Last you heard from us, we were on the (almost) southern tip of a continent in the southern hemisphere. Now, just like that, we are back “home”, plopped straight into winter in the northern hemisphere. Now don’t get us wrong, we loved South America and we have (almost) nothing but great memories of the continent, but my goodness, after almost four months of traveling, it was good to be somewhere familiar (all together now – “sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name…do do do do”). Even though most of us have never lived in the UK and even C hasn’t lived there for years, we have visited this charming isle many times and, of course, linguistically, we were ‘home’! And so we joined the ranks of many a weary traveler we’ve met along the way who traveled the world and fell in love with home, wherever that is!
For various reasons (primarily bad internet and civil unrest), we cut our time in South America short by one month. After months on the road, we were ready to spend some time relaxing and just NOT TRAVELING! However, we also knew that we had to make the most of the time we had with the kids out of school. So, instead of spending the whole extra month in Scotland with the in-laws (where we had originally planned to spend the last two weeks of the year), we balanced our desire to do just a little more traveling (and giving the in-laws’ a little more peace and quiet!) with our desire to stop moving every week by spending one week in Oxford, England and a second week in a surprise destination for the boys. Then, we would finish out the last month of the year in Scotland.
We chose Oxford for its proximity to London, and it worked out perfectly when we landed at Gatwick around 4am, and were able to hop right onto a direct bus for the 1.5 hour journey. We didn’t have to worry about having to figure out the bus schedule as everything was, of course, in English. The bus turned up on time and arrived in Oxford ahead of schedule. Aah home…
Learning when we are willing to rough it during travel and when we aren’t made us book our apartment for the week starting the night before our morning arrival. So when we arrived in town just as the early birds started stirring, we were able to check right in and go straight to bed under a nice warm duvet in a flat with central heating. Aah home…
Once we got over the worst of our jetlag, we set out to enjoy all Oxford had to offer. First stop; food! We know Britain is not known for its food (some have even suggested the British diet is entirely based on a bet – as in, ‘I bet you won’t eat that!’), but for us, tired, jet-lagged and hungry, the full English breakfast we had was worthy of two Michelin stars. Aah home…
I think most people have heard of Oxford, and know it as the home of a great and historic university. That was all we knew when we arrived, but we learned quite a bit while we were there. When admitted to Oxford, you are actually admitted to one of the three dozen or so colleges (some more prestigious than the others, but all very impressive – you could expect a Prime Minister or Nobel laureate to come out of any of them). The college becomes more or less the center of your world for your time in Oxford. You eat there, you sleep there and you even study there (apparently, students don’t typically go to group classes, instead the bulk of their learning comes from working one-on-one or in a small group (1-3 students) with a tutor (a professor) to help them master their area of study). Also, the dining halls – wow! Not only did they look amazing, but offered multiple courses and fancy dress. A far cry from my college cafeteria!
While C took L and N up to Scotland to drop off some of our bags, A and I booked a Harry Potter-themed tour around Oxford. Funnily enough, our guide was from the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where we had stayed the week prior! Despite having a guide whose native language was Spanish, and doing our fair share of tours in Spanish over the last few months, was there any question that this tour would be in English? Of course not. Aah, home….
Our tour took us inside one of the most famous of Oxford’s colleges, Christchurch. Not only is it prestigious in its own right, but its cafeteria (above) was the inspiration for the one in Hogwarts! It was also home to the steps where Professor McGonagall first greeted the students to Hogwarts.
The tour was a good mix of regular Oxford info with some Harry Potter spots thrown in, which kept it fun.
In addition to our tour, we visited a few other sites, including the tower of University Church, where C.S. Lewis got the inspiration for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Amazing facts like this abound when it comes to Oxford.
Only A, L and I were able to climb the University Church tower for a great scenic view over Oxford. C stayed at the bottom with N, who was too young and couldn’t climb because of his age and potential “safety issues”. Aah home…wait that one’s a bad one…kind of?
When C and the younger boys got back from Scotland they went on another couple of adventures. First they went to the oldest museum in the UK – the Ashmolean Museum. The Ashmolean is a massively impressive museum which houses Oxford University’s extensive collections of artifacts ranging back over four millennia. However, it’s hard for any museum to impress three young boys who just want to play football, or watch football, or eat English breakfasts. Not to fear, the Ashmolean had the great idea of offering scavenger hunts through the whole museum for the kids. Such a good idea that allowed us to appreciate all it had to offer. Aah home…
Our final activity in Oxford was ice skating at the local rink. What better way to fully immerse ourselves in winter!?
“We’re beginners”, we said to the lady behind the desk.
“Oh well then”, she replied. “You’ll be right at home here!”
The good old British self-deprecating humor. Aah home…
She set us up with our skates and a skating buddy for N and the boys absolutely loved it. We thought they did quite well with it too, but their Minnesotan uncle was less than impressed! Apparently by his estimation, they should be skating fast backwards with a hockey stick in hand by now! I guess you have to make a trade-off somewhere #bilingualbeachkids
Mostly, however, we relaxed. We strolled about town enjoying the shops as they got into the Christmas swing of things. Normally we’d complain about how ridiculous it is to start Christmas so early, but not now. We hadn’t seen anything to do with Christmas in South America. Indeed, only a few weeks ago we were playing on the beach in Brazil! However, now in beautiful Oxford, with the cold but dry weather and with darkness descending around 4pm, the Christmas lights and decorations seemed entirely appropriate and we loved it all. Aah home…
We also enjoyed our AirBnB with its aforementioned central heating as well as its television. We watched shows like ‘Pointless’, ‘Egg Heads’, ‘Would I Lie to You’ and ‘Match of the Day’, with the boys on the couch like a proper family. We didn’t have to endure obnoxious commercials and we knew we’d be safe with the boys before the ‘watershed’. Good old Auntie BBC. Aah home…
Stay tuned for our next post where we head to a country in Europe that 4 of the 5 of us have never been to before…
