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Day 2
Oxford

Thanks to Fodorites, I found out that I could save some money by buying my Oxford bus tickets through Megabus in advance. Megabus acts as a 3rd-party discount outlet for Oxford Tube (not Oxford espress), and tickets can be as low as £1 each way. But I waited until last minute (48hrs), so I paid £5 each way for a grand total of £10.50 (50p booking fee). This is compared to the regular price of £16 same-day r/t ticket.

The downside of Megabus ticket is that you are stuck with taking the exact bus you booked and you lose the flexibility. Most of you probably don't think it's worth the savings, but it was fine with me.

I got up at 5:15am in order to catch the 7am Oxford Tube bus from Victoria. On its website, it wasn't clear to me where the bus stop is, so I arrived a bit early to find it (along Buckingham Palace Road between Victoria rail station and Victoria coach station). I was a bit nervous as I was the only person waiting, but eventually another woman came and confirmed I was at the right spot.

We chatted for quite some time on the bus. She is Romanian but moved to the UK 3 years ago. She used to live in Oxford but now she lives in London. Of course I took this advantage to get some travel tips for Romania (even though I had no immediate plans to visit).

The bus made numerous stops on the way, and went past Shepard's Bush where I saw the brand-new Westfield shopping mall which had just opened the day before. From the outside, it doesn't look that interesting from an architecture point of view.

As the bus got on to M40, there was some nice autumn foliage alongside the highway. We arrived in Oxford at 8:45am. Since nothing is open until 9, I stopped at Starbucks for some coffee.

At 9am sharp, I arrived at the entrance to Christ Church. Although the website says it opens at 9, it turns out that only the Cathedral is open at 9, while the Great Hall doesn't open until 10:30. The guards told me to return at 10:15.


Because of that, I had to completely rearrange my whole itinerary that day. As not much else is open at 9, I strolled along the Christ Church Meadow for a bit, then headed back towards High Street to visit St Mary's Church (which opens at 9).

I climbed the tower (£3) which has a magnificent view of Radcliffe Camera and All Souls College. The best thing is I was the only person on the tower to enjoy this view.

Afterwards, I went to Bodleian Library to book a guided tour for 11:30, and to the tourist office to book the walking tour for 1pm. Then I made my way back to Christ Church.

Christ Church was started by Cardinal Wolsey, on the site of the Priory of St Frideswide, who is the patron saint of Oxford. Unfortunately, Wolsey never finished the college as he fell out of favor of Henry VIII. Later, Henry VIII restarted the construction of the college.

After you enter the college (£4.90), there is a room on the right showing a 15-min video on the history of Christ Church college. Very informative.

The cathedral has plenty of stained glass windows by Burne-Jones (who studied at Oxford and was a close friend of William Morris).

Most people visit Christ Church because of Harry Potter fame, as the Great Hall was used as the dining hall at Hogwarts. On the far side of the wall hangs a portrait of Henry VIII, next to him, a profile portrait of Cardinal Wolsey.

To exit Christ Church, one walks past the Tom Quad with Tom Tower on the opposite side, designed by Wren.

I made my way to Bodleian Library for the 11:30 tour. Within the quad, just in front of the entrance, is a statue of 3rd Earl of Pembroke. The building has an interesting facade.

The Library tour (£6) is a must-see for any visitor, IMO. First, we wait inside the Divinity School, which is a magnificent hall of Medieval architecture. It was originally built as the examination hall for students. There is a Drake chair - made from timber from the Golden Hind. [The Divinity School was also featured in a few of the Harry Potter movies.]

From the Divinity School, we entered into the Convocation House which is now used for university meetings. During the civil war, this was where Charles I held his royalist parliament. (Oxford was a royalist stronghold and Charles I stayed at Christ Church.)

Then we headed upstairs to Duke Humfrey's Library. Duke Humfrey was brother of Henry V, and he had a magnificent collection of manuscripts. This library was built to house those. It is absolutely beautiful, and one would not be able to visit it without the guided tour.

