First week in England, #1

Hello from Oxford! We've had a great first week in England. On Saturday I reminded myself how to drive on the left side as we zoomed north to Cambridge (with only one mistake; unfortunately it was onto a major road, fortunately there was nobody there to meet us head on and Anna's yelps got us back on the 'right' side again!) We had a great evening visiting our good friends the Zeitlyns, Anna was so happy to be back with her best buddy Isobel. Sunday found us in London for church, a Japanese lunch (yeah, I know, but the kids really miss Tokyo too so they begged me when they saw the tonkatsu in the window), and an afternoon perusing the Greek collection at the British Museum. We wanted to prepare ourselves for exploring Ancient Greece, and I thought I'd show the kids what would've actually been on and inside the ruined buildings we'd be visiting...except that it's all in England now. I think the British Museum will become a very good friend during our stay here.

Sunday actually started at as a beautiful, breezy day - all blue skies. This lovely Spring-y weather continued as we walked down Oxford Street window shopping. Despite the sunshine I thought we ought to buy some small umbrellas for our trip for it was raining in Athens this week. We dipped into a store, chose three bright colored umbrellas, and just as I was handing over the money, I kid you not, thunder clapped and the windows on Oxford Street rattled. I had brought on the rain gods with my purchase. We just made it onto the red double decker bus headed for Holborn (British Museum site) before the skies opened.

I was getting a bit grouchy by this time: expensive lunch, long lines in stores, getting late, rain - harumph. We hopped off and the breeze now felt like a gale, rain slashing sideways, dark sky, and I couldn't hear or see a thing in the storm surrounding us. I just hoped Anna and Michael were following behind me. Pushing and cursing my flimsy, but happily-colored, umbrella in front of me to block wind and rain I guessed which little streets to turn down headed for the museum. We were trying to stay as dry as possible, each man for himself, moving swiftly and heads down. I didn't even notice the black cab racing down the narrow street until I heard Anna cry behind me: too late, I looked up just in time to see the wall of water fly at me, heard Anna cry again as she was hit by the wave, and clever Michael saw the whole thing coming and had just enough time to duck and cover with his umbrella or he would've been swamped head to toe. At that point we just stood there, the three of us, momentarily shocked, soaked, umbrellas hanging down at our sides, and all there was to do then was laugh. Being caught in a London rainstorm can can create quite a precious memory. We finished our walk to the museum, smiling and grouchy no more, asked some dry soul waiting under the grand portico to take our photo, and dried off as we wandered through centuries of Ancient Greece. As we left the museum the sky was blue and the air breezy.

We rested for a few days, then came to Oxford to visit my sister and her children. They're here on sabbatical for the semester from the University of Georgia. Maria and Sarah stayed home from school so we could enjoy a day out in Oxford together. We climbed up St. Michael's Tower, the oldest building in Oxford, built in 1040AD. Michael was a bit nervous about being up in such an old thing, but as we visited the tower's church he perked up and was pleased with his patron saint's church. He especially enjoyed the beautiful stained glass windows. I think he likes the warrior angel aspect of it all - St. Michael's sword was quite captivating. We ate lunch in a 14th century Pret A Manger (yummy sandwich shop, I think they have them on the East Coast now?), walked around the Bodleian Library (Anna was fascinated by all things Shakespeare that we kept running into to), prowled bookstores, and finished the day with a pint at the pub Eagle and Child, haunt of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. And it really feels old and true, like they could walk in any moment! I thought it'd be all touristy. All in all, a wonderful first week to our trip, full of friends, family, history, tea and Cadbury's Flakes!

Next stop: Greece!