From Oxford to Chorleywood with some London in the middle

I looked at my last blog and I think I should say that it is not all cold and wet here in England just in case I have given this impression. I have had some lovely days and have the photos below to prove it! On my last full day in Oxford it was gloriously sunny so I went on a walking tour of the city and learned so much more about the history, the buildings and the people. There are 38 colleges in Oxford! I had no idea there were so many. After the tour I found a coffee shop that served good coffee and read my book for a while. At the table next to me was a student with an American friend. She loudly exclaimed 'How do I GET to Oxford'. I was confused and so was her friend until she explained that she meant to be a student here and really soak up the life here. It made me think about whether I wanted to 'get' to Oxford and I realise that as much as I love it and I have loved spending time with the Bonnicis feeling part of their family (Hi Olivier, Rosalind, Ben, Beatrice and Luke!) it is time for the next adventure.

As far as adventuring goes I realise that an hour drive south (?) to Chorleywood is not exactly being wild and adventurous but it is a lovely next step in the travel. I am staying for a week here with Robyn and Terence in their lovely cottage which is in a little one-pub village called Chenies just outside Chorleywood. Thanks to the weather we have had some great walks (photos below) and also visited Disraeli's country house. He is an intriguing character and I look forward to finding out more about him. Yesterday Rob and I went into London for a day trip which was fun and today is a quiet day to catch up on my blog, emails and reading. I really like England - both the country and the people. I feel very much at home. It has helped that I have been with friends but also people I meet, at the churches (which have been great!) I have been to or even just walking around, are all so friendly. This Saturday I will fly to Morocco for a week which will be a big change but I am looking forward to it. I hope you are all well!

Christ Church College (Oxford) in the sun

A street in Oxford

Me and Robyn on our walk near Chorleywood

A typical view on our walk - beautiful!!

Oxford - the home of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and the dreaming spires

From Aberdeen I went directly to Oxford. My hopes of warmer weather have been dashed but it is wonderful to be here nevertheless. The Bonnicis have been so welcoming and took me on a C.S. Lewis tour in Oxford finishing at the Eagle and Child which is the pub that the Inklings used to meet at every Tuesday to discuss their writings. They also drove me around on a tour of some local villages. Despite the cold and rain I have love Oxford. Walking around the cobbled streets has been so much fun and thank you to those people who gave me some good ideas of places to visit.

Oxford is a very beautiful city and I am looking forward to going to the museum tomorrow and doing some more walking. I went for my first run this morning and enjoyed it so much that I will try to do it every morning I am here. I might give Wednesday a miss because the forecast is for snow. Yes snow. Again I am impressed by my brilliant packing - I brought four t-shirts, bathers and no coat.

Below are some photos of my travels so far...

Balmoral Castle

 Jonah testing the laws of gravity in an important scientific experiment 

Me outside one of the sweetest little houses in Bibury

The dreaming spires of Oxford

Me touring Oxford. 

Where has all the tartan gone?

I arrived safely in Aberdeen to warm (for Scotland) weather and a very warm welcome from Chris and Sally and family. When I say the weather has been warm I should make it clear that I have still been wearing several layers including a scarf and hat but the people here have been in t-shirts and even shorts. I decided not to bring a coat as this should be the only cold part of my holiday and apart from one day I think this was the right decision.

It has been lovely catching up with dear friends and enjoying the beautiful Scottish scenery. Everywhere you go there is an abundance of daffodils which is a wonderful contrast with all the stone. I am not sure how long the daffodils will last so the timing of my visit has been perfect. On one of the warmer days we made the trip to Balmoral Castle. It feels strange to visit a place that is so obviously part of the royal family's life. The castle and gardens were very pleasant and the exhibition inside was interesting so it was worth the visit. As a result of the trip I have decided that I would quite like to be a member of the royal family. I realise that this is not the easiest thing to achieve but I am happy to include it on my 'To Do' list.

I did a little more exploring of Aberdeen itself today and I enjoyed simply walking around and getting a feel for the city. The side streets were the nicest and and thanks to a GPS I could be relaxed about getting lost (I usually get lost when I wander around a new city even if I have a map on hand) and enjoy the adventure. One of the things I have noticed about Aberdeen is that I haven't seen much tartan. When I visited Edinburgh a number of years ago I felt that tartan was everywhere. I have to say that this was a little disappointing but how can I be too disappointed in a place where I can hear the scottish accent everywhere I go?

