ENGLAND TRIP : Day 3

Took these right before we left. Love that London fog.

On Saturday we headed to Oxford! We checked out of our lovely hotel and headed to the bus stop with our backpacks and our huge suitcase. I had already found what bus we needed to take and there was a bus that took us directly to Marylebone train station. We got on the right bus that usually goes there but it had the name "Marble Arch" on it instead of "Marylebone" and I thought that was weird but it was the right number so we got on it. Then the stop Marble Arch comes up and everyone gets off and the automated voice comes on saying that it was the last stop. We were so confused and kind of lingered and a guy told us to get off because this was as far as the bus could go. So we got off and luckily we had about 20 minutes until our train left and we were only a short bus ride away according to Citymapper. So we waited for the next bus that was supposed to go to Marylebone and when it came it said Marble Arch again. What the heck! So we waited for another one and yet again it said Marble Arch so Trevor asked the bus driver and he told us there was some "blockage" so that buses couldn't go on that route. Well, shoot.

We had about 12 minutes until our train left and we were a mile away. I had bought "advance" tickets which meant we had to go on the exact train and at the exact time. They were super cheap tickets and if we missed our train and had to buy more tickets then it would have cost us around $60 so we wanted to make this train. We thought there was no chance (or time) of getting a taxi to take us so we made the split decision to run for it. With our huge suitcase. Remember, we are in sweaters and coats as well so running in all those clothes and with all that luggage was a complete nightmare! The roads we ran on happened to be cobbled so running with the suitcase was even harder. I still don't know how the heck we did it, but we made it onto our train with only a few minutes to spare. I was so shaky once I had finally sat down from running so fast! I usually can run a mile in about 9 minutes with normal conditions so I was pretty proud of myself haha!

The train took over an hour so we just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery flowing by. So green even in winter, but it was really foggy. Once we got there we rolled our suitcase to the Oxford Visitor Center which was about a 10 minute walk. Luckily, we were there around 9 so it was pretty quiet and the streets were fairly empty. Oxford is absolutely stunning (what I saw of it anyway). We dropped our luggage off and headed to Costa (which is like the UK's version of Starbucks) because it was the only thing open and we got some paninis and Trevor got some "hot chocolate". The food was absolutely disgusting and the hot chocolate was not the US's version of a hot chocolate. We're not sure what it was but it wasn't sweet at all and barely had any chocolate flavor. So weird.

We hopped on the stagecoach which was right outside of Costa and climbed up to the top floor. We had the whole floor to ourselves which was so fun! We sat in the front and enjoyed the journey to Blenheim Palace. Trevor and I were in such good moods and were just cracking each other up the entire time. I loved getting to spend this one on one time with him because we don't get to do that enough.

We got to the bus stop and my map said we still had a way to walk to the palace but when we turned the corner we were hit by a wonderful view of the beautiful Blenheim Palace in the fog. We walked down the pathway, got our tickets, and found the entrance. This place was so beautiful and so big and tall! It just amazes me that places like this exist. Although, of course, it had scaffolding on it. 

Winston Churchill was born here and I had no idea he came from a long line of Dukes! The Churchills had built the palace and all of the Duke's of Marlborough have lived here. When we were walking inside an old man stood at the entrance and told us to wear our backpacks on the front. I was a little confused but then I realized later it was so that people don't knock down busts and vases with their backpacks. I couldn't believe some of the artwork on the ceilings and the huge paintings that filled the walls. This place was incredible. We got the phone and headphones for our tour and walked through the halls. It was pretty cool but it was crowded so Trevor and I tried to get through it pretty quickly. 

So big I couldn't even get it all in the shot.

The ceiling was so tall and so huge!

Alexander The Great

We ditched the guided tour phones and headed outside to the grounds. The grounds were by far my favorite place. It's so big so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We wandered around for a while and again, like at Hampton Court, I kept imagine women in large gowns taking a stroll through the gardens and talking about the latest gossip.

Umm... Excuse me, what?

I'm so happy. Can you tell?

Look at the size of 'er!

We walked around a lot while we are Blenheim Palace so I was exhausted. We headed back to the bus stop and took the stagecoach back to Oxford. When we got there the city center was soooo crowded. I had read that Oxford is a big tourist area (I forget I'm actually a tourist too haha!) but I wasn't expecting it to be this crowded, especially in the winter months! The buildings and views were amazing! We were hungry so we walked around finding a place to eat. I was keeping note of places of interest for when we came back later.

The Radcliffe Camera

I had heard so much of Wagamama so we decided to go there. Again, it was an open table so we were sat right next to strangers. I decided to play it safe and got some chicken ramen and kimchi. Bluhhhhh it was disgusting. It was such a huge portion as well and I felt guilty not eating it so I tried to stomach it down. It was so hard so I could only eat about half. Gross gross gross. I was tired and my hunger was not fulfilled, so I was feeling kind of grumpy. We walked to a place called The Covered Market which is exactly as it says. It was pretty cool. Trevor got an oreo shake from a shake place that must have been pretty popular because there were a ton of high schoolers there. 

It was almost time to go pick up our luggage and get our rental car for the next day. We walked to the visitor center and picked up our luggage and we planned on walking to the car rental place but it was way farther away than I thought so we got a taxi. It actually was way more stressful than it sounds. Our taxi driver was a really nice guy who was originally from Somalia and told us about his life. He worked for BMW in the UK and then retired but his wife was sick of him sleeping all day and not doing anything with his life so he got a job as a taxi driver! That cracked me up. The drive was way longer than I thought so I'm so glad we got a taxi.

We picked up our rental car and drove it down the street to a car park because there was no way we were going to drive that around Oxford. Just driving down the street was pretty sketchy. I kept trying to hit the break and move the mirror so I could see it since I was on the left side of the car. It was so weird. We dropped the car off and walked to Botley Townhouse down the street. 

Our room was so tiny and the bed looked barely bigger than a twin! Whatever.. we dragged our luggage in and decided to take a quick power nap. BAD IDEA! We fell asleep around 5:30pm and woke up at 10:30pm! We slept for FIVE HOURS!!!! We must have just turned our alarms off without thinking. I seriously could not believe it when I woke up to pitch black outside. How did that happen!? I was so mad at myself. So we missed out on all of Oxford. Ughhhhhhh. I called my parent's to talk to the girls for a little bit. Luckily we had a few snacks with us to munch on from when we bought them the other day. We were still super tired so we just went back to bed! Ha! Gosh, what a day.. almost missing our train, disgusting food, stressful time getting to the car rental place, and sleeping through half our day. Oh boy. We did enjoy some of the day, though!