To Drury Lane by Underground

Queens Way underground station.

Not quite as cold today. The snow has almost disappeared but there is still a little bit of ice, mostly in the gutters or against parked car wheels, occasionally on the footpath. We studied the underground map and decided we needed to get on at Queens Way, which is just around the corner, and get off at Holborn. We were making our way to the West End, specifically Drury Lane, for a matinee performance of War Horse, at New London Theatre. We had paid for our tickets on the internet in mid-November, it was a Christmas present from my dear sister, Heather.

Interesting detailing on the Freemason's Grand Lodge in the West End.

Front entrance of the Grand Lodge.

 It is a magnificent show. The animals in it were all puppets as were some of the soldiers. There were small birds, crows, a goose who behaved like a watch dog and the horses. The horses were life-sized and very life like. They quivered and whinnied, reared and nuzzled. Their ears twitched and rotated as a live horses do to catch a sound. The puppets were produced and worked by the Handspring Puppet Company and they were brilliant.

The story is about a boy whose horse is sold to the military to become a cavalry horse in the first world war. The staging of this show is brilliant, music helps to tell the story of how Albert runs off to join the fighting, even though he is only 16 and not the required enlisting age of 19, to track his horse, Joey, down and bring him home.  Joey goes through some hard times and changing fortunes before an injured Albert is reunited with Joey, as the horse is to be destroyed after being caught up in barbed wire at the front. Our seats were in the back row of the dress circle and we had the best view of the whole stage. You can see some snippets from the show on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4

New London Theatre in Drury Lane.

We had a bit of a wander around the West End before the show. We found a Marks and Spence store and went in to check it out, decided to call back on our way home and buy some provisions for our Christmas dinner, now we’re all set for the big day. We were going to try and book in somewhere nice, unfortunately public transport doesn’t run and taxis are apparently hard to find too. Seeing as how we have an oven and hob as well as a microwave, we decided to do our own!!

Christmas decorations in the West End.

Almost home, street decorations in Queens Way.

Curb-side warnings, telling pedestrians to take care!! people mostly ignore them and just walk when and where ever they please, it doesn't even seem to matter whether the lights are red or green!!!

ARRIVING IN LONDON

Paddington Station is huge, under a big, high rooved shelter, maybe Victorian architecture, it was freezing! We followed the signs to the taxi rank and fell into a London cab, strange, roomy creatures that take passenger and luggage all in together! The cabbie was great, dropped us at number 55 Inverness Terrace to pick up the keys to our apartment. Then a short walk along the street found us at our ‘home’ for the next eight days.

The inside of Paddington station is cavenous,and cold, with not a bear in sight!

The end windows are adorned with ironwork.

We picked up our keys at no. 55

An early night was called for!

We were both pretty tired by the time we arrived, we were also hungry. So after sussing out our apartment, seeing what switches turned on what and getting a feel for the place, we decided on a walk down to the shops to see what was there. We found a small TESCO store and a bit further down the road we came across a local nondescript pub, The Prince Albert, the food however, was good. Michael had fish and chips and I, at last got my lamb shanks, it was really, really good, served with sweet potato and orange, a stunning combination the gravy was also orange flavoured and rich in flavour. It almost seems that we are on a British Pub Crawl and maybe we are. The pub meals are so good and reasonably priced. We stopped at TESCO on the way home to pick up some supplies to see us through the next few days. It was around 8pm cold, and had been dark for about 2 or so hours. We were both having trouble keeping our eyes open so decided to hit the sack!

I slept like a log for about 4 and a half hours then was wide awake, so decided to get up and catch up on my blog pages. Went back to bed around 4am, after Skyping the folk back home. Slept through until the alarm went off at seven thirty.

The view from our second floor window.

The sun broke through and the sky was blue, at least for a couple of hours.

Hyde Park is just at the end of our street.

Neither of us were too fussed about getting going this morning, I think yesterday knocked us out a bit.  The sun actually broke out this arvo and most of the snow has gone from the footpaths but there is still plenty around. We eventually got moving and out the door around half past twelve, down the end of our street to Bayswater road wherein lies Hyde Park! We turned right and very soon came to a quaint corner pub called The Black Lion, in we went for lunch, today we both had pies with vegies and mash. Then off to do some more exploring, we needed to suss out the local bus and train routes, so after perusing the maps at the bus stop we headed for one of the nearby rail/underground stations. Queens Way and Bayswater are the closest. We picked up some rail and bus route pamphlets, of a size that we could read without a magnifying glass!   Good news, we also bought Michael a scarf, to ward off the freezing weather, I didn’t even have to bully him into it. Stopping off at the office at no. 55 on our way home we discovered that there is a laundry on the lower level of our building. It is actually outside in a room no bigger than a toilet, there is just enough room for a dryer on top of a washing machine and there is a kitchen chair in there, I’m not sure why because it doesn’t leave enough room to open the door to the front loading machine!!!

