Oxford - mega shopping city

Hi all,

We are in our B&B in Oxford. Our hosts too friendly for words. They went out to a barn dance and gave us the run of their house.

Anyway, here is the news (as it were). The trouble is, if you don't write frequently, things are forgotten!!

Observation The most agressive drivers are usually in Audis, then BMW's, Mercedes have a high representation in car ownership, flashy sporty ones at that but they seem to just do their own thing.

We took a drive to Land's End. First stop was St. Just, as usual we couldn't get to the waterfront because of vehicular restrictions (locals only) so made do with
a brief view of a steep descent to a walled bay fringed with row houses and moved on. Stopped briefly to look at ruins of 'Carn Galver Mine engine house' (www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk › Culture › Mining › Penwith) then moved on to Pendeen Watch, a lighthouse on the rugged coast, leading down to it, a golf course which reminde me of those cartoonish golf courses where men risk their lives to play the most dangerous holes.

Land's End is stunning even though the rugged rocks have been fenced off by a fun park. On our way home we visited Penzance and stuck as close to the coast as possible but it wasn't easy to get to the foreshore. Narrow, winding, steep lanes (not roads)gave me the heebies especially with the fear of oncoming traffic but the views always spectacular.

On our departure the next day our first wrong turn brought us to a school where there were cars splayed everywhere. It was mothers' and grandparents' dropping off time and they clogged up the road, abandoned cars, tried to reverse and demonstrated to their children what not to do in the way of road safety. After this nerve racking start to the day we took off for Bath and managed to arrive there much earlier than expected after a rest break in Burnham-on-Sea on the Bristol Channel and a long walk to find facilities. We did so much walking I thought my feet would fall off and yes in case you were wondering it was cold, windy and mostly wet. We were meant to stay with a member of our homestay group but the lady had got her dates mixed up and it was all to diffucult so we found a B&B for the night, very nice too and we have come to enjoy the privacy of being on our own. For our second night we booked into the Travelodge and were able to park the car there (yes, for a cost) all day and we took off for town. We took in the ancient Roman Baths then met another friend of Howard's from his Bradford Uni days, Alex Melbourne, and had lunch at the very nice Royal Hotel opposite the railway station. He and Howard exchanged insults for the duration and a good time was had by all. Later Howard and I took a walk along the Avon Kennett Canal which was lined with barges both sparlking and derelict (or so they seemed). Sore toes for me again. Bought time from the Motel's internet service but the connection kept dropping out, same as in St. Austell, very annoying and discouraging so no updates though I might go back and lable some of the photos I managed to upload.

And so to tonight, we did get lost again on the way to Oxford, in Cirencester where we stopped for a break. These ancient towns are so hard to navigate through and signage is, well, good if you are a local. We found our B&B in Oxford without fuss so that was a bonus. Took a drive into town - risked being fined for using a car but found a legal car park, walked around and gawped at the great buildings and also found that the main shopping centre was like all other towns, and a shopper's paradise with spring fashions decorating all the displays. Next report will be from Stratford-on-Avon with some more photos.

It isn't raining at the moment though we were threatened with severe weather coming up from Portugal, wish us luck then!