No Oxford Part 2 we decided. Dan was over it by the time we woke up. We thought about all the options of returning and none of them were good. The parking situation was horrible, and even the bus didn’t offer any guarantees; we’d noticed lines of people at bus stops yesterday, having to wait for multiple buses to pass to get on one. So we looked for other things to do between Oxford and Heathrow and came up with a couple of towns that turned into winners. The English Heritage website makes it pretty easy. You can find out what’s near you so that’s what we did.

We stayed at a new Hampton Inn in Oxford, a few miles from the center of everything. It was only about a year old and was quite modern, especially with regards to easy access to electrical and USB outlets both in the room and in the restaurant. The crowd this morning at breakfast was quite diverse and seemed to be mostly travelers.

We set out about 9am. Our first stop was Abingdon, about 15 minutes away. There was a County Hall from the 1600s there that was associated with English Heritage so we decided we’d check it out along with the town, which turned out to be adorable. And the locals were incredibly friendly and helpful. We were impressed with how proud they were of their little town on the Thames.

Above: Trinity Church on the left, we parked down the street to your right, shown below. What we didn’t realize until the gal at the Visitor Center flinched when we told her where we parked was that it was private property. If you look closely in the center of the photo you can see a sign at the corner that pretty much says that as you approach from the other side: don’t park beyond this point. We didn’t notice it until we returned, and were worried then because of her reaction. But we lucked out: the car was there and no ticket.

A local who saw us taking photos directed us St. Helen’s church, and to go a little further and see the river as we were walking around. This is the Thames, above and below; you’ll see it again in the stop we did after Abingdon. It was a Thames kind of day.

She took us to this chapel which she was very proud of. The ceiling depicts Old Testament prophets in contemporary dress. Contemporary again being relative, and in this case 1300’s. She said it’s the ceiling that got this church into someone’s “1000 greatest churches” book; I didn’t catch the author but I think it’s this. 

They were also very proud of their almshouses, of which this church had three. The one above dates back to 1446. We’d never heard of them before, but almshouses are community based charitable housing that allows those who can’t afford regular rents to pay what they can afford and stay in the community.

We went up to the roof with Shirley (named after Shirley Temple!) and she had lots of details to share. One of the traditions in this town is for buns to be thrown from this roof by royalty when they come to visit, into the people gathered in the square to the left of this photo. Queen Elizabeth had the honors in the 1950s. Seriously. To the right in this photo are the remains of an old Abbey where we went next.

And there was really only one thing I wanted to see in the Great Park: The Long Walk. That’s what this is called. I couldn’t find a reference for just now long it is but you get a good idea from the above. Windsor Great Park covers 2020 hectares, or about 5000 acres.

We were never this close. I put my hands through the gates and zoomed the shot from my phone. And below is Dan taking a photo of me taking these photos.

And finally in the lounge, I was able to check off the final food item I’d been wanting since we got to Canterbury now a full week ago. A nice plain scone, with a healthy layer of clotted cream, and a dollop of strawberry jam on top. If you’ve never had clotted cream, it’s like a cross between whipped cream and butter. It may be the best bite I had the entire trip. It was so good I had another.

Our flight was on time, we had an easy subway ride to downtown Manhattan. We are staying at the Millennium Hilton. Below is the view from our 48th floor room. We are glad to be back in the USA and looking forward to a fun couple of days here before we head home.