Changing of the Guards

Today was our last big day to sightsee. I arranged a private tour guide to take us around town and check out the sights thru the private "back door" entrances where possible.

Gary arrived at our flat at 9am - we drove into central London where he stopped us at a really tasty traditional spot for a British breakfast. The boys were still only half awake and ridiculously grumpy (which I was SO embarrassed about!! Poor Gary!!), but luckily perked up a bit after they got some food in them.

Our first stop was a (very fast) walk over to see the Changing of the Guards - it was super cool!! And all along the way, Gary was telling us about the city's amazing history and fun facts left and right as we passed building and walls and what not throughout. He was a WEALTH of knowledge and while I'm not sure the kids appreciated it as much, Jon and I loved it! :)

Cousins!

So we finally did get a minor Tolkien fix in for Jon, since the pub we met Emily and family at, was The Eagle and Child, a famous pub that Tolkien used to love to hang out at and apparently do many readings of his work there.

We hung out for an hour or so and we're just about ready to order dinner, when they told us kids weren't allowed in there after 7pm (it was 10 til)!! Damn it!

So, Plan B it was - and we headed to the White Rabbit, a yummy pizza place, just down the street.

The boys were totally taken by Tommy, Emily's son, who's about 19 months old. It didn't dawn on me to take any pics of them playing with him until the very end when we had to say our goodbyes. So this crappy single pic of the boys trying to hug Tommy while he ran for Emily, is all I got. :(

Likewise Emily and I snapped a quick pic of the two of us together but we didn't really spend much time getting pics of anyone. I guess a good sign? Since we were having such a great time visiting and catching up on life. :)

After we said goodbye, we booked it back to the train station with about 2 minutes to spare for our train - only to find out it was delayed and they didn't have an ETA. So we decided to chance it, and took the next train heading out - not knowing how long it would take us to get home but being as tired as we all were, we thought we better keep moving.

It turned out we got on one of the slower trains, so the normal hour long ride took 1 hr 45 minutes, BUT, the express train we were supposed to take, never arrived at Oxford and was eventually canceled! So I'm glad we took the slower train after all :)

Searching for Tolkien

After checking out the Hall, we decided to walk around town and see what libraries we might be able to check out. What we didn't realize was how hard it would be to see any of them!! :(

Most we came across were closed to visitors - when we finally got to the famous Bodleian library, Jon was worried the boys would be too loud and rambunctious for us to go inside so we decided to skip it.

We headed to the covered market instead since everyone was slowly starting to unravel and get pretty grouchy - it was a super hot and muggy day which made the aimlessly walking around town much less enjoyable. I thought the covered market would offer some relief from the sun and let the boys window shop for a bit. We also sat down in a cafe for some milkshakes/sodas to cool off.

While cooling off a bit, I convinced Jon we should head back to the Bodleian library, since it supposedly had some interesting Tolkien related stuff in there.

When we got there, the ticket booth was closed - ugh!! And wouldn't open back up for another 20 minutes. So we hung out waiting the 20 minutes - then when the gal finally showed up, she told us all guided tours were sold out and if we were interested in Tolkien we should go across the street to the Treasury, to check out his stuff. So we said ok sure.

We walked out looking for a building or signs marked "Treasury" and found nothing. We walked up and down the blocks staring at our map, staring at maps posted along the street, and finally talking to a local walking by. Nothing indicated a "Treasury" to check out.

The local told us to try another library that might have some interesting things to check out (but she had no clue what the Treasury was). So we headed there - the guards told us they'd be closing in 10 minutes - no problem we're just here to check out some Tolkien artifacts - we walk inside (the WESTON LIBRARY) and guess what sign we see INSIDE THE WESTON LIBRARY?

"Treasury"

*sigh*

So we go great! We finally found this infamous Treasury!

We head inside and there is a total of ONE Tolkien artifact on display. Jon was super disappointed but thought oh well, I'll at least take a picture so people will know I was here.

And that's when we saw the single sign, next to the Tolkien piece only, saying no photography (photography was allowed for all other treasures!!).

Man. What a humongous let down!!

After that we were pretty much done. So we decided to head out a bit early to find the pub we were meeting Emily and her family at, for dinner. On the walk there, I noticed the boys were chatting away and holding hands the entire time. It was the cutest damn thing ever so I had to snap a number of pics to capture it. :)

The Bear Inn

After we were done with touring Christ Church, we headed to a nearby pub that Emily recommended, called The Bear Inn. It was this super old tavern (one of the oldest pubs in Oxford, dating back to the 1200's) with ceilings so low I had to crouch when I walked under the doorways!

After we ate, we headed back to Christ Church again, to check out the main Hall, which has led to famous literary inspirations for folks like Lewis Carroll or the filmmakers of Harry Potter. :)

(I didn't take any pics of the Hall with my phone, darn it)

Christ Church

We had taken a trip to Oxford to see my cousin Emily (and meet her husband and son!) who live out there. But, she was having trouble with Tommy's nap schedule and therefore delayed in meeting us, so we were on our own when we first arrived.

We got tickets to another sightseeing hop on/off bus and took it into town. But after a few stops, we got off, since I really wanted to check out Christ Church.

Before we headed to Christ Church however, we had to see what Alice's Shop was all about! :) We oooh'd and aaaah'd over all the cute little trinkets and then finally headed across the street to Christ Church.

When we got there, they told us the main Hall was closed for the students' lunch (dang it!) but we could still buy tickets and check out the rest of the college and then return at 2:15pm when they'd have the Hall open again. So, that's what we did.

It was so neat to explore the campus but we spent the most time in the Cathedral. Luckily for us, (and very smart of them!), they had a kid's activity sheet for the boys to do - where they'd walk through the entire cathedral looking for pieces of sculpture or artwork to find answers to questions with hidden clues, on their sheet. This was so nice since it meant Jon and I could actually enjoy some of the cathedral on our own, and the boys were relatively quiet and focused at their "game". :)

Paddington Station

This morning we headed over to Paddington Station, to catch our train out to Oxford!

Callum woke up ridiculously early (about 4:30am) and never really fell back to sleep. So I was completely exhausted since I was half awake with him. Logan woke up around 7am (I think?) and asked to join us in bed because we looked so comfy and proceeded to pass out (so I think moved Callum and I downstairs so we wouldn't wake Logan and Jon). Phew!!

Still, we made it to our train just fine and boarded an extremely crowded car, where we had to split up just to grab seats (and anyone after us was standing only!). I thought oh man this is going to be one very long hour ride, but thankfully a lot of people got off at the first stop, so we were able to grab 4 seats together and enjoy the rest of the ride as a family. :)

Around town

After Hamleys we all needed to just sit down, take a load off, and get something to eat. I found a great little Italian spot in nearby SoHo, so we headed there.

It was 6pm. The next available table was at 8pm. Ummmm no thanks.

So we walked around the corner (literally) to another Italian joint, and sat down immediately. 👍🏼

We had a yummy dinner, delicious dessert and lots of laughs. We grabbed the Tube home (the boys are becoming old pros!) and were walking through our neighborhood (see second pic), a little after 8pm. Boom! 🙌🏼

It was nice to get back to the flat a little earlier than previous nights. The boys both showered and enjoyed their new toys for a bit before it was time for bed. 😊