Saturday was not the best day of our trip -- not even second. First, we sadly were leaving David and McKenzie. It was time for them to be off to the States for Kenz's sister, Whitney's wedding. And it was time for us to head off on our own to Oxford. The journey started well with David's favourite driver, Alex picking us up to take us to the Paddington train station. The traffic made us slightly late but not a problem. That is until we reached the station, dropped off and had no clue where to go...there are 14!!!!! platforms and they don't post yours until minutes before departure...we were hopelessly lost! We missed our appointed train. After reticketing for a slightly later train with another fare cost, we were finally off to Oxford on a standing room only train. We had planned to take a cab to the rental car office. Being a little late to pick up the car, Tom decided to call the office to check in with them. The message said that the office closed at 1 PM on Saturday. It was 12:40. There was no way to move our tons of luggage to the cab stand, wait in the queue, and get to National in 20 minutes. So, Tom walked in the rain the supposed 1 mile to the rental office. Made it with 5 minutes to spare and got in the sizeable line to rent the car. Turns out that they were just kidding on the message and the office is open until 4 PM. After about an hour, had the car and was carefully on the way to pick up Kathy who had been waiting patiently in the train station. We were aggravated, wet, and hungry. The traffic was terrible.....finally checked in about 4 pm
The shower might be a little smaller than the standard US issue.
We were less aggravated and drier but still hungry. Off to the Tandem Tavern, 2 minutes walk from our home for 3 nights.
The food was good and plentiful.
Especially the fish n chips with an ale.
Back to Pembroke House.
Our nice garden view from our room. What you can't see is the train track just beyond the trees. Every few minutes a train goes by and sounds like it is going through the room.
But the room is nice, the bed comfortable, and the breakfast good.
Later Saturday night we took the bus into town, walked around awhile, and found The Turf Tavern. We had a good meal and drinks. Regretfully, we lost all those pix, due to our computer problem...more on that later. The Turf Tavern was the favourite of the kind doctor who cared for me in London....he told us to be sure to go there!!!! We stayed the whole evening and we had lots of fun pictures of facts about various famous people who have been there, including our very own Bill Clinton who, as you know, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University......the chalkboard said something like: "It is alleged that Bill Clinton was smoking a certain substance while hanging out here during his days at Oxford...but he didn't inhale any of it!"
