Oxford

The university city of Oxford is about 1 hour drive away from London. We made a day trip there on a wet Saturday. Oxford city is old and driving in the city (and trying to park there as well, I should add) is not advisable. We therefore decided to heed the advice from oxfordcityguide.comand use the Park & Ride service. As it turned out, this was a great advice and we had such a smooth journey to the city that I would recommend it to anyone. The parking area is easily accessible from the major motorways (M4) in our case and there were