Travelin' Around England

Over the last few days, we have traveled to a few places. Saturday we went to Oxford, home of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. We spent a few hours walking around the campus and town. Below, you can see Christchurch College. We didn't go inside, but this is where the great hall scenes (with the long tables) from Harry Potter were filmed. 

Laura and I then bee lined it to The Eagle and Child Pub, which is where Tolkien and Lewis spent much of their time. On our way, Laura had the unfortunate incident of being pooped on by a bird. 

This is the pub. A plaque on the back wall read "C.S. Lewis, his brother, W.H. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and other friends met every Tuesday morning between the years 1939-1962 in the back room of this their favourite pub. These men, popularly know as the "Inklings," met here to drink Beer and to discuss, among other things, the books they were writing."

This was on the wall when you entered the pub. Seeing as I just met them the day before, I thought it was necessary to take a picture of it. We were told that Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Ring series while living in Oxford.

While walking down an open air market, I saw Turkish Delight for the first time. I immediately thought of Narnia :)

The next day, Laura and I decided to travel to Winchester and Portsmouth. Winchester, hometown of Colin Firth, was beautiful! Below, is a picture of the Winchester Cathedral. 

 It was Sunday, so there was a service going on. 

 The cathedral is also where Jane Austen is buried.

 We then walked across town to the Great Hall where King Arthur's round table is located. 

They have it hanging on the wall. 

Laura and I then caught the train to Portsmouth. We wanted to see a town located on the English Channel. It started raining and was quite cold, so we didn't end up spending much time here. 

 We did put our feet in the English Channel!

Today, we went to the British Museum. We weren't able to take many pictures, and only the nerds of the family would appreciate hearing me ramble on about seeing the original Beowulf manuscript, Anglo-Saxon linguistics, and King James's Library. But we did see original Beatles lyrics written down on paper bags, etc.