Oxford(shire)

*I lied--that post a couple of days ago wasn't the last of the honeymoon posts.*

Here are a few photos from the first leg of the honeymoon. We spent a couple of days in Oxford, visiting my friend Kelly, and the next couple of days a bit further out in the country. And by further out in the country, I mean that our big activities of the day were breakfasting and taking walks. Which was actually pretty perfect for the two days that we were there; but I think I would have begun to slowly tear my hair out if we'd been there much longer. All in all, though, the time in England reinforced to both of us how much we love the UK and how OH SO MUCH we would like to live there one day. Not anytime in the foreseeable future, but maybe someday....when the dollar isn't so terrible.

I took the above photo on the day we arrived in Oxford. After attempting to battle jet lag with a very long nap, we headed into Oxford in the evening for a drink at the Eagle and Child, where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to meet (!), a delicious dinner of bangers and mash (my vegetarian sausages were actually AMAZING), and a quick stroll around the city. By the time we were waiting to catch our bus back to the B&B, the light was just right to get this photo.

After a joyful reunion with Kelly, she proceeded to take us through a tour of the colleges (which we got into free with her, since she's a student-hurrah!) Christchurch was the first stop, and it was really beautiful.

What made it even MORE EXCITING, though, was that THIS was the college in which they filmed scenes from the Harry Potter movies. While I'm not as big a fan of the movies as I am of the books (which Preston and I both adore and listen to more on CD than he would probably care for me to admit here. Oops.), just knowing that Daniel Radcliffe and Maggie Smith and HAGRID and DUMBLEDORE had been there before me was oh so exciting. So then I took a picture, or ten...

In addition to Christchurch, Kelly showed us around Corpus Christi (her college), Merton, and Magdalen, which has absolutely phenomenal gardens/meadows. They just keep going. Just like our backyard. OH WAIT.

After climbing a staircase narrow enough to compress all your internal organs into a paté, we made it to the top of the University Church, which had fantastic views of the city. We had a delicious lunch at the little café at the bottom of the Church Tower, and then headed onto a bookshop, where we spent the better part of the afternoon. But it really was pretty amazing--three floors, with a fantastic collection of used books. And if the dollar weren't the equivalent of Monopoly money (as Margaret described it to me), I could have done some serious damage.

Kelly stealthily took this picture of Preston and me from behind during our two hours at Blackwell's (the bookshop). So just in case you didn't realize what huge nerds we are, here is photographic proof. But honestly, I would have it no other way. This was in the Classics section, where we spent so long I just sat down on the floor, making America proud, I have no doubt.

After a delicious high tea, we headed to Evensong and then to dinner with Kelly. And the next morning, because all of our days revolved around food, we had breakfast at the B&B and then headed back into Oxford to meet Kelly for breakfast. This trip also could have been called: Preston and MF eat their way across Europe. I'm not kidding. AT ALL.

By the way, I feel that I should also share the fact that as I type this, at 7 in the morning, sitting in the dining room, I can already feel myself sweating through my pajama shirt, which is an old t-shirt of Preston's so threadbare it's basically the equivalent of wearing a piece of tissue paper. I think that today is the day for the purchasing of some air conditioning.

Anyways, I digress. After leaving Oxford, we headed to the Rose Revived Inn, which was a bit further out in Oxfordshire, beautiful, and the perfect place for us to spend two nights (but no more). The food was delicious, the beer tasty, and the setting lovely. We had one full day there, and we decided to do a 7 mile walk along the Thames. We're used to doing walks along the Firth of Forth in Scotland (when we've been on holiday with his parents), but even on those walks, there are at least small fishing villages along to break up the walk. This was literally seven miles of fields. Which were beautiful, at first, but eventually, since most of them were grazing pastures for livestock, the walk turned into mile after mile of try to avoid all the sheep/cow/goat poop. A THRILLING and romantic way to spend our honeymoon indeed.

Luckily, at the halfway point, we came to a pub, and had absolutely no qualms about ordering a drink at one in the afternoon. It was restorative and refreshing, and helped us prepare for another 3.5 miles of navigating our way through animal poop.

The walk started out overcast, but eventually, as tended to happen during our time in the UK, all of a sudden, the weather was gorgeous--blue skies, deliciously full, soft-looking clouds, and light breezes. Perfect.

The weeks leading up to the honeymoon were, to say the least, difficult. Preston worked right up until the Friday before we left on Monday, which meant I was left home alone all day to unpack all of our wedding gifts, which meant, essentially, reorganizing our whole apartment (which, at the time, averaged FIVE THOUSAND DEGREES). And every day was dulled by a dark cloud of post-wedding gloominess for me, and thus by extension, for Pres. I cannot imagine a better tonic for both of us than these four days in England. We seemed to relax into the couple we used to be (pre May madness--wedding and end of the term for both of us); we saw some beautiful places, ate and drank well, laughed more than we had in weeks, and really enjoyed each other. I don't think I could have asked for more.

Bridge of Sighs in Oxford.