Hitting the road

Again too long without writing anything! Well, it has taken long to prepare these entries with many things to tell and photos to include. On top of that, the past week I arrived home after 23:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I had dinner at home on Friday, yes, but then went to a new venue to dance until 3am! Some weeks ago I was with two colleagues dancing in a bar where the dj gave us a cd with the music he played that night. There was an e-mail address on it so I wrote a message to say that the music was cool and we enjoyed a lot. Thus, the dj replied and we got in contact. He told me he was playing again last Friday at this new place so I went and met him. Very nice both his girlfriend and him (I guess the girl with him is his partner) and he gave me another cd with the music he played that night. Very nice from him! The rest of the days I have been first having dinner with Lars, who will be definitely leaving Oxford to move back to Germany soon, and with Marta, who has already left to Salisbury to start a new job. On Thursday, Renata (from Portugal) invited me along with Marta and Sergio (Portuguese too) to have dinner at her place ans she cooked an excellent typical Portugese dish with products she brought from her country. So good week with plenty of things to do but also sad because two of my best friends here have left and I won't meet them again unless they come or I go for a visit to their places.

Well, now I'm going to tell you about what I did a couple of weeks ago. The first Monday of May is bank holiday in the UK, that is May 5th this year. I hired a car to drive for the first time on the left side of the road and I take advantage of the car to visit some places not far from Oxford where is difficult to reach sometimes in public transport. Some friends from the company and outside joined me to have a perfect 3-days weekend with plenty of laughs, History, Art, photos, miles... and money spent hahaha. But it was worth all that money, of course! Not only was my first time driving on the left side, but also with the steering wheel on the right side and also with an automatic car: a Nissan Micra. It was small for a tall guy like me but not really uncomfortable and as we made short trips I could go out and stretch the legs every now and then.

The first day Luca (from Genoa -Italy), Juliette (from Marseille -France) and me met in the morning and decided where to go. The first destination was the worldwide famous circle of Stonehenge. It was impressive for me. Many people told me that some years ago you could go and touch the stones but today you must stay within a long distance. However, this distance is shorter than I thought and you can stay quite close to them. There was plenty of people but the place is so large that you can walk around very comfortable. There are some crows on and around the stones that give the place a weird sensation. It's quite expensive though!

After Stonehenge we went to Salisbury, a town with a pretty well known Cathedral. The town itself is nice and the centre has plenty of bars, shops, pubs... Like every town in this part of the UK (at least). There was a street market that day, which we were watching (I like them). We had lunch there and then we went to the Cathedral, which was very impressive too. The building has different phases and in the cloister there was a small exhibition explaining some of the works that have been recently done. Actually, a building like that is nearly permanently with works in progress. We were hanging around the chapels, choir, altar, nave... It is a tourist place but it wasn't so crowded. After that we went back to the car and found a surprise: a ticket!! We left the car in a parking were you had to pay but we were completely blind and didn't see any machine when we parked. However, when we were going back to the car we saw plenty... Well, it has been my first ticket too.

After Salisbury we went to the very impressive site of Avebury. It's another prehistoric site, much older than Stonehenge and more impressive (and free!). Well, I posted some photos on the entry below but the real dimension of the place can only be noticed from the air. It is so wide that there is a village within the circles and today there are plenty of sheeps grazing around. We paid for the parking this time... The first day finished late, back in Oxford and with us keen to meet again the day after.

The second day two friends of mine joined us: Gloria (Cantabria, Spain) and Eva (Asturias, Spain). We decided to go to the White Horse Hill and meet some other acquaintances there. The place is impressive too, in the middle of the country, everything green. You have to climb a short but steep hill and nearly on the top there is a figure representing a white horse which is dated in the Prehistory. It is huge as well as difficult to see its shape from the ground so it's from the air where you can see it better. Once up there, the views are nice and the air fresh. We met some people from the company there along with some friends of them and all together went to have lunch. As it was very late and any of the pubs in the villages around were serving meals, we bought some bread, cheese, chips, sausages... and in one of those pubs they gave us some knives, boards and plates so we could have some sort of "inside picnic".

After the lunch, we went to a one of the Cotswold's villages called Burford, a very beautiful place with stone houses and hundreds of picturesque corners, and free parking! We were prowling around like curious visitors. Well, there's nothing much to say about this place but watching the photos I include below so enjoy them.

The third day it was again Luca, Juliette and me. The destination was Stratford-upon-Avon this time. The name may not be very well known but it is famous for being William Shakespeare's town. Although the town is really beautiful with lots of houses made of wooden framework whose structure not only can be seen but sometimes is carved and decorated, we were having a short walk before we found a place were to have lunch. The place was extremely beautiful, with very few people, the staff very nice and kind, the garden lovely and the meal excellent and cheap. We were having such a calm and nice lunch that we hardly moved after the coffee and stayed there for a long time enjoying the conversation. It was called "The Falcon" by the way, and it was located in Chapel street and it was a hotel too. Don't hesitate to go there if you plan to spend some night in this town. Well, it took a long time to get up and walk after the nice lunch but we were keen to visit something else before coming back to Oxford. We went to visit a church we saw and, surprisingly, the grave of William Shakespeare and his wife was in it so we decided to go and have a look. Then another walk along the river bank taking advantage of the warm sunny weather and back home.

The long weekend was such a great experience that the next weekend will also be long and we have already planned another trip. Two persons more will come with us this time. Where? I'll tell you after, of course!