After a train ride from Stanstead Airport we arrived in the University town of Oxford, and checked into our hotel: The Old Bank. As the name suggests the hotel is built into one of the city’s banks and it’s one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in.
After the hustle and bustle and confusion in Ireland, it was wonderful to relax and listen to some fine jazz in the hotel’s restaruant Gee’s and enjoy a romantic after-dinner drink in the Library Bar. We slept soundly in the featherbed and awoke refreshed to spend a very little time in Oxford proper. If I could have spent more time in any city on this trip it would have been Oxford our train to the Peak District left at 1:45 so we really only had a few hours to admire (and photograph) Oxford’s architecture. Stepping just outside our hotel’s glass doors, St. Mary’s church is just across the street. The kahki stone and spiral columns drew our eyes upward. Oxford proper lay beyond. With hardly an inch of skyline left without a peak or spire or tower, Oxford is breathtaking. The crested buildings and student flitting about in robes and ties and mortarboards certainly suggests some temple of learning lost in time. It’s a bit jarring to continue on towards the train station to the more commercial end of town where Mark and Spencers rub elbows with Topshop and an outpost of the venerable London Clothier Ede and Ravenscroft. However, we did manage to find England’s loneliest Tiki Bar We stopped into Oxford’s covered market for lunch; selecting from among the stalls selling sweaters, traditional English meats, and ice cream. We ended up a Pieminister a small chain selling creative and award-winning versions of England’s traditional meat pies. We decided to try the Moo Pie, filled with a classic beef and ale stew; the Minty Lamb filled with lamb, peas, mint sauce, parsnips and gravy; and the Mr. Porky filled with delicious pork, bacon and onion. All three pies came atop a pile of “mash” with a ladlefull of onion gravy. Hearts. We carted our luggage back to the station and boarded the train that would take us to the large Manchester-Picadilly Station from there the teeny local Sheffield line brought us to Castleton. 0nna
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