We decided to take a day trip to Oxford. 1 day in London was plenty, we were ready for a change (insert sarcasm here).
We picked up our car and made the hour and a half drive to Oxford without incident.
They tell you to park at the park and ride and take the bus into town. Limited parking apparently. We did not heed the warning and spent about half an hour looking for parking. When we finally found some, it was parallel parking and only lasted for 2 hours. And don’t forget, this was parallel parking on the wrong side of the street on the wrong side of the car. And oh-by-the-way, the machine only takes cash. So I had to ask a nice local to make change for me. And he did. Learn from our mistake and park at the park-n-ride.
Our first mission was the Turf Tavern for some lunch. They say this place is hard to find, and it kind of is. We found it on accident. It was between 2 houses and around a corner. There was no actual storefront on the street where the restaurant claimed to be. But that’s ok, because it was super cool when we found it. Kind of like finding the elusive pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Did I mention we were REALLY hungry?
When we finally got seated, we decided to split the fish ‘n chips.
Ha!
We were served fish ‘n chips alright. We were actually served a whole fish and there was still skin on one side. It was amazing and super hot – I burned my tongue because I couldn’t wait for it to cool. Super tasty. I’d eat it more often if it weren’t so bad for you!
After our amazing lunch, we walked around the town. This is what I expected London (and all of Europe for that matter) to look like. Cute cobblestone paths, little shops and houses tucked in a row. People on cruisers, no helmets and a few hipsters to make sure we all know it’s 2012 and not the 1800s.
They filmed some Harry Potter here, so that was cool (see instagram collage above).
As we were walking around, Lisa pointed out a bridge and said, “I think that must be famous. I saw it on a postcard.” So we did what any good tourist would do. We took a picture in front of it.
We finished our day by driving to Reading and eating a delicious dinner at the Griffon. We had the best dessert ever – some sort of bread/cake drenched in a light caramel sauce with fresh banana ice cream. I have no idea why people complain about the food here. It’s sooooo goood (just don’t ask for a vegetable).
Fastest trip to Europe yet, but tons of fun and totally worth the lack of sleep I’m still trying to recover from 🙂 If you’re headed to the UK, I HIGHLY recommend a stop in Oxford. 2 hours was not enough!