IT'S MONDAY, THIS MUST BE WINDSOR CASTLE

Even though the roads were still slippery and we didn't have Tom to guide us, the four of us took off to Windsor Castle. No problems either driving on the wrong side or finding the Castle. Parking, on the other hand, was a challenge.

After finding the Castle and being told very politely by a guard that we could not park "there", we followed his directions to a parking garage. We also found it easily - but it was full. Then things went awry. We ended up leaving town on an Expressway, turning around and trying again from the beginning. This time we found a college parking lot that was available while the school was closed for holiday. After a short walk, we arrived back at the Castle.

Looking like a Castle oughta -





AGAIN, no pictures allowed inside. Trust us, British Royalty does know how to live.

Outside - the changing of the guard. Not the spectacle of Buckingham Palace, but very impressive, none the less.



And MUCH more accessible




We found our way home without incident - AND found another close parking space.

Tomorrow we return the cars and start seeing London like a local - taking buses and the tube.

OXFORD IN THE SNOW

Please don't look at the "posting date". We've been home almost two weeks and I'm just getting to the blog. I needed the two weeks to recuperate from our "vacation." So, posting just like it was still December in England. Here we go =


After not being able to convince Tom to spend the night, "We don't have a change of clothes, we don't have jammies - we don't even have toothbrushes or razors." I played the feeble old man card and said, "I just can't face a two hour trip turned in to 5 hours by the snow - in the dark."

So we checked into a couple of rooms at a Holiday Inn Express, ate dinner and went to bed. The next morning we drove to Oxford. Famous for its universities and history. But we went for two reasons. Andrew wanted to see some Harry Potter sites and Emily wanted to visit the grave of C. S. Lewis. The snow still wasn't bad enough to cause major problems but enough to make Oxford a winter wonderland.





Here is the gate to Christ's College, the site of Hogwart's dining room.



Unfortunately, since the schools were on holiday, we were not allowed inside. we did take a bus tour of Oxford and saw some "Hogwart's looking" sites.





Thanks to Tom's iPod, Google and GPS, our adventure through the snow was complete with a visit to the Holy Trinity Church graveyard in Headington, Oxfordshire, England. Along with bearable weather, we were due for another inbetween. The graveyard was covered in 3 inches of snow. There was a service going on in the church and I was contemplating entering quietly and seeing if there was an usher that I might question about the location of our quest. I really didn't to disappoint Emily after we'd made it so far. But I didn't want to be rude to worshipers, either.

As I stood outside the church door pondering, two latecomers walked up. I asked them where the gravesite was and they gave us general directions to the right area. AND when we got there, we found that others just before us had cleared the stone. We never would have found it without the help of these seen and unseen strangers. Is Emily learning from these inbetweens? I hope so.



The drive home was relatively painless AND we found parking spaces for both cars. This was a major inbetween because most people had not moved their cars in three days and NO ONE plowed or even shoveled anything.

3" of snow is not terribly unusual for southern England. Several days of temperatures well below freezing is VERY unusual. Normally everybody sits still for a day and everything melts away. This time everybody sat still for 6 days and, sure enough, just like always, everything did melt away.

ONE MORE TIME - almost nothing went as planned

and we had a wonderful time anyway.

Life is so good.