At the end of the tour, our knowledgable guide mentioned the list of movies and TV shows that were filmed at the Bodleian Library, including Inspector Lewis series. In fact, he mentioned, they are filming Inspector Lewis today at the Randolph Hotel.

My heart almost stopped when I heard this, as I am a fan of this new series (Series One just premiered on PBS this past summer). I must admit I am quite taken by Lewis' sidekick Hathaway, played by actor Laurence Fox. For those of you not familiar with him, you must know his more-famous wife, Billie Piper. Anyway, how great would it be if I can meet Laurence Fox in person???

As I exited the Bodleian Library, I walked as quickly as I could down Broad Street, turned right onto Magdalen St (and saw the Martyrs' memorial on the right), then turned left onto Beaumont street. The Randolph Hotel is right on the corner of Magdalen & Beaumont. I was expecting to see road blockades and lots of filming trucks etc. BUT...

NOTHING! Just a normal city street with normal traffic.

So here I was, standing in front of Randolph Hotel, contemplating my next move. Perhaps they're filming inside? Maybe I should head in and check.

For those of you who don't know, Randolph Hotel is a 5* hotel (or at least it claims to be). Dressed in a light purple down puffer jacket, blue jeans, and a pair of brownish-grey sneakers, I am hardly the type of clientele who would enter Randolph Hotel.

In the end, I drew a deep breath and opened the doors of the hotel. Inside I would describe as old world opulence decor. I looked around and didn't see any filming action going on. I was ready to give up and leave, then I decided to ask the 2 men at the concierge desk.

They were very friendly, and sadly informed me that Yes, the film crew was at the hotel the last few days, but they had checked out yesterday. As far as they knew, there's no more filming today. They continued on to tell me that they were extras in the most recent episode, so I thanked their info and promised I'd look for them when the series air in the US.

What a missed opportunity! If I could have just come here one day earlier...

With this detour, it was close to 1pm for the Oxford Walking Tour (£7), so I headed back to Broad street Tourist Office.

(If you are interested in taking the walking tour, I think it'll be prudent to buy your ticket as soon as you arrive in Oxford. The tours are limited in size - 19 people - so they do sell out. On the day I went, which was a Friday, the Tourist Office ended up adding a few more tours in the afternoon due to the high demand.)

Our tour guide is one excellent Dr. Charles Mould. With a bit of googling, I found out he is an Emeritus Fellow of St Cross College as well as a former Secretary of the Bodleian Library. You can see how impressive his knowledge is of Oxford.

We began our tour just a few yards from the tourist office, at the cross in the middle of Broad Street. This marks the spot where bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake back in the 1500s.

The 2hr+ tour covered a fair amount of ground though we mainly stood outside of buildings. The only college we went in was Jesus College (which isn't open to the public) where we saw the chapel and the hall. But most importantly in this tour, was the history and knowledge told by our guide.

By now, it was past 3pm and I was cold (it was very cold that day, and being outside walking for 2 hours didn't help) and starving. I ended up eating at Pret a Manger on Cornmarket Street. It is set inside a beautifully restored half-timbered building (I think from the 16th or 17th century?).

As I was starving, I ordered a lot at Pret a Manger: a miso soup, a chicken/rocket sandwich, a bag of crisps, and a lemon cheesecake. Total came out to £8.

After my late lunch, I walked over to Ashmolean Museum (free). It is currently under renovation, but some galleries are still open, including one room called the "Treasures Room" (aka greatest hits). The most important 200 objects of the musueum are displayed in this room.

Interestingly, the organization of these objects are thematic, rather than chronological. So in each display case, there are artifacts next to one another which can be 2000 years and 10,000 miles apart from their origins. I thought that was an interesting concept, but a bit disconcerting at times.