It is my last night in Aberdeen as I head down to Oxford tomorrow. I will hopefully have some photos in a day or two so you can see some of the sights that I am seeing!

It's been a while...

I haven't posted for a while and even though I have travelled in the last four years I felt that any trip less than four weeks isn't blog-worthy. Now that I have said goodbye to facebook and twitter is so restrictive I am choosing to blog again for friends and family that want to see what I am up to as I set off for seven weeks.

My return to blogging is an experiment. If I don't have easy access to computers and blogging on my phone is too annoying then it might all come to a sorry end but if it goes smoothly then I will post photos and stories from my trip and those who want to keep up can and those who don't can choose not to!

I haven't left yet and I won't bore you with an update on the pre-trip preparation except to say that having less than two weeks between deciding to go and actually leaving is actually not that difficult.

This post is just the introductory post because I haven't left yet but I leave in less than 48 hours so stay tuned!

Back at home

That's right, I'm back in Melbourne and even though the trip is over I thought I would write one final post and also show you some photos from San Francisco and Hawaii. The photos below are of the two English girls I told you about who I met in San Francisco, me in front of Lombard Street (the famous crooked street), a Christmas tree in Union Square and then me on my last day of my trip in Hawaii.

Should I say something significant or sentimental about my trip? I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity and while it has been lovely to see friends and family I was not really ready to come home. The trip exceeded my expectations and was one the most fabulous things I have ever done but I am sure I will travel again soon. Thank you to all the wonderful people who I met in my travels and to the wonderful people who welcomed me into their homes. I appreciate your friendship and I look forward to keeping in touch - you are always welcome in Melbourne!

Bye!

 

Aloha!

Yes I am in Hawaii and the weather is beautiful. I have not been doing any sightseeing but have simply been going for walks along the beach and around the streets of Waikiki and relaxing. I have discovered that I am unable to sleep in but this hasn't stopped me from having a couple of very lazy days. It is a lovely way to end my trip. The hotel has been great. I decided to stay in a nice hotel as a final treat and it has been worth it. It is not on the beach but it has a balcony with great views and I have enjoyed not packing everything each morning. In fact, because it is my last stop I have been throwing things out. My shoes didn't make it out of San Francisco. I was in a dilemma as to whether to keep them out of nostalgia and there would be absolutely no other reason to keep them as they had gone well beyond the point of respectability but when I was showing them to some friends in the hostel at San Francisco we discovered a huge hole in one of them (this would explain why one of my feet was always getting more wet than the other one!). The hole sealed the deal and they went in the bin but not before I took a photo of them! I didn't need them anyway because the weather is really warm (funny how that happens in a tropical climate!!) and very relaxed.
I can't believe five months has gone by so quickly. I leave for home early tomorrow but I won't get into final blog mode because I will probably post some photos of San Francisco and Hawaii when I get home. I am now going for my last walk along the beach. I have been told that I need to try a fish taco while I am here so I might do that as well.
See you all soon!

San Francisco - is there a song about it??

Hi all, I am at the last night of a five day stopover in sunny San Francisco. In this time I have walked up and down all the hills and my feet are feeling the pain! The hostel has been great and there are some lovely English girls in my room and most nights we have met up for dinner and chatted about what we have done. The weather has been great here. The only day that was cold and really foggy was when I went to Alcatraz so it added to the atmosphere. Actually Alcatraz would have been creepy enough without the added ambience. There were all sorts of awful people who were at the prison (which I guess happens at a maximum security prison) and awful things happened so I felt quite uncomfortable walking around. People were taking photos of themselves in the cells but I couldn't quite bring myself to do that.
The other days have been sunny and I have been able to visit Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park, Haight Street (centre of the sixties hippy movement), the Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley, Lombard Street (the crooked street), Golden Gate Bridge, Sausolito and the list goes on! It is so compact compared to LA so I have been taking advantage of walking everywhere and only catching the bus if absolutely necesssary.
It is a beautiful city but I think if I lived in America it would only be the climate that would keep me on the west coast because I felt more at home in places like New York and DC. Despite this it has been great having a good amount of time to explore the city. It has gone by too quickly though and I can't believe I leave for Hawaii tomorrow.
See you in Hawaii!!