Well here’s a new wrinkle, Yours Truly came up with a lovely park-up in a charming village named Abingdon-on-Thames.
Yes I know, even a blind squirrel comes up with a nut now and then. Saxons, uninvited, are said to have “settled” here around 676 and the village gathered around a Benedictine Abbey, bits of which are still in evidence.
Now we find large fields, often filled with white clad cricket players abutting the parkup.
It was an easy walk into town by crossing the picturesque stone bridge over the Thames, actually three bridges connecting Andersen Island with the mainland. We found wandering around this pleasant town very enjoyable, and we discovered we could catch a bus to Oxford, only an hour away. Yes, Abingdon will do nicely as a home base.
The next morning we took the bus to Oxford. Our first stop was a cafe under the Tower of Dreams.
There’ll be no golden Buddha at the top, but then again it’s only 99 steps. Still, I do so enjoy a fine view. and this was a very fine view.
We ambled through this quirky charming town to meet Martin, our young walking tour guide and current Oxford student.
We walked toward the scattered collection of medieval college buildings under the Oxford University banner.
Martin regaled us with wacky traditions still practiced, some recently by Martin and friends. Even though Oxford was founded in 1096 some traditions survive to this day. One such is the Mallard Song which is to be sung once per century by the reigning Lord Mallard of the All Souls College.
Their entrance exam is famously based on writing a lengthy essay on one word. Not to worry, they stopped admitting undergraduates in the nineteenth century and the Mallard Song was last sung in 2001, so you know, you do the math.
There is a special buzz in the air as we noticed a certain amount of graduation going on at a few of the colleges.
At 9:05 pm, plus 2 seconds the bell is rung 101 times in honor of the first group of students at Oxford University. Towns throughout England kept their own time more or less similar to the next town but with the advent of railroads everyone, everywhere found it wise to get in sync with everyone else. Oxford Time however, prevails in Oxford.
Friction between Townies and the perceived privileged elites of Oxford boiled over into the streets early in its history, when two students, up against their curfew, ran from a pub just making it to their building where the Lincoln College student was allowed to enter but the Brasenose student was denied entrance. In a sobering story, the Townies found him and beat him to death. Once a year, on Ascension Day, a connecting door between the two colleges is briefly unlocked for a few minutes and Lincoln College serves refreshments as an apology for past actions. “Ivy beer” and a scone doesn’t much signify to me.
By this point we couldn’t deny that our dogs were barking and we still had a long way to go. We charted a course back to the Tower of Dreams and the bus stop.
