Oxford and Wales
I'm back!
So...back to my story.
Oxford. Oxford is one of the 2 big University towns in England, the other being Cambridge. Stiff rivalry between the two. I chose Oxford primarily because of a book series I had read/am reading called A Discovery of Witches. It's a great trilogy, if you haven't read it, do so, it's amazing, the third book comes out on July 15th...can't wait!
So anyway the book starts out in Oxford. Diana, the main character is researching in the Bodliean Library at Oxford. So naturally I wanted to see this place to get a picture of it, so when I read the book again, I can REALLY picture it. I took the guided tour which is the only way to go in to the Library. It's AMAZING. This library is so old and has so many books, it's hard to describe. They shot part of Harry Potter here, its the restricted section of the library that Harry sneaks into in the first movie, so...extra cool. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures, but I did get post cards! After the tour, I mentioned the books to our guide, and SHE HAD READ THEM TOO! It was so great. I mean she WORKS at the Bodliean library, so for her to read about it in a fiction book must just be so cool!
After seeing the Bodliean, I wandered around the city of Oxford, I saw the college where Diana, the book character lived, and other sites mentioned in the book. It was fantastic. Once back in London, I knew it would be my last chance, so I went to Chipotle for dinner, I know I'm in London I should have the local cuisine, but I wanted Chipotle...
Monday brought me to Cardiff, via the noisiest train ride EVER! It was a train car full of school kids, on a trip with their teacher. None of them could be bothered to think about anyone else in the car, and were yelling and running around and at one point even kicking a soccer ball down the aisle, that's when I pullout my teacher face and just went, "No."
But I made it to Cardiff in one piece, if a bit deaf. Upon my arrival at my hotel, my room wasn't ready, so I dropped off my bags and went to Cardiff Bay. I had tickets booked for the Doctor Who Experience that I couldn't miss.
I wandered around the bay area for a bit before finding my bearings. As I was walking, I thought to myself, hey it must be that huge Tardis blue building, and it was.
The Doctor Who Experience...it wasn't as amazing as Harry Potter, but it was still pretty cool. It starts with you helping The Doctor (Matt Smith) get out of the Pandorica (again). It was a bit hokey and cheesy, but still fun, then it leads to the exhibit area. They had all (11) of The Doctor's costumes up to Matt Smith. They also had most of the monsters from the series. It was pretty cool, but one part was so hot, it was actually making me sick, so...not as great as I'd hoped, but still pretty cool.
And of course I found out the next day that mere blocks from my hotel Doctor Who had been filming on Monday, while I was in town! Grrrrrr!
Me and the Tardis
My hotel in Cardiff was an actual Holiday Inn style hotel. My room was HUGE. I think my bathroom was bigger than my entire London room! And it had air conditioning, which was a god send, given Cardiff is on the coast and bit humid.
My whole reason for coming to Cardiff was Doctor Who, but it's not open on Tuesdays, so I had to go on Monday, this left me with an entire day, Tuesday, to do whatever, so I first went to Cardiff Castle, which was actually pretty cool. It was an honest to goodness castle, at one point it was even used as air raid shelters for the city, that exhibit was kind of frightening. I climbed to the top of the keep which was terrifying, the stairs were so steep and tiny, I held on to the hand rail like my life depended on it...because it did!
It was really cute, because on the castle grounds, a whole bunch of school kids were all playing cricket. I watched a little bit, but didn't take any pictures because I thought that would be creepy to take pictures of random school kids.
After touring the castle, I took a bus tour of Cardiff. I'm a big fan of these bus tours. They give you a chance to see what the town has to offer as well as give you a bit of a layout of the city, what's next to what else, what's way off outside the city center, and normally there's a live guide to give you information and some fun stories, some buses only have a pre-recorded narration, but those are more rare.
After the bus tour I went down to the Bay to just kind of wander. Its a beautiful area, one I'd like to see again. There's a Doctor Who spin-off show call Torchwood, which is actually set in Cardiff, so it was fun to see some of the locations from the show. There's even a shrine built to one of the characters who died in the show (the actor is still alive), now lots of people died in the show, but his death came as a shock to fans and they wanted to remember him, so at the place where the entrance to the Torchwood office was, they built a shrine, where fans leave pictures and messages and momentos, it was touching if a bit creey, I mean think about being that actor and knowing there's a shrine to you somewhere in the world where people mourn your death, even though you're still alive!
But the thing I noticed most was the people. They're so chatty and friendly. I really enjoyed my time in Cardiff.
Wednesday morning brought me bright and early to Cardiff airport which is about the size of my house. My flight to Ireland left at 8:45, for the 50 minute flight to Dublin. The plane was a turbo prop plane and had all of 45 people on it. Definitely the smallest plane I've ever been on! Then I was in Ireland...but that's for another post.
For now I'll leave you and say _______ that's good-bye in Welsh (I never learned that, so insert a word with too many w's c's and y's)
So...back to my story.
