Hello from Paris,
We arrived via the Eurostar today, travelling through southern England, the Chunnel and beautiful French country side. The past few days have been filled with a day travel to Oxford, England, a final walk through Covent Garden to Soho and then a west end show to close out our time in London (Wicked). Highlights of these last couple of days included:
1. Enjoyed a wonderful visit to Oxford supplied by the generosity of our friends Alan & Tanya Thorne. We experienced Oxford through the eyes and stories of a fantastic guide, Professor Wagner, who has lived and taught in Oxford for 50 years and personally knew Tolkien and Lewis, among others. Interestingly, in the late 70's she almost took a job teaching at SFU up on Burnaby Mountain where I went to university.
2. Finally took a ride on a double decker bus after a long walk through Covent Garden, Leicester Square and finally through Soho. There are so many unique areas of London! The bus from the top floor was fun, even if a bit long due to the horrible London traffic.
3. Eating outside on a London Terrace, one must be willing to endure smoke everywhere!
4. Free Internet is not easily found. London is full of free internet as long as you register (with a user name and password) and then add a mobile to have a key code sent to you! Classic way to get key contact information, while keeping the tourists from using these systems. Ugh. Our hotel internet was so bad that, if not for the "pay as you go" mobile plan we bought, we would never have been able to communicate with home to this point. BUT then again it has been wonderful to be free of the net on occasion and the constant feeling of needing to check, surf, scan, like and respond.
5. Exploring Europe by train has been a joy. Not having to endure driving through traffic, or the long distance journeys has allowed for more time to stay relaxed and enjoy the countries and scenery we are visiting.
6. Get to the train station early for your "international" journeys! Apparently we forgot to account for security & bag screening, as well as passport clearance! We almost missed our train cutting our travel to the station too closely.
Below are some pics from or Oxford tour...
Michael & Elaine
