Orienteering in Oxford
 

My beloved father got a Scholarship to Exeter College in 1921.
(80 quid a term went quite a long way in those days).
He referred to his years there as the best of his life.

In Decenber 1967, I had done well enough in the entrance exam
to be offered an interwiew.
Having worked out the (post Beeching) train journey thereto, I casually
asked him how I should get to Exeter from the station.

Remembering that I had never been near the place in my life,
he immediately grabbed pen and paper.
Starting at the bottom of the page he placed the station.
Queen St led to Carfax. The High straight ahead, the Corn left.
Market Street , Ship Street and Exeter is there on the Turl.

I relied on this map to get there. Went via Ship Street and spied the
spire of Exeter College Chapel.

Ever since, I have thought East was North etc. (the station being
to the west, not south).

David

Fit a compass to your remote?

[QUOTE=davieddy;269331]My beloved father got a Scholarship to Exeter College in 1921.
(80 quid a term went quite a long way in those days).
He referred to his years there as the best of his life.

In Decenber 1967, I had done well enough in the entrance exam
to be offered an interwiew.
Having worked out the (post Beeching) train journey thereto, I casually
asked him how I should get to Exeter from the station.

Remembering that I had never been near the place in my life,
he immediately grabbed pen and paper.
Starting at the bottom of the page he placed the station.
Queen St led to Carfax. The High straight ahead, the Corn left.
Market Street , Ship Street and Exeter is there on the Turl.

I relied on this map to get there. Went via Ship Street and spied the
spire of Exeter College Chapel.

Ever since, I have thought East was North etc. (the station being
to the west, not south).

David[/QUOTE]Almost all but the locals, and a good number of them, don't understand why North Parade lies to the south of South Parade.

(David: don't spoil it for the uninitiated by revealing the answer. Let them find out for themselves)

In a future posting I may describe the history and, especially, the sociological curiosity of St Giles cathedral in Oxford.


Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;269349]
(David: don't spoil it for the uninitiated by revealing the answer. Let them find out for themselves)
Paul[/QUOTE]

Aha.
That's why I got confused while punting in North Oxford.

David

Somewhat off-topic, but still in the right country- I will have one day off to be a tourist in London next month. For those of you who live there, or have been there often, how should I use that day? What's the one thing I shouldn't miss on a trip to London? I enjoy science, history, math, and am always up for a good museum. What are the must-see things or places for folk like me (us?).

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269357]Somewhat off-topic, but still in the right country- I will have one day off to be a tourist in London next month. For those of you who live there, or have been there often, how should I use that day? What's the one thing I shouldn't miss on a trip to London? I enjoy science, history, math, and am always up for a good museum. What are the must-see things or places for folk like me (us?).

Norm[/QUOTE]

William may beg to differ, but I would suggest "The Flask" in Hanpstead.

David

[QUOTE=davieddy;269360]William may beg to differ, but I would suggest "The Flask" in Hanpstead.

David[/QUOTE]

Thanks; just googled that-sounds quite nice. Added to my list...

How about the touristy places- Westminister Abbey? Worth the trip, or too touristy? Any particular museums that are especially interesting?

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269364]Thanks; just googled that-sounds quite nice. Added to my list...

How about the touristy places- Westminister Abbey? Worth the trip, or too touristy? Any particular museums that are especially interesting?

Norm[/QUOTE]


Just don't tell them you are a terrorist.
Things a bit touchy here right now.

David

PS Don't touch that Beach Volleyball.

[QUOTE=davieddy;269360]William may beg to differ, but I would suggest "The Flask" in Hampstead.[/QUOTE]

For 2010 I lived in Hampstead, and David and I toured the local pubs, including The Flask. But with only one day, you don't want to go to Hampstead. If for some reason you do go to Hampstead, both the Holly Bush and the Spaniard's Inn have better atmosphere and better food.