Oxford. Oxford is one of the 2 big University towns in England, the other being Cambridge. Stiff rivalry between the two. I chose Oxford primarily because of a book series I had read/am reading called A Discovery of Witches. It's a great trilogy, if you haven't read it, do so, it's amazing, the third book comes out on July 15th...can't wait!
So anyway the book starts out in Oxford. Diana, the main character is researching in the Bodliean Library at Oxford. So naturally I wanted to see this place to get a picture of it, so when I read the book again, I can REALLY picture it. I took the guided tour which is the only way to go in to the Library. It's AMAZING. This library is so old and has so many books, it's hard to describe. They shot part of Harry Potter here, its the restricted section of the library that Harry sneaks into in the first movie, so...extra cool. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures, but I did get post cards! After the tour, I mentioned the books to our guide, and SHE HAD READ THEM TOO! It was so great. I mean she WORKS at the Bodliean library, so for her to read about it in a fiction book must just be so cool!
After seeing the Bodliean, I wandered around the city of Oxford, I saw the college where Diana, the book character lived, and other sites mentioned in the book. It was fantastic. Once back in London, I knew it would be my last chance, so I went to Chipotle for dinner, I know I'm in London I should have the local cuisine, but I wanted Chipotle...
Monday brought me to Cardiff, via the noisiest train ride EVER! It was a train car full of school kids, on a trip with their teacher. None of them could be bothered to think about anyone else in the car, and were yelling and running around and at one point even kicking a soccer ball down the aisle, that's when I pullout my teacher face and just went, "No."
But I made it to Cardiff in one piece, if a bit deaf. Upon my arrival at my hotel, my room wasn't ready, so I dropped off my bags and went to Cardiff Bay. I had tickets booked for the Doctor Who Experience that I couldn't miss.
I wandered around the bay area for a bit before finding my bearings. As I was walking, I thought to myself, hey it must be that huge Tardis blue building, and it was.
The Doctor Who Experience...it wasn't as amazing as Harry Potter, but it was still pretty cool. It starts with you helping The Doctor (Matt Smith) get out of the Pandorica (again). It was a bit hokey and cheesy, but still fun, then it leads to the exhibit area. They had all (11) of The Doctor's costumes up to Matt Smith. They also had most of the monsters from the series. It was pretty cool, but one part was so hot, it was actually making me sick, so...not as great as I'd hoped, but still pretty cool.
And of course I found out the next day that mere blocks from my hotel Doctor Who had been filming on Monday, while I was in town! Grrrrrr!
My hotel in Cardiff was an actual Holiday Inn style hotel. My room was HUGE. I think my bathroom was bigger than my entire London room! And it had air conditioning, which was a god send, given Cardiff is on the coast and bit humid.
My whole reason for coming to Cardiff was Doctor Who, but it's not open on Tuesdays, so I had to go on Monday, this left me with an entire day, Tuesday, to do whatever, so I first went to Cardiff Castle, which was actually pretty cool. It was an honest to goodness castle, at one point it was even used as air raid shelters for the city, that exhibit was kind of frightening. I climbed to the top of the keep which was terrifying, the stairs were so steep and tiny, I held on to the hand rail like my life depended on it...because it did!
It was really cute, because on the castle grounds, a whole bunch of school kids were all playing cricket. I watched a little bit, but didn't take any pictures because I thought that would be creepy to take pictures of random school kids.
After touring the castle, I took a bus tour of Cardiff. I'm a big fan of these bus tours. They give you a chance to see what the town has to offer as well as give you a bit of a layout of the city, what's next to what else, what's way off outside the city center, and normally there's a live guide to give you information and some fun stories, some buses only have a pre-recorded narration, but those are more rare.
After the bus tour I went down to the Bay to just kind of wander. Its a beautiful area, one I'd like to see again. There's a Doctor Who spin-off show call Torchwood, which is actually set in Cardiff, so it was fun to see some of the locations from the show. There's even a shrine built to one of the characters who died in the show (the actor is still alive), now lots of people died in the show, but his death came as a shock to fans and they wanted to remember him, so at the place where the entrance to the Torchwood office was, they built a shrine, where fans leave pictures and messages and momentos, it was touching if a bit creey, I mean think about being that actor and knowing there's a shrine to you somewhere in the world where people mourn your death, even though you're still alive!
But the thing I noticed most was the people. They're so chatty and friendly. I really enjoyed my time in Cardiff.
Wednesday morning brought me bright and early to Cardiff airport which is about the size of my house. My flight to Ireland left at 8:45, for the 50 minute flight to Dublin. The plane was a turbo prop plane and had all of 45 people on it. Definitely the smallest plane I've ever been on! Then I was in Ireland...but that's for another post.
For now I'll leave you and say _______ that's good-bye in Welsh (I never learned that, so insert a word with too many w's c's and y's)
hahahahah! wales! nice!!
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