I still had some extra time before the museum closes at 5pm, so I walked through the rest of the museum.

When I emerged from Ashmolean at closing time, it was dark already. My bus back to Oxford isn't until 6:10pm, so this is the time for me to visit Magdalen College (whose website states it is open until 6pm). Of course, it was my oversight - it was open until 6pm OR dusk.

When I got there, yes, it's closed. So I slowly strolled back along High Street, did some window shopping, and made my way to Gloucester Green station for my bus back to London.

I am somewhat disappointed that I missed Magdalen College, but I don't know what I could have done differently to fit that in, given the short opening times of the Colleges and the short daylight hours. If I had gone a week sooner before the end of DST, I probably could have visited Magdalen College.

On the bus trip back, I had a nice (and much-needed) nap, so I was re-energized when we arrived back in London.

Because of construction work around Notting Hill, the bus stopped at Baker Street station where I got off. It's already 8pm by now, but I have one more stop for today.

I made my way by tube to Tate Modern which is open late on Friday (and Sat) nights until 10pm. I have been there several times before, but my main goal on this trip is to see the Rothko exhibition (£12.50).

Before I headed upstairs for the show, I stopped by quickly at the Turbine Hall to check out the current Unilever series by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. I'm not sure what to make of it, and I'm relieved to see that the reviewers felt the same way.

The star of the Rothko show is a reuniting of many of his Seagram murals. Rothko painted a total of 30 canvases for the Seagram Building commission (which he backed out of), and the Tate's 8 are shown together with 9 others from Japan and the US.

I spent another £3.50 for the audioguide due to a very persuasive museum staff. I was a bit skeptical, but at the end of the show, I was really glad I got it. It was one of these new interactive guides which a screen - plenty of information on it.

Let me just say this first, I LOVE the Seagram murals gallery at the Tate Modern. In fact, I can go one step further and say that it's my most favorite gallery in all of London. The lighting, the intimacy of that gallery is perfect for viewing his paintings.

Therefore I was a bit disappointed when I stepped into this exhibition. Of course, in order to accomodate all the canvases, the room has to be much larger. It feels too big, too impersonal, and WAY too crowded. It's still great to see these paintings reunited, but it's just not the same feeling I get when I visited the Seagram murals room.

The rest of the galleries showed his later works, which are no longer the dreamy colorfield paintings, but rather, dark & well-delineated colorblock paintings, which I don't fancy as much. (As a result, the Rothko Chapel in Houston didn't move me the way his colorfield paintings do.)

Before I left, I returned to the main Seagram gallery. At this point it was almost closing time (10pm) and the crowd had finally thinned out. It was a better experience with much fewer people around.

From Southwark Street, I took the RV1 bus to Covent Garden, then walked over to Chinatown for dinner.
I was quite surprised by the changes in Chinatown. Many old-style restaurants have been replaced by newer, modern (ie more pricey) Chinese establishments, esp along Lisle Street. This is compared to my last visit just 6 months ago.

It was almost 10:45pm by the time I arrived at my go-to place in C-town: HK Diner on Wardour Street. I have eaten here several times on my previous trips, and I've found it to serve reliable Cantonese "fast food" so to speak, though it IS a sit-down restaurant with table service.

Since I had a big lunch, here, I only ordered a bowl of wonton noodle soup with extra veggies, plus a pot of tea (free). My dinner was £7.20.

Day 4
Red House, Eltham Palace, Westminster Abbey organ recital

I began my day with a coconut bun (80p) for breakfast, which I had purchased the night before in Chinatown.

My morning activity is to visit the Red House in Bexleyheath. To get there, I had to take the tube to Cannon Street and catch the Southeastern Train service to Bexleyheath (with a change in London Bridge). The train trip was 30 minutes. At Bexleyheath station, it is a 15-20 min walk to Red House. It is a very straightforward walk with plenty of signs along the way.

Although it was still cloudy, fortunately the rain had stopped.