London has many great museums - but with one day you need to pick. The leading choices, in my opinion, are the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert, Tate Modern, and Tate Britain, the British Museum, and the Wallace Collection. I visited all of these multiple times in our year. If you have a particular passion, go with it. For me, the one "must not miss" thing would be the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. The Elgin Marbles are the sculptures from the top of the Acropolis, wonderfully displayed and worthy of 90 minutes all by themselves.

Do the London Eye around sunset.

Take in a show - I liked the National Theater and the Old Vic best, but there is always lots of good theater.

See if you can work in a ride on a double decker bus. I don't know how long it takes for sitting on the top front to get tired, but I can vouch that it takes more than a year. We had the advantage of Hampstead being the end of line for two such lines, so we often did that going home at the end of a day in London.

Plan on just walking around. Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square to Picadilly Circus is short and easy - Covent Gardens and the South Bank if you are near either.

I'd do Saint Pauls instead of Westminster Abbey, but they each have their attractions and you don't have time for both.

I'd skip the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Jewels. I did those on previous short trips to London, and did not repeat them in our year. But they are classic, typical tourist things to do, so maybe you want to be able to check them off your list.

\/r it
 

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269357]Somewhat off-topic, but still in the right country- I will have one day off to be a tourist in London next month. For those of you who live there, or have been there often, how should I use that day? What's the one thing I shouldn't miss on a trip to London? I enjoy science, history, math, and am always up for a good museum. What are the must-see things or places for folk like me (us?).

Norm[/QUOTE]

make available to "farmers Basilicata" ( factor of power ) for milking the basil ?

wb : [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpZhfmxYWOE&feature=fvwrel"]M_fn(u)it[/URL]

If its Tuesday, this must be Belgium
 

[QUOTE=wblipp;269394]Take in a show - I liked the National Theater and the Old Vic best, but there is always lots of good theater.
I'd skip the Royal Jewels. [/QUOTE]

And don't decide to fit a quick trip to Liverpool into your schedule.
Trust me!

David

PS I'd recommend Kew rather than Covent Gardens(sic).
(Sorry William:smile:)

The Italian Job
 

[QUOTE=cmd;269401]make available to "farmers Basilicata" ( factor of power ) for milking the basil ?

wb : [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpZhfmxYWOE&feature=fvwrel"]M_fn(u)it[/URL][/QUOTE]
I only asked you to blow the bloody doors off.

Michael Caine

[QUOTE=wblipp;269394]London has many great museums - ....[/QUOTE]

Excellent- Your entire post is precisely the "voice-of-experience" information I was hoping for. I had forgotten that the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles were there. British Museum is now a high priority.

Thanks very much-

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269364]How about the touristy places- Westminister Abbey? Worth the trip, or too touristy?[/QUOTE]

Depending on whether you enjoy visits to memorials and graves of famous folks:

As someone else who enjoys science, history and math, I found it quite moving to see Scientists' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Graves of Isaac Newton (with a large elaborate floorstone), Charles Darwin and John Herschel are next to[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=2] memorial stones[/SIZE][/FONT] for [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=2]William Herschel, James Maxwell and Michael Faraday.

Poets' Corner ([URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poets%27_Corner"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poets%27_Corner[/URL]) and other sections have graves and memorials of other famous historical persons.

There's an elaborate memorial to [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=2]Isaac Newton[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=2] ([URL]http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/images/london/westminster-abbey/isaac-newton-tomb-paradox.jpg[/URL]) in a different room than his grave with its floorstone.

---

BTW, Westminster Abbey is not the same place as Westminster Cathedral! Don't go to the cathedral thinking it's the abbey.

