8/22-23/2011 (Mon & Tues) Oxford & London

We left the Cotswolds about 10 AM yesterday -- S drove maybe an hour to Oxford, parked in a park & ride, whence we took the bus into Oxford. Ashmolean (alas) closed Mondays. Went through Balliol (Id forgotten that Peter Wimsey was among the alums) -- mostly Victorian. S v. interested because it was the model for Princeton's grad college. The portraits of dignitaries in Hall included Baruch Blumberg (I hadn't known). Incredibly lush flower beds (I've really never seen the like). Included banana-looking things (winters must be v. mild).

[S said at some point he worries I dress too frumpily for work. (this from someone who's spent 30+ years teaching in math T shirts). I worry maybe he has a point.]

We also went to Magdalen -- v. lovely cloisters lined w/ hydrangeas. Then we went back to the car -- S drove us to Heathrow -- one wrong turn, and a scramble to get to a gas station & top up the car (I wound up directing S at one point when he had to back out of a non-functioning bay). Great relief to S to deliver the car unscathed.

Then bus to but-to-airport, 2 hr van ride into London. The hotel we're in is near Harrod's, but you'd never guess -- it's on a v. quiet, short, dead end-street. Our room's one window looks out on an air-shart, but the room has air conditioning, is relatively large, and has a huge bathroom. Drinks & afternoon tea are free, too.

We went to a Thai place around the corner; S upset abt the cost & abt swallowing a hot pepper.

I agonized a certain amt over the GBP 14 for the room service breakfast (no DR), but the breakfast was nice. S went to MacDonalds, a block or two away.

This morning (rainy) he walked some 25 min to do laundry. I went to Westminster Abbey (had never been), leaving 9:30 by tube to use the reduced-price day pass. Waited in a long, soggy line (BUT, I saw the gargoyles in action -- that's worth something isn't it?) Inside was wall-to-wall tourists, shuffling damply through. I shuffled along w/ the masses, didn't take the audio tour, but gleaned what I could from Fodors, the pamphlet, and reading the eulogies on the monuments. The floor-stones included one marking an 18th century plumber of Westminster, but maybe that meant lead gutters instead of sewage? We'll never know.

Afterward, I made my way to the National Gallery -- along w/ every other tourist in London, admission being free. 13th-15th cent is on the top floor of a new addition -- had lunch in their nice dining room in the same addition, then S came over, and we went through the 16th-20th centuries together. He's much more observant & appreciative than I am, e.g. Claude, a 16th cent French landscapist -- I tend to look at paintings & label them -- that's a Turner, or a Monet. Found a Hogarth I'd remembered from a child's book about art I'd had years ago --a v. quick, vivid painting of a smiling shrimp-girl. Two Monets I especially liked - one of trees, one of a seashore - done w/ an uncharacteristic amount of detail, in beiges & whites. The rooms were VERY crowded -- especially the impressionists at the end.

We had coffee / tea in the cafe, made our way back to the hotel. I had my by-now-customary couple of glasses of the nice red wine they serve here -- Bergerac - Chateau des Peyroulets. Went to an Indian place S had seen in the neighborhood where he did the laundry, which was fine -- I mostly didn't want him to grump about the price of dinner. We took the tube there & back -- on the return trip we wound up going down 87 spiral stairs by mistake (at the bottom, but not the top was a sign not to use the stairs except in an emergency).

Did I say that all my resolutions to wear city-type clothes & sandals have come to naught? I can't do museums in anything but running shoes. So there I am in my crops, running shoes, and mesh shirt, surrounded by all these svelte young things in black tights & short skirts & high heels.