Day 7: Maidenhead to Reading and Oxford: Grampies Go to Oxford (But Do Not Make the Grade)

May 26, 2012

Our stealth camp turned out to not be quite so stealthy. Shortly after we turned in, a steady stream of loud people, probably older teenagers, began passing on the nearby laneway. Others passed near our tent on the common. A group settled nearby and had a jolly old time shouting until late in the night. Finally, about 3 a.m. we were awakened by the bright light of a police flashlight on the tent. The officer said in a most polite way "Don`t worry, it`s just us the police. We`re looking for someone said to be nicking wire from the railway (nearby). "

Gee, thanks for letting us know! We fell back into a fitful sleep, too weak to get up and lock the bikes, but a bit rattled now.

In the morning as we packed up, we watched the rowdies sleeping by their campfire nearby. I suggested we sing loudly to help us with our work, but two wrongs do not make a right. We swooped silently back out onto the lane.

Now at last we had clear sailing (for a while) through farm fields and country lanes. It was glorious!

This old house along the way is second best. My shot of a really really old one was lost because I forgot to put in the chip!

This is not a bike path, it is a two way traffic road!

This hedge is ten feet tall. Just what we need for the deer back home.

Mega hoop houses. Shot for our hoop house professional friend, Rose.

Quite soon we came to the outskirts of Reading. So had we been interviewed by "As It Happens", the famous Canadian news show that for years placed its stories by distance from Reading, our distance would have been ZERO!

Here we encountered only our second or so gas station. This is natural, since we have been avoiding roads and as mentioned earlier "gas or service station" is now called "pub" insofar as having the services we need. This one, like many in the US and Canada had a minimart attached. But what a difference! Instead of poisonous packaged dreck, we found fresh fruits and veggies, good baking, and lattes! The Americans could do this if they tried. I'm afraid they are just too dumb for it. Meanwhile, we are revelling in the blueberries, raspberries, sandwiches with real ingredients (like real chicken), etc.

This convenience store at the BP station makes all such in North America look sick.

Today`s paper weighs at least 8 pounds - it`s bigger than the New York Times. Only costs 2 pounds.

The Daimons Jubilee is big news for the Brits

Gas station has advanced foods, like antipasto

The price of gas, for the record. Not sure yet what the volume units are. Imperial gallons does not make sense for that price.

It was not long into Reading, and on the way we rejoined the Thames, and all its fun.

We still think we have not been moving fast enough, so instead of our planned ride up to Oxford and back, we decided to hop a train in Reading. The cost was 8 pounds each, one way. We found a train leaving right away. It was easy. The only glitch was finding which car to put the bikes in. A conductor directed us after we had hoicked the fully loaded monsters onto a regular car. In the car with the bike storage, he insisted we had to hang them from a hook, in a narrow stall.

We didn't argue, but the train left before the man could see we were ignoring his instructions. We would have had to pull all our bags. Forget that. We just squeezed over, allowing a place to people to pass from car to car, and enjoyed the quite brief ride.

The space provided for bikes on the train is way too narrow for ours

Oxford is so bloody famous we could scarcely believe we were really there when we arrived. Being a university town (how's that for understatement!) it supports a greater bike culture.

Bikes are still at a disadvantage, though, because of narrow streets. We made our way out to where tourist information had indicated B&B's were clustered (Abingdon Road), as usual clinging to the yellow line at the edge of the road and as necessary bumping up onto the sidewalk. During one such bump up, Dodie's wheel slid, it seemed to me on a one inch curb. In fact it was a one inch hole in the one inch curb. Not usually a big deal (or any deal) of course, but this time things just strangely twisted the wrong way. So for the first time since href="http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=206511">last year, I watched in horror as my dear wife flew through the air out to her left, leaving the bike behind. This time the elbow and knee sustained the damage, and all the contents of the handlebar bag were thrown several feet in front. I "forgot" to take a photo right away, but this will give a bit of the idea:

We both knew Dodie would get "shockey" quite soon, plus the elbow needed cold water and cleaning. So we jumped into the first accommodation we could spot. The cost was 90 pounds (with taxes) for a small, basic, but clean room. We took two nights.

Our hotel - the Victoria Hotel in Oxford

After several recovery hours and the elbow not broken but swollen and painful, we sallied out for a look at Oxford. Generally, we saw fabulous buildings all through the inner town, belonging to the many colleges that make up the Oxford commuunity, pubs in old old buildings, excellent tea shops, tourist shops, many tourists, more modern and "normal" buildings outside the precinct of the university, and the familiar activities of the Thames: messing about in boats, swans, rowing, punting, sitting by the riverside.

What we have not seen so far is anything that looks like a student, lecture hall, textbook store, etc. Also, just to enter Magdalen College grounds, for example, they wanted 5 pounds each. Hmmpph.

Tomorrow we will take a bus tour that includes a 1 1/2 hour walking tour, and promises a little more entree. Still we, like the 20,000 other tourists, are not likely to see much of the inner life of the place.

Hey, the tour also promises to hit Inspector Morse's main venues. That could be much more fun than seeing an actual student!