Red House (£6.60) is owned by the National Trust, and was the house of William Morris for about 5 years. It was designed and built by his architect friend Philip Webb. It can only be visited by a 1-hr guided tour which has to be booked in advance.

I was booked on the first tour of the day at 11:15am. There were 6 of us in our group. The exterior architecture is of gothic influence. Inside has plenty of stained glass. Unfortunately part of the house is under scaffolding currently (until Dec 08) so 4 stained glass windows along the entrance hall were blocked up.

Morris only lived here for 5 years because it is one cold, damp house. He developed rheumatic arthritis and his doctor recommended him to move.

Most of the wall coverings are reproductions, but several large furniture pieces remain as they were built into the walls. Some bits of wall frescos have been rediscovered (painted over by subsequent owners) , but NT has not completely restored those.

Interestingly, according to our guide, the Red House came up for sale back in the 1930s for just £300. National Trust rejected the decision to buy it then. Instead, they bought it in 2003 for £2 million.

Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed by the Red House. I guess I expected to see more of Morris' designs and works in the house. I have not been to Kelmscott Manor, which I would be interested to visit some day.

I retraced my steps back to Bexleyheath station, then took the train 2 stations back to Eltham (10-min ride).

At Eltham station, it is again a 15-20 min walk to Eltham Palace. One can also take bus #161 which cuts the walk to just 5 minutes.

Eltham Palace (£8.20, managed by English Heritage) is one unique and fascinating place. On its grounds, the 15th century Great Hall still stands, but now attached to a modernistic 1930s Art Deco home. I think the Courtaulds had done a wonderful job.

Before I toured the palace, I first ate lunch at the tea house. On its website, the tea house is described as "the original Service Quarters and a very different world. Enjoy tea or coffee, lunch or a light snack served by waitresses in traditional black and white uniform."

In reality, it is a rather charmless room with florescent lighting and pale green walls. The tea room was packed to the gills and the staff was simply overwhelmed. I ordered a brie/lettuce/tomato baguette sandwich and a soft drink. Since the place was so full, an older couple shared my table. It was fun chatting with them while I had lunch. The sandwich was served with a small side salad and crisps. Total was £5.55.

After lunch, I picked up the free audioguide and toured the palace (after putting on slipper covers over my shoes). The Art Deco Entrance Hall is truly impressive, even though I had seen numerous photos before. I love the wood marquetry on the walls.

My biggest complaint on my visit is that the place is full of children - young children - running wild inside the house. They were constantly touching the furniture, the walls etc. I understand the house wants to be children-friendly (has lots of children activities) in order to attract more people, but I worry about the wear and tear on the property?

The interior space is much larger than I had expected, and majority of the rooms are just spectacular (esp Virginia Courtauld's bathroom with gold mosaic and onyx, and the Venetian suite). By contrast, the medieval hall is less impressive despite its long history.

After touring the house, I had another hour to spare in the Gardens. The sky actually cleared and it was just beautiful. The golden afternoon rays shining on the fall foliage made this breathtaking. I took a nice long walk all around the premise, and finally left at 4pm (closing time for winter).

I headed back to Cannon Street station by train, then changed for the tube to Westminster. I took some dusk photos of Big Ben and London Eye (along with about a million tourists) before making my way to Westminster Abbey for their Sunday 5:45pm Organ Recital (free).

I think the concert was almost full. The wardens there were quite strict, admonishing tourists who were reading guidebooks or maps (this was while we were waiting for the recital to begin).

Currently, the Abbey is hosting new (aka contemporary) organ music. The performer that evening was Jan Lehtola from Finland, and the programme consisted of pieces by Jouko Linjama and Olli Kortekangas. Needless to say, these pieces are far far different than JS Bach or Saint-Saëns. Not really pleasant to the ears I must admit. The concert ended 30 minutes later.

