By the numbers
29,953 steps
22.53 kms
The day started early as I had to be at the
train by 740am as it would be a very early trip and that meant I couldn’t
slowly move around. I had to hurry along. I woke up and sorted myself out by
doing the basics before walking to the tube station as I had two trains that
would get me to the ultimate destination of Oxford Parkway as that was where I
was heading first and had to get to the station first. I did arrive with twenty
or so minutes ahead of time even when I had to switch two train lines. It is
that easy when there are so few people at the time in the morning. There are
several train lines in London where I can catch a train and they all seem to
have different companies running them.
The train took me all the way intro Oxford
although I had thought it called into Oxford and then Oxford Parkway. Oxford
was actually the last stop on the service from London. I actually started
walking into town the wrong way until I realised I had misread my map. The
phone map did it again. I was heading to Wolvercote Cemetery which was on the
way to the town of Oxford. Thatr was how I had planned the journey. I was going
to visit JRR Tolkien’s grave before making my way into town. The walk did seem
long and I was happy it was not too hot yet in town. I soon how there were
clear signs pointing me in the direction of the grave and I do wonder if that
happened after the first lot of movies came out. I did wander a little bit of
the cemetery before I moved on as I was wanting the Hollywell cemetery next for
Kenneth Grahame the author of Wind in the Willows. This place was a little
further on and I was happy to have a nice brisk walk through a park and past
some classrooms of singing kids. I do wonder if they seen me pulling faces as I
walked past and that made them sing more off tune. I found the cemetery and
most of it was overgrown, although I found it was meant to be like that and the
grave I was after I found, but did not realise I had found the right one until
I looked it up online at find a grave. The writing was so light that I could
hardly read it even when I wet the headstone to make it readable. There was
long grass everywhere and even when there was a spiky plant I stopped as I didn’t
want to get spiked.
After the cemeteries I tried to find the
Oxford Natural History Museum, which was easy to find, but I was not sure I had
found the museum when I was there as it didn’t say it was that until I moved
further on. I had seen pictures online that everything was in rows and it was
true when I entered. I found there were dinosaurs, which included the early
drawings of what people thought they looked like especially of the Iguanadon.
All around the walls were displays that showed evolution of species including
human and I found a few of them including the donisaurs were casts, although I
had seen the originals. The dinosaurs that were water bound were actually the
originals, which I thought was cool and there was even a tuna that was a big
one that sailors on a ship in the 1800s though there was a body in the box as
they are superstitious. They understood once it was opened and worked hard to save
the specimen out of guilt when the ship ran onto a bank. I stopped at the
museum for lunch and also found there was another museum inside the Natural
History museum called the Pitt museum, which had things from world cultures. I didn’t
spend very long there as I was starting to run out of time. The Natural history
museum had statues of prominent figures like Darwin and pillars from various
parts of the UK that were from different rock. They were marked where they were
from. It was interesting to see the different colours.
I headed to the Oxford Castle as I was
wanting to see that before I left on the train and got distracted by another
museum. Luckily this one was also free like the other two, although they
recommended a donation. The museum was called the Ashmolean and was about art
and archaeology. I had no idea what the museum was really about until I entered
and found there was heaps of artefacts from different periods of time like
Egypt and China. There were some that were considered rare as they were before
the Roman had spread with their writings as apart from the Egyptian culture
many early groups had no written record apart from what they left behind in
their cooking implements and other things. I was curious as to see alot the
statues around and they had been collected by one man during the 1800s. I didn’t
stay very long here either as I was heading slowly to the station. Along the
way I did happen to have a quick look at two campus’ and they were immaculate
and I think one was getting ready for graduation.
I found the castle and the mound that was
apparently part of the castle a very long time ago. I did find that the castle
was also a prison until recently as they had shut that down and now it was all
part of a guided tour. I didn’t know about that part, but if I wanted to wander
the mound, which was a heritage listed thing, I had to pay a pound as the money
went into the conservation. I got a gate code too, which meant I could walk up
following the trail. I did get a view of the city and it did look nice being
high off the ground. I had a specific timed ticket for the train and I needed
to get the train very soon. It didn’t take very long to end up in the station
and my train was on time, luckily enough. There were other lines that were actually
cancelled due to signal problems, which would be due to the heat. I actually
got to sit on the train for 20 mins in the aircon before it headed back to the
city. I was happy to be moving and once we called into Marlybone station, I
though the ticket gates were fully opened and I tried following someone else
out and the doors shut on me. I learnt then I had to use my ticket as they were
not open for everyone.
Once in the city, I found I was only a 5 min
walk to Baker street, which was where Sherlock Holmes had his house and I wanted
to see what it was all about. On the way I came across a building where the
first Bently had been made and that was in a back alley near Baker Street. I
found the Sherlock museum and people were lining up out front of the door getting
pics taken. Nearby was a Beatles shop that included Yellow Submarine Slippers.
I got stuck across the road with a guy who asked me what size would be good for
his wife who was five foot and then he said big boned. I started with a Medium
and ended up telling him Large. I had no idea and no idea who Rainbow was as
this was a Rock music shop. I was aware of my surroundings as he was talking to
me as I was hoping he wasn’t a scammer. He ended up going into the shop and I
wandered to a park called Regents Park. I did wonder if some nearby buildings
were from the Regent Street in Monopoly. I knew I had to head back so I found
Baker Street station and did my two station switch as I needed to get two
trains on two different lines. The tube was busy and getting stuffy. I knew I
needed a shower as it was pretty hot and I probably stank. My clothes will
stink in the room, but we shall see what happens over the next couple of days.
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