England: Christ Church & Punting in Oxford

We'd been excited to see in the weather forecast that our one full day in Oxford was supposed to be beautiful.  Then I woke up...sick as a dog.

As in: the only other time I was this sick, I had an ameba.  On the floor, kill me now, kind of sick.

We went downstairs for breakfast.  (It was a B&B, after all.)  The owner set the plate of lovely full English breakfast in front of me, and I took one look at it before I picked it up and carried it right back to the kitchen with my fullest apologies.  I think I was able to eat one piece of toast before I headed back upstairs to continue in my wretchedness.

Sick as a dog.

But determined.  I was not going to let sickness rob me of my Oxford experience.  We caught the bus...where I had one of those Americans-in-England lapses in understanding which side of the road the cars are on, and thus walked to the wrong direction bus stop.  But thecamelridingcowgirl was looking out for me and hollered at me to join her on the other side.  And yes, it was a double decker bus and yes, we rode upstairs.  Fun!

As soon as we got into town, we found a free bathroom where I was able to lose my breakfast.  With that out of my system, we headed over towards Christ Church College, but not before spotting this sign, which reminded me of one of the many reasons I love England:

For pictures of the outside of Christ Church College, see yesterday's post.  Once inside, we walked along the pretty passageways straight to the great dining hall, which was about to close for several hours.

The dining hall is impressive.  Harry Potter fans will recognize it as the place that inspired the set for the movie.  I was enthralled to be there...and at the same time feeling so terribly ill that I couldn't quite take it in.  I was simply trying not to get sick all over the tables.  (Forgive the blurry photos--blame the monster that was in my belly raging to get out that caused shaky hands.)

I don't look sick, though, do I?  (The correct answer is no, not at all!) 

I can't imagine that room full of students laughing and eating and talking...seems like it would have been very loud and crowded.

The ceiling was beautiful...but I wasn't taking the best photos at that moment.

This is the grand staircase where the Hogwarts first-years enter right before the Sorting.  Here, you can tell I don't feel well: look how I'm standing.  When have I ever not struck a fun pose for a photo? That was the "please take the photo so I can remember being here and then please let me go find a bathroom as soon as possible" stance.

I did click a photo of my own before dashing off.

Outside, it was such a gorgeous day!

Inside the church part of Christ Church.  And yes, that tourist man is posing right in the middle of my photo.

We stopped into the bookstore to look around.  This lovely, lovely docent (volunteer) was there and talked us for a good 20-30 minutes!  He told us stories and histories and it was just great to listen to him.  We asked where the Alice in Wonderland door was.  We knew it was in Christ Church, and as a lover of doors AND a lover of children's literature AND a lover of whimsical, I wanted to see that door!  He told us that it was in the Dean's private garden, so it wasn't open to tourists.

However, if we went and found this one particular docent, and said the magic words, she might open the door to the garden and let us sneak a peak at Alice's door.  thecamelridingcowgirl memorized the magic words and off we went.

"Excuse me, ma'am.  We were wondering...I'm sure you're asked all the time...We know that it's private, but is there any way that we could see Alice's door?  We've come so far and it would be such a shame not to see it...but we don't want to bother you or get you into trouble..." She was thrilled that we asked and snuck us over to the door to the garden, pointing across to the blue door on the other side.  We couldn't go over to it, but we were allowed to see it.  She also told us that the tree is the one that the Cheshire Cat sat in.

(From the brochure: "Lewis Carroll, studied, taught, and lived at Christ Church.  The then Dean's daughter, Alice Liddell, was immortalized in his Alice in Wonderland stories and so too were many of the places and people they encountered at Christ Church."

I'd recently seen an episode of the Amazing Race that took place in Oxford and even had a part with the Christ Church docents and their derby hats... I asked this dapper fellow if I could take his photo and he was so cute about it!  The door behind him doesn't say, "No pee!" (like I thought), but "No Peel."  From my brochure: "The words were studded into the door in protest against the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel, who in 1829 proposed greater freedom for Catholics."

We left Christ Church and had lunch at a local place one of the docents had recommended to us.  It turns out it was one of the older crypts in the city and one of the places to eat.  Glad we ended up doing it.  Plus...they had a simple pumpkin soup that was easy on my pitiful stomach.  Then, we headed out to find a park that would have a skyline view of the city.  Along the way, I admired this pretty architecture:

At the park, I snapped the pretty photo I'd been hoping for, and then we headed right back into town.  I was determined to get done all that we'd hoped to do that day, sick or not!  And being sick, I was quickly losing energy to keep moving, so we didn't linger long at the park.  I'm glad we went though!

One of the major things on my Oxford wish list was to go punting.  Now...had I not been sick, I might have suggested to thecamelridingcowgirl that we try punting the boat ourselves.  It would have made for a great laugh, and we have this whole boat thing going with our travels.  However, the do-it-yourself thing was not happening that day.  We were happy to let a nice young man punt the boat for us.

See the empty boats?  Those are not punts.  The ones with people in them are punts.

They're really long like a gondola, and close to the water, with platforms at the front and back for the punter to stand on.

I think you all recognize my travel buddy.

Cutey patootie punter.

It was peaceful.  I prayed a lot on the punt.  (Prayed that I wouldn't get sick while on it!  God answered that prayer!)

This guy was sort of paddle-surfing?  I have no idea what it is called.  But it was a surfboard, and he paddled himself along the river.

This was my "I'm having so much fun!!!" photo.  I was actually feeling a bit better.  I think the moment on the stairs at Christ Church was the worst moment of the day...and I slowly began to feel better after that.

I loved punting and I would do it again next time.  If my brother was with me, I'd probably even say we ought to try it ourselves.  (What do ya say, Master Yoda?!)

Because it was getting dark, and we'd been walking a lot (on my broken toe and with my sick belly), we decided to head on back to the B&B.  I had bananas and crackers for dinner.  No cream tea that day, sadly!  thecamelridingcowgirl and I had a blast that evening laughing hysterically, and reading Harry Potter.  Honestly, despite being sick, it was truly a day to remember.

Dad--I really think you'd like Oxford.  If you come across the ocean, I'll take you there!