Dinner that night was at the High Street Kensington branch of Prezzo, an Italian chain restaurant. I had eaten at a Prezzo 6 months ago in Salisbury, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It offers honest good food, great service, and reasonable prices. The High St Ken branch was a bit hard to find, as it was tucked inside an alleyway and I almost missed it. (It is in the alley right across the street from Wagamama, in case you want to know.)

It was rather empty on this Sunday evening. The only other diners there was a group of 7 americans. It took me a while before I realized they are NW flight attendants.

My visit to Prezzo this time confirmed my previous experience. Again, food was simple and honest. I ordered a penne con bufala, a small mixed salad, and tap water. The pasta was done nicely in a light tomato sauce. The waitresses are very nice and attentive. I think the training staff has embraced the American way of service. After my entree arrived, I was asked 3 separate times by 3 different waitresses if my food was alright. Dinner bill was £11.40.

(BTW, the prices at Prezzo are similar to, say, Olive Garden here in the US. But the quality and preparation of the food at Prezzo are a million times better than Olive Garden, at least when I ate there for the very last time 10 years ago.)

Day 6 (Final Day)
Inns of Court and wonderful fish & chips

Hard to believe today is my last day in London. I was starting to settle in - looking RIGHT when I stepped off the curb, plus my spoken English started to become half British and half American (this happens every time I'm in London because I was brought up with Queen's English).

I finished packing everything in my 19" carryon and checked out. There is a luggage room at the hotel so I left my stuff there to pick up later in the day. My flight out of LHR is at 5:55pm.

My first stop was the NEW Saatchi Gallery (free), which opened October 9th this year. Instead of its prior location at County Hall on the South Bank, the new address is the Duke of York HQ in Chelsea. Its website is a bit deceptive in describing the location ("Sloane Square") and I was only able to find it after asking a newspaper vendor. It is about 200 meters down King's Road.

I really like what they did to the HQ building. The galleries are spacious with good lighting. The flow from gallery to gallery is well-done.

The current exhibit is New Art from China. When I was in San Francisco in Sept 08, I saw a Contemporary Chinese Art exhibit at the SF MOMA and was totally intrigued by it. This one at the Saatchi Gallery doesn't disappoint. I especially like the creativity of some of these artists, "How on earth did they think of THAT?" was constantly what went through my head. Some examples were:
Crumbling small-scale iconic buildings from over the world, made with dog chew (rawhide)

Various Mao permutations

And the basement gallery installation has a number of life-sized old person models (look like certain world leaders) in electric wheelchairs running into one another. You can see the description and video clip here.

After an hour at the Saatchi Gallery, I took the tube to Temple station to visit the Inns of Court. I entered the Inner Temple & Middle Temple via Victoria Embankment.

I wandered around through various passageways and courtyards, saw the Middle Temple Hall from the outside (with lots of Elizabethan artifacts; not open to public).

Finally I arrived at Temple Church but it would not open until 1pm later in the day.

From there, I found the archway to exit onto Fleet Street. Above the archway is Prince Henry's Room which unfortunately is closed for an indeterminate time. But just looking at its facade from across the street is amazing - preserved half-timbered facade smacked in the middle of stone buildings next to it.
(Towards the West on Fleet Street/Strand is the Royal Courts of Justice but I didn't go there.)

I headed east to Gough Sq to check out Dr. Johnson's House (didn't go in due to lack of time), then round the corner to Wine Office Court to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which was rebuilt on the same location after the 1666 fire and has been serving to the public since then. I only did a photo-op but didn't enter.

I returned back towards the West on Fleet Street, passing by Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West (which I later found out is next to the "supposed location" of Sweeney Todd's barber shop), northward through Lincoln's Inn, and onward to Theobald's Road.