The Black Lion, one of our many local pubs, where we had lunch today.

Michael, about to tuck into the 4 pie special. Steak and kidney; Shepherd's pie; Beef and Ale and Chicken and mushroom with mash, gravy and mushy peas.

And for me, Lamb and mint pie with mash, gravy carrots and beans.

We actually got Michael a scarf, with his gloves and beanie he's as snug as a bug in London's icy weather!!

LEAVING OXFORD

It's snowing, how pretty!

Oh look it's piling up on the rooves!

We had watched the snow fall all morning, light at first, but occasionally a flurry of big, fast falling fluffy flakes. It was oh so pretty! Until, we watched it pile up on the rooves and garden furniture and trees around us. It still looked beautiful, but would it prevent us leaving for London tomorrow? By early afternoon the cars on the street were up to their hubcaps with the stuff and windscreens and roofs were completely covered with close to 30cm of snow. We had intended one more foray into Oxford City, Michael was raring to go, I was hesitant! The snow looked deep and cold, we might get wet shoes, what if the buses weren’t running, even if they were, they might stop and strand us in town and we would have to wade through ankle deep snow to get home!!  We may not be able to get out tomorrow!

And it's getting deeper pretty quickly, it's still beautiful.

Michael took a walk down to the Cowley Rd shops, I stayed indoors and ‘monitored the situation’, taking photos through the windows as the snow built up. What happens to the birds, I wondered, there’s no leaves to shelter them, don’t they freeze? Apparently not as there they were on bare branches or flying by.

This fellow is bigger than he looks.

We thought he looked like a robin in shape, but much bigger. H e moved some snow off the branch before settling down.

Michael got back with the news that the buses were still running and walking in the snow wasn’t that bad. I decided to stay indoors anyway and catch up with my blog and email and such! I also kept an eye on the train and coach sites. Many of these services to London were disrupted or cancelled because of the weather. It was so cosy in our room!! We polished off most of what was left in our little fridge for lunch and tea and took ourselves off to bed, hoping that the coaches and trains would be running by morning.

Looking over the fence into the yard next door, the garden furniture was covered in snow. You can see how deep it is.

By morning the snow was still deep but it hadn’t snowed overnight. The neighbours were outside digging their cars out of the snow, kids playing in the shin deep snow. Life goes on and so must we! We ate a hearty full English breakfast to tide us over and took ourselves and our luggage down stairs, Michael went off to phone a taxi, cars and buses were running and so were the trains and some coaches. Not apparently so for the taxis, one lot said no straight out the other said maybe this afternoon. We would just have to catch a bus! Well it seemed a good idea at the time!

The neighbours digging their car out from under the snow...

and clearing the driveway so they can get out.

These heavy tapestry-like woven drapes grace St Stephen's dining room windows, I'm going to miss them and the view they frame.

Michael had just polished off bacon, tomato, a sausage, an egg and toast, the full English Breakfast. Our last meal at St Stephen's, it was to stand us in good stead for the day that followed.

view from the front step of St Stephen's House to Cowley Road.

 We left St Stephen’s house for the last time, going warily down the front steps which had become treacherous with ice on the top couple of steps. We manoeuvred ourselves and our luggage safely down and onto the snow below, deciding it would be less cumbersome to drag our cases on the road in the snow compacted by cars. It was. We struggled along to Cowley Road and along to the bus stop, a walk of about 100m in all. It was hard going, I can tell you, there is nothing beautiful about snow once it has been trodden on and driven over and mushed up by foot and wheels of all sizes. The pristine white beauty turns into shades of white through grey to almost black on the main roads, it is really repulsive!

No longer pristine, this is what snow looks like at the side of the road. From the left, the brownish snow has taken foot traffic, the whitest snow is the curb, the blackish slush is the road!!! Not so pretty now, and hell to drag suitcases on!!!!

We waited with some locals at the bus stop while bus after bus passed us by, about eight in all, each displaying the Not In Service sign. The people around us all opted to walk into Oxford; we waited ‘til one more Not In Service bus passed us by, what to do? Go back to our digs and see if we could stay another night or drag our luggage into town? We decided to go forward. As we struggled, and I do mean struggled, it was really hard work. Where the snow was compacted enough to give us a ‘smooth’ run with the luggage the ground was more slippery. Where the snow was not compacted it slowed our progress by banking up against the cases making them really heavy to drag despite the wheels! We were almost at Magdalen Bridge and had passed the last bus stop on Cowley Road about 30 or 40 metres back, when a bus, with passengers, sailed past. Bugger! Within the next five minutes as many as 5 In Service buses cruised on by! Bugger, bugger, bugger!! We struggled on determined not to go back, with our luck, we decided, if we went back the buses would stop! It was about 600m to the next bus stop, over the bridge and along the High Street. That was the longest 6oom we had ever walked, it was really hard work and frustrating as bus after bus passed by.    

