Another lovely day in Oxford posted on September 24, 2005 by Holly Hayes

Today was a lovely clear day, very cold in the morning but actually rather warm in the afternoon. We had a nice, slow morning, taking care of laundry and other various things, and then took advantage of the pretty blue sky to do some walking and sightseeing.

We walked through the nature reserve trail again, which is just so good for the soul, then wandered around the historic city center some more. We stopped at the University Botanical Gardens, which was David's idea if you can believe it (it has a lot to do with having a new camera he likes to play with).

I got in free with my University of Oxford card (wahoo!), but David had to pay a couple pounds. There were all kinds of interesting plants from around the world, including several greenhouses with desert and tropical plants. We saw a cinnamon tree and a coffee tree, and about 50 different varieties of cactus. We even saw a plant that grows in NE Oregon.

The gardens are located right across the street from Magdalen College, and the tower bells rang almost the entire time we were there! They were very pretty but loud and just kept going on and on with various tunes. I don't know why, but perhaps it's for a Saturday service of some kind.

Then we revisited a few favorite sights like the Bodleian Library (just the outside this time) and the Sheldonian Theatre with its funny sculptured faces, to get a few photos in the sunshine. We also finally found the tile cross in Broad Street that marks the actual site of the burning of the Oxford Martyrs.

Next David showed me the Covered Market, which he'd explored on his own a couple of days ago - the one with the freaky meats and cheeses. But it also has some great food places, like Ben's Cookies, where we just had to get a cookie each. They were big, warm, and chocolately. Wow.

Another excellent discovery was a fancy deli that had a display window of American foods! It had several of things we'll surely be missing from home, including Jif and Skippy peanut butter (the PB here is terrible), canned pumpkin, canned sweet potatoes, and Kraft Mac & Cheese. It was all very friendly and will be quite useful in the future!

Our afternoon on the town ended with a movie, which I'd been excited to do since we got here. We saw Pride and Prejudice, which David actually wanted to see (it certainly had something to do with Kiera Knightly being in the starring role). My university card once more came in handy for a student rate, although it was still quite steep.

I got my sweet popcorn, which was a wonderful memory from Edinburgh and something I've always wished American theaters would catch on to, and a giant-sized Pepsi Max, and was happy as a clam. David got a bag of Doritos, the flavor of which was called "Cool Original" instead of "Cool Ranch." (Ranch dressing isn't a thing here.) Our seats were nice, the movie was quite enjoyable (though not as good as the original with Colin Firth, in my opinion), and it was overall a really great time.