From Tallinn, Estonia I decided to fly directly to England and the “cheapest“ airline was Ryan air which landed at an airport north of London. Cambridge is not too far from the airport and I wanted to stay away from London since I’ve been there twice, it’s very expensive and I wasn’t really interested in walking around right now in the city. The cheap airline started at US$27 and then when you pick the $27 flight schedule the price bumps up to $55. Then when you select the cheapest ticket which means you can carry on a 10 kg bag and something under the seat the price jumps up to $77. Then when you click to check out the price jumps up to $100. I have never seen that happen before and it’s something you need to be aware of because it’s not really a nice way to lure people into a flight. It’s called “bait and switch“ but when you switch three times that’s a little bit extreme.
so booking Cambridge for one night was a good decision since there was really not all that much I wanted to see. I rented a car at the airport and so I was free to do a much more vigorous schedule than having to wait on public transport.The Lithuanian lady who owned the guest house ( A & B guest house, about $80 a night) explained Oxford is the masculine city and Cambridge is the feminine city of the two. So it seems Oxford is a little bit more crowded and bustling and Cambridge is a little more calm and sedate. Anyway that’s what she told me. So I spent one day in each of the cities just looking around, noticing a lot more modern buildings than I was expecting but the last time I had been in England outside of London was in 1971, 55 years ago so …….
What would England be without the iconic telephone boothActually this is what I left in Estonia the morning I left. It was -9°C and snowingThe Hawaiians are taking over the world with all their poke bowl shops. Actually what they sell is not Hawaiian poke, it is this shopkeepers idea of poke which turns out to be anything on top of a bowl of rice instead of the Hawaiian style of some raw fish with a little bit extra on rice.Our lady churchLike most cathedrals it’s a beautiful approach to the altar Someone was practicing on the organ
They still had the cresh scene on display. It was pretty intricateThe front of the church The polar research Institute named for the famous explorer Scott This is probably a very appropriate name for this road. I bet there’s a tennis court somewhere around hereThis is a very quintessential England shop area If you down the street I just really like the name of the school and the building itselfAnd I like this building also Corpus Christi College Chapel. And you know the English translation means the body of ChristSaint Catherine’s College This is also quintessential but I love the names of the shops kind of like something out of a Harry Potter novel. I wonder, is Samuel smiling?Saint Catherine’s College from another point of view My first fish and chips since getting off the airplane. The fish was good, the fries were filling and nice, and I hate peas but that seems to be something that is served for so many meals in England which is maybe the reason I have not been here so often. An evening view of the city Nice colors We have a saying in Japan, “even monkeys can fall from tree trees“. In this instance it just means that even a practiced Photographer can sometimes make a mistake and take a photo of his hand
Oxford
This is the nice college city with the little canals going through it. But it was much too cold of course to be on a paddle boat This is a nice building which obviously has been remodeled since many of the windows have been blocked up but still nice architecture The larger canal where you can rent all sorts of boats and floating devices I think this is a hotel and a restaurant but I didn’t go inside. I just like the building and since it’s on the river it might be a nice place to stay A view down the street Tom tower, christ Church University of Oxford. Only certain people can get in like student students, professors and administration
Saint Martin’s Church Tower This was my hotel outside Oxford in the countryside, The Upton country park guest house, golf course and resort. Needless to say it was too cold and rainy to play golf.