At last we had reached a bus stop on the High Street and I whipped my camera out while waiting for the bus.

I looked up at the gargoyles I had photographed a few days ago, even they looked miserable draped as they were in centimetres of snow, I was too pre-occupied with the walk to get my camera out!! We only had a short wait for a bus, I asked the driver if he was going to the station, “Aye, lass, when the next driver turns up.” He said as he gathered his belongings and prepared to leave. The next driver must have been held up, so this one turned off the motor and went to “dig him out’ we were left stranded for 5 or 10 minutes until the next driver came scuttling along and onto the bus. Again we asked did the bus stop at the station. Affirmative!  We were on our way. The bus stopped across the road from the station and we expected it to pull around into the bus bay at the station as our bus did the other day.  Not so with this bus it drove right on by, carrying us away from our destination, Bugger! We got off at the next stop and noted the hotels and YHA on the way back to the station, just in case we needed accommodation for the night!

We got tickets to London for the next train, leaving in 20 minutes! Hallelujah!!! It was 1.30pm and cold, we didn’t have time for lunch and were glad we’d eaten such a good breakfast. The trip in was uneventful, the scenery amazing everything looked so white! And from the train it looked pristine, we couldn’t see the slush caused by traffic in the snow!!

Out and About in Oxford, Off The High Street What Treasures Await Us!!

We wandered down a little side street called Magpie Lane across a road and into Merton College Grounds which is alongside Corpus Christi College and a little further, the grounds to Christ Church College and Cathedral. Really impressive buildings. There are fields with cattle grazing that border the playing fields of Merton and face the front of Christ Church, all just a hop step and a jump from the High Street shops and traffic!!! We followed the path called Broad Walk between the Merton playing fields and the Christ Church Meadow where the cows grazed on frozen grass to a little waterway called Cherwell River. I was photographing the river and trees when Michael spotted a squirrel running up a tree opposite, luckily I was able to get a couple of shots before it disappeared. We turned up Deadmans Walk and then Rose Lane, both border the Botanic Gardens, and we made our way back to High Street and across the Magdalen Bridge and along Iffley Road and finally home to a snow spattered  Marston Street. So glad to be home, my legs were frozen and my hips were starting to lock up, tired, and unused to such penetrating cold!!!

The pathway between Merton College and Corpus Christi college.

Merton College

Detail of building, Corpus Christi College.

Playing fields, Merton College

Gate to Christ Church Picture Gallery.

Christ Church College.

Tyre tracks in the snow, The Broad Walk, towards Christ Church College.

Christ Church College.

Building detail Christ Church College.

Frozen puddle, The Broad Walk.

Cattle graze the frozen grass in Christ Church Meadow, opposite Christ Church College Buildings.

Michael spied this Squirrel who had just scampered up the tree.

A Leaf left an imprint in the snow when the breeze from a passing vehicle shifted it from it's resting place!

 

Through the fence to the Botanic Gardens.

And finally Back home to Marston Street, just a tad cold.

Out and About in Oxford, Yet Another Inspector Morse Pub!!

Goodness me it was lunch time and we headed for another Inspector Morse hangout in The Eagle and Child, or ‘’The Bird and Baby” as it is often called.  Now this is a very popular pub and we had just beaten the rush. I ordered lamb shanks but they were off the menu so Michael and I both had Open chicken and Portobello Pie and a pint of Aspall Suffolk Cider, very nice it was too. Once again our pub lunch was delicious.

Michael easily found his way to the "Bird and Baby" for yet another pub lunch!!

Looking down through to another part of the pub from our table.

Part of the menu.

I don't know why I haven't thought of this before, after all I snap everything else! Our scrumptious lunch.
Chicken and Portobello Mushroom

And a very nice cider it was too! Mild and fruity.



It was very cold when we left the pub, it was snowing and although it was not heavy it certainly did not melt on hitting the ground. As we headed back towards the High St where Michael wanted to buy some Oxford tee shirts, the snow was falling on and off and the ground had a light covering, then what do you know? The sun came out!!



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Snow on cafe chairs next to the pub

 The snow had stopped and the sky was clear blue for the most part as we made our way back towards The High. The air remained very crisp and quite cold.