It was lunchtime and I was in search of Fryer's Delight, a fish & chips shop that has been recommended here. It is a no-frills place, has 4 booths for eat-in. I ordered cod w/chips, and it was one huge dish. I managed to finish all the fish and most of the chips (both were excellent) but I think it can possibly feed 2 people. IMO, this is better than North Sea in Bloomsbury. My lunch w/a soda was £8. Take-out price is lower, I think £4.50 for the fish (I forgot how much for the chips), where as mine was £7 + £1 for soda.

BTW, Fryer's Delight is known for using beef drippings in the cooking oil, and the owners make their own batter.

At this point, I was running out of time. I could either go to an organ recital at the Lincoln's Inn Chapel, or visit the Hunterian Museum. I decided the former, given that I can visit the museum anytime on future visits.

Before I made my way to Lincoln's Inn, I walked through Gray's Inn (not much to see there except a plaque on the wall stating that Sun Yat-Sen stayed in one of the buildings during his exile).


I also checked out the Tudor-era timbered facade of Staple Inn, another rare one that survived the 1666 fire.


Lincoln's Inn is quite beautiful. The buildings look older than they really are (built in mid-1800s I believe, except the Gate house which is from the 16th-c).

The Chapel is somewhat older. The 1pm lunchtime concert today (free) is an organ recital by the organist and choirmaster of Lincoln's Inn. In fact, it is the LAST organ recital on the current organ, as the chapel will be getting a new one for 2009.

The organist is Nicholas Shaw and he played some traditional pieces by JS Bach, de Grigny, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and Franck.

The Chapel will be closed between Jan - Oct 2009, but they will continue to hold lunch time concerts at a different venue.

My final stop for today (and my trip) is Temple Church. It probably doesn't need any introduction due to the Da Vinci Code mania. I was stunned by how crowded it was inside, and with lots of school children! The effigies of the Knights Templar are spectacular.

The Inner Temple Garden is open as I was leaving (very limited opening hours), but it was such a grey and dreary day, I didn't feel like going in.


Overall, I had a really great time in this part (City) of London, which I barely spent anytime there in the past. I'd probably be interested in taking a walking tour next time. (There is a Tuesday walk called "Secret London" by London Walks but I didn't take it because of my time restraints.)

I particularly enjoyed wandering through the streets and looking at the building facades, though the locals were probably cursing me due to my slow pace. It is fascinating to see how different the facades are from one building to the next - from different decades, centuries, and of course very different architecture style (and material too). This is something I just don't get to see here in the US.

My trip back to the hotel and then to LHR via tube was uneventful. I arrived LHR at 3:45pm for my 5:55pm flight. Check-in was fast (no one in line) and security line was relatively short.

For the first time in YEARS, I actually bought stuff from duty free, because between the tax-free discount and the exchange rate, goods are actually cheaper there than back home in the US.

My flight LHR-BOS on AA was only 20% full. I requested to have my (exit row) seat changed to the back so that I get all 3 seats to myself.

What's The Damage
This is my favorite part of the trip report... figuring out how much money I wasted.

The £ fluctuated a bit while I was there. I'll generalize it to £1 = $1.6

Transportation
Airfare $618
Oyster PAYG £32
Oxford bus & other Train tickets £19.10

Lodging
$542 for 5 nights

Food for 6 days (includes all snacks/coffee/fruit)
£96.85 = ~£16/day
This does not include the "free" hotel breakfast I ate on Day 5.

Attractions
£61.85

Entertainment
£86 (2 operas) + £10.50 (2 programmes)

Postcards/Stamps
£6.65

Total = $1661 (not including any shopping I did)

If I take out the airfare = $1043 = $174/day. This is quite a bit lower than most of my other solo trips in the past 2 years. In comparison:

UK May 2008 solo trip: $233/day
Spain Feb 2008 solo trip: $215/day
London Sept 2007 solo trip: $250/day
Germany April 2007 solo trip: $143/day

Thanks for reading this. While the trip was only 2 months ago, it felt like such a long time ago... With the pound being so low now, perhaps I can plan another trip to London...NOT!