Adventures in London: "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost."

Christ's Church

Took a bus to Oxford this morning. I dozed on the bus for a bit because I was so tired, but we got there and

got hot chocolate from Costa because it was pretty cold in Oxford. It was delicious. It was more of a dark chocolate flavor and it was wonderful. We had decided that we would wander around Oxford and look at the J.R.R. Tolkien stuff because he taught there. So, we headed over to a college that he taught at and afterwards wandered around the park at Christ’s Church. It was big and beautiful. It was so funny because they were super obsessive about keeping people off the grass. Their chain around the grass was more deadly looking than most and they had ‘Keep off the grass’ signs everywhere. Even the ducks stayed off the grass. It was funny. We just wandered through the park and ended up at a river.

Once we got back the main street we found the music museum, unfortunately it wasn’t open yet, so we decided to go find Tolkien’s house and grave and then come back. So on our way to all of that we stopped at a super awesome second hand book store. I didn’t buy anything though. We also went into the Old Sweet Shoppe from Alice in Wonderland because Lewis Carroll also spent time at Oxford.

Tolkien's House

So, we walked down this one road forever on our way to Tolkien’s house. Oxford is super pretty though, so it was fun to walk through. We found his house first. It was down a little side street. The house was gorgeous. After that we walked down the street for a long time until we found the cemetery. They had convenient little signposts to lead us to Tolkien’s grave. It was really pretty. People had left little notes for him on his grave. The cemetery was amazing as well.

Then we took a bus back to The Eagle and the Child (a pub that Tolkien and Carroll went to and where they met with other writers to discuss their work). It was really cool. The pub was cozy and very comfortable. I had a steak. It was alright. Not the best steak ever, but I was super craving steak. So I had steak and a Coke. J

2 of the Harpsichords

Then we headed back to the music museum and it was so cool! They had so many different types of

instruments and so many different styles of the same instrument. I loved the pianos/harpsichords and the flutes. The keys on some of the pianos were so cool. They had some with inverted keys. So the white keys were black and the black keys were white. They had some with wooden keys. They had some with stripped keys too. They were awesome. They had a glass flute and a clarinet made out of a plunger, which was super funny.

Then we got back on the bus and headed back to London. I slept most of the way. Apparently I was out cold. Then I did laundry (super fun….) and ate dinner (more pasta). And yep. That’s what I did today. J

Enjoy the pictures!