Weekending in Oxford

 

I am so behind with blogging, it's completely fallen to the wayside as I have been focusing on other things! But I have been on a few trips away and got a ton of photo's to share so I have cleared my evening to sit down with a glass of red wine and sort out my memory cards and get blogging!

First up, is a trip away to Oxford with the girls that we did back in September. It was a really fun trip, we try to book them in at least once a year. We started off our trip with an hours horse ride around the Oxfordshire countryside. This was actually so relaxing, we didn't canter etc so we just got to sit back and admire the views! Everytime I go horse riding I always think it's a hobby I would like to take up, maybe just go once a month on a Sunday morning.

We then drove in to Oxford centre and found our Airbnb and cracked open a bottle of rose. It was a hot September day and trying to find parking near the house was a bit of a nightmare for the girls who were driving. We have made a promise to only book houses with parking in  the future as it saves time and agg!

We got ready for dinner and it was like being teenagers again, all crammed around a mirror, doing each others hair, having pre drinks and listening to music. Sometimes I think that part is more fun than going out! We had booked a table at No.1 Ship street which had been recommended but we weren't that blown away by it, the decor was nice but my burger was average.

The next day we had tickets booked for the castle and prison tour. I don't actually have any photo's from it (I might have been feeling a little jaded from the night before!) but it was quite interesting if you like horrible history. I must confess I get a bit bored by listening to tour guides and ours had an annoying sing song voice.

Once we finished the tour, we went for a walk around the city centre. The architecture here is so beautiful and we soon realised that the universities were having their graduations so we saw a lot of students in  their gowns with their families with them looking very proud.

One tour I would like to do is one of the uni's and libraries. Possibly a Harry Potter film tour too? I think these buildings are stunning and I have heard that the library is so big it can take a day for someone to locate your requested book!

Despite visiting Oxford a few times now I had never seen the Bridge of Sighs or been punting so I am glad that we got to see and do both. 

It was very much a weekend for activities which I think is great as it is what creates memories. Also, we tend to drink far too much when we are together so it breaks up the booze-a-thon! Not to say we didn't drink a bottle of rose on our row boat or stop off for cocktails and cake on the way to the river...

We booked our boats from Cherwell. There is a great cafe and bar here, I love a riverside location. What I do find odd as that it seems Oxford doesn't have places where someone punts for you like you have in Canterbury or Cambridge.

We didn't fancy doing that ourselves so we hired a rowing boat instead and despite a few crashes in the banks of the river, we were good to go with me at the oars!

Afterwards we sat and finished our wine before walking through the parks to go home. Well, I say we were going home, we might have made a pit stop in a tapas bar for a few more drinks and nibbles before actually going home to have supper and watching Strictly come dancing.

We now need to decide where to go for our next trip... my vote goes to Bath!