- - - -

However, I did not go to the British Museum (long story), so cannot compare what my impression would have been there.
[/SIZE][/FONT]

[QUOTE=cheesehead;269465]---

BTW, Westminster Abbey is not the same place as Westminster Cathedral! Don't go to the cathedral thinking it's the abbey.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks Cheesehead- good to know; I indeed might have gone to the cathedral, assuming it was the same as the abbey. Newton, Faraday, Herschel, Darwin, Maxwell- talk about big names. Plus the British Museum... I'm starting to think I need to somehow carve out another day. Way too much to see and do, and don't know when I might get another chance.

Norm

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269518]Thanks Cheesehead- good to know; I indeed might have gone to the cathedral, assuming it was the same as the abbey. Newton, Faraday, Herschel, Darwin, Maxwell- talk about big names. Plus the British Museum... I'm starting to think I need to somehow carve out another day. Way too much to see and do, and don't know when I might get another chance.[/QUOTE]Think about how much you've enjoyed visiting tombs, graves and memorials versus how much you've enjoyed museums! The stones at Westminster Abbey have only a few bits of information about each person. I'd bet the British Museum has far more information about Newton, Faraday, Herschel, Darwin and Maxwell than the abbey's stones do.

I wouldn't have gone to the abbey if there hadn't been much more there than only the Scientists' and Poets' Corners (I happened to be particularly interested in "comparing" Westminster Abbey to Salisbury Cathedral), or if my wife hadn't been interested. Read up on it, and all the others that wblipp mentioned. See how much is described about each attraction that especially appeals to you.

- - -

Oh -- and about places' names. London didn't arise as some carefully-planned community, and there's no commission specializing in preventing similar or identical names from confusing tourists. Even the famous London cabbies, who have to memorize thousands of details in order to get licensed, can get mixed up. Once, when we specified the name of the hotel where we were staying, a cabbie took us to an identically-named hotel that was a ways away from ours -- as soon as he saw our confusion, he said, "Oh, you mean the [I]new[/I] Such-and-such Hotel, not the old one." (And he shut off the meter while going from the "old" one to the "new" one.)

[QUOTE=cheesehead;269564]London didn't arise as some carefully-planned community[/QUOTE]That;'s arguable, though even if true it makes no practical difference.

As far as is known, which is actually very little, the Romans carefully selected the site of Londinium because it was the lowest point on the Thames that could be crossed easily with the technology of the day. A carefully planned community was built there, that community being a military installation.

It just growed for the next 1968 years, which is why the original planning makes no practical difference today


Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;269593]
It just growed for the next 1968 years, which is why the original planning makes no practical difference today[/QUOTE]That's what I really had in mind, so "arise" should have been "grow" or "develop".

Like Topsy - it just grew!
 

[QUOTE=xilman;269593]That;'s arguable, though even if true it makes no practical difference.

As far as is known, which is actually very little, the Romans carefully selected the site of Londinium because it was the lowest point on the Thames that could be crossed easily with the technology of the day. A carefully planned community was built there, that community being a military installation.

It just growed for the next 1968 years, which is why the original planning makes no practical difference today


Paul[/QUOTE]

Not quite the same as New York, Milton Keynes or even Paris.

Ever been to Bath?

I have one every other Christmas, whether I need it or not:smile:

David

A Foggy Day
 

[QUOTE=Spherical Cow;269357]Somewhat off-topic, but still in the right country- I will have one day off to be a tourist in London next month. For those of you who live there, or have been there often, how should I use that day? What's the one thing I shouldn't miss on a trip to London? I enjoy science, history, math, and am always up for a good museum. What are the must-see things or places for folk like me (us?).

Norm[/QUOTE]

Sorry Norm, missed a trick there

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbgyZzJ7Oig]Pity about that "Clean Air Act"[/url]

David

[QUOTE=davieddy;269651]Not quite the same as New York, Milton Keynes or even Paris.

Ever been to Bath?

I have one every other Christmas, whether I need it or not:smile:

David[/QUOTE]

Only to Warm Springs, VA....where I get a bath twice a year, whether I need it or not!

(Berkely Springs, WVA is also on my recommended list, if you need a good, hot bath...)