philip's obscure humor section in his June 7th blog entry...)





That's all for today from Oxford-- the skies look a bit threatening and I need to go do some food shopping...
-Deb

Weekend wrap-up

I was left in charge of today's blog entry, and when I complained that he'd left me with a rather uneventful day to report on, Philip encouraged me to fill in details on Saturday's trip to Cambridge. He left out some of our excursion, having gotten caught up on the price of petrol here...

Besides taking a walking tour of Cambridge, we also spent time in Kings College chapel. Because flash photography is not allowed inside, not many of my photos turned out very well, except for this one -- one of 26 sets of stained glass windows.


At the far end of the chapel is a spectacular painting by Peter Paul Rubens (one my personal favorites) entitled "Adoration of the Magi".

The remainder of our afternoon was spent at the Fitzwilliam Museum, which has a quite nice collection of Old Masters and Impressionists, sculpture, armor, and ceramics. We lingered over the illuminated manuscripts-- they are quite something.

As for yesterday (Sunday), we returned once again to Magdalen Road Church for their worship service. Later in the afternoon we met up with our Austrian friend, Alexander Lorenz for cream tea at the Grand Cafe on "the High" (what the locals call High Street). Alex was a graduate student in Vienna in 2003, where Philip did his last sabbatical-- they shared the same lab bench. Alexander finished his PhD in 2005 and is now doing his post-doc in the Microbiology Dept here at Oxford. He chose the Grand Cafe because it reminds him of the cafes in Vienna and we quite agreed. But it was a wonderfully English way to spend a Sunday afternoon catching up with an old friend-- sipping tea and eating scones.

--Deb