Day 9 - Oxford

Distance walked: 14km (perhaps this FitBit is telling the truth), Alcohol consumed: 1 large glass wine

Cool and overcast today but no rain, and also very few other tourists. The hordes for  Open Oxford weekend have all gone home. So has my bathroom-mate but unfortunately she has been replaced by a tall, dark haired man who leaves the toilet seat up, leaves hair all over the sink when he shaves and bathes in aftershave. Most of the disadvantages of living with a man but none of the benefits.

After breakfast we went to the Bodleian library to book a 10:30am tour. You can't visit any of it unless on a tour. After getting our tickets we went shopping. Mary had to buy presents for her family while I needed new shoes. I have discovered why I had pushed my old walking shoes to the back of my wardrobe. Most of the time they are fine, but they do rub against my ankle bones, which starts to hurt after a few days.

Shopping completed it was off to the Bodleian for our tour. It is just superb. We started off with Duke Humprey's library which is where it all began (and they filmed the library scenes in Harry Potter). Our guide told us all sorts of details about how books were shelved (chains, no chains, where to put the chain, lying down, upright), how to lay out a library and how the cataloguing and book retrieval system works. As children of a librarian, Mary & I were fascinated. We then visited the University council chamber which is on the ground floor and the University court room. The ability to try university members (staff & students) in their own court only ended in the 1960s. My favourite sight was the benefactors board with everyone listed in Latin, including current day donors. Any guesses to what the Fundamentum Rockefellus is?

Afterwards we headed to the Oxford Museum of Natural History which Mary wanted to see. I expected to be bored but it as fun. An old fashioned museum with dinosaur skeletons and two stuffed bears (1 black, 1 brown) that you could pat.

We then went to a little French bistro called Pierre Victoire for their prix fixe lunch - plus wine, mineral water and, in my case, dessert. It was all delicious. I started with the pate and then had pork loin in a mustard & cornichon sauce with potatoes dauphinois.  For dessert I had cherry claufoutis. All very yum. We must go back.

Feeling slightly tipsy we went back to the museum, via St Giles Church, walking the labyrinth in the graveyard. Our next museum was the Pitt Rivers Museum which was rather overwhelming. General Pitt Rivers was just a hoarder. Each display case (or collection of cases) had a theme such as "Flutes" and was stuffed full of such objects, with tiny handwritten labels that you couldn't read in the dim lights. There were cases of musical instruments, model ships, weaving, lace making, lamps, writing material, clothing, how the dead are treated, how dead enemies are treated (lots of shrunken heads), weapons of all sorts - each in its own collection, armour, jewellery, beads, make-up, ... It just went on and on over three floors. But all from want we would call developing countries these days so really terribly patronising.

Feeling rather museum-ed out we wandered back to college for a rest and a wash. It is a shame the weather in Oxford has been so unpleasant as it would be nice to sit in a park and soak up the sun, people watch and read a book but it is just too cool and damp.  Instead we went on some walks described in my book City Walks Oxford, walking briskly to keep warm, before heading off to an early dinner.

We ate at Turl Street Kitchen which was very earnest. Mary liked her food but mine was bland. I had beef & red wine pie which desperately needed salt. It was accompanied by chips - more stodge - when it should have come with peas or some other vegetable.