London Part 2

Thursday was another beautiful day! After a quick bite of breakfast we started our adventure for the day. We took the tube over to Paddington Station; then we boarded a National Rail train bound for Oxford. It was an easy and lovely little train ride. Once we arrived, we walked several blocks over to the main area of town. I'm already loving this place!

We had booked a walking tour with a Harry Potter theme to it, so we were pleased when our tour guide showed up looking all cute like a Hogwarts student. She had a couple of scarves for students to wear, so not surprisingly, I made the girls wear them. It seemed perfect for the day! She kept house points too, and Mia did amazing answering her trivia questions on behalf of Slytherin.

So much filming for the Harry Potter films took place here at Oxford (or was inspired by buildings in Oxford), so that was a lot of the highlights of this tour. We started by walking over to New College.

Here is where the idea of "great halls" for dining started. This was really cool to see! I'd love to be a student and get to hang out while eating here.

Soon we happened upon one of the most recognizable parts from the film. The hallway, arches, and courtyard are so beautiful!

Outside the Divinity School is the inspiration for Nearly Headless Nick. The inside of the Divinity School was absolutely beautiful.

Several scenes were filmed inside this beautiful school.

All sorts of schools around here...divinity, alchemy, astronomy...and look, logic!

Rowling wasn't the only author inspired by Oxford. Here's the doorway C.S. Lewis would walk out of each day, and as he did, he would see this lovely little lamppost. It gave him an idea for what Lucy should see as she walked through the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia.

Lewis Carroll was also inspired to write Alice's adventures near this field. I don't remember the whole story that went with this, but it's still fun to see.

As our tour ended, our sweet guide gave us all sherbet lemon candies that Professor Dumbledore liked to eat. Admittedly, these were really good. We said our goodbyes and headed on our way. We stopped to see if we could purchase admission into Christ Church College, but it was already sold out until much later in the day. It would have been fun to see, but we were okay missing it. 

We headed on to lunch instead. We found our way to Turf Tavern on Grandpop's recommendation since he has recently completed a few study abroad sessions in Oxford. It was really delicious! Mia and I both went with traditional pub fare and had the fish and chips with peas. So fun and yummy!

We explored a little of the town after lunch and found our way to the famous Blackwell's Bookshop. It's unbelievably huge!

We all found several good reads here, but I couldn't resist a couple of blind date books. That's always a treat in my world!

Of course we did a little bit of shopping while we were here, and then it was time to head on back.

Since National Rail took us back to Paddington Station, we had to find the sweet little statute of Paddington Bear. We recreated the fun picture the girls took when we were last here 8 years ago. They've changed a little bit since then!

We left Paddington and found our way over to St. James's Street to Lock & Co. This is both the oldest hat store in the whole world and the oldest shop still operating in London. It was founded in 1676, and its current owners are the 9th generation. How cool is that? We wanted to get Ryan a hat from them, and he decided on this fantastic flat cap. I love it and can't wait for him to wear it!

We made it back to the hotel to rest and freshen up before we headed back out. I was super excited to see Les Miserable this evening! This is my all-time favorite musical. The girls had never seen it before, so I couldn't wait to introduce them.

What luck! Our tickets were for the 15,000 showing of Les Mis! As we entered the Sondheim Theater, they handed out these vouchers to each of us entitling each person to one drink so "everybody raise a glass."

This cast was absolutely incredible, and the show was perfect. Still my favorite.

What a fantastic day!