Leaving Oxford

Saturday meant time to leave Oxford behind. The first order of business was to box up all the books I have purchased so far on this trip, and ship them home by post. Yes it was somewhat expensive, but it was worth it knowing that I didn’t have to haul that pile of books around the rest of Europe with me. I sent them the cheapest way possible (by boat) and have been told it can take up to 3 months to arrive by that method, but the way I look at it, three months from now we will have a delightful reminder of our Europe trip show up on our doorstep.

In my limited experience I would say that Oxford changes tone on the weekend. For example, when I went to mail our parcel the street I walked down had various religious groups proselytizing the crowds, there were Christian evangelicals, Jehovah Witnesses, an Islamic group, and some other group that reminded me of some of the cults of the late 70s. Gone were the crowds of students (many probably on their way home, or simply still in bed recuperating from the year end festivities.

And gone were we as well, it was an enjoyable stay in this historic city that we have heard so much about over the years, but it was time to head to Canterbury. We walked with our luggage to a spot on the street where a regular bus service to London departs from. In London there were some demonstrations going on, so at first it appeared as if we weren’t going to be able to be dropped off that the train station we needed… fortunately just before we arrived the demonstration cleared up enough that we got to where we needed to go. Once I figured out how to purchase tickets, and for which train (with help from the Information person) we managed to board the train and head south to the ancient pilgrimage city of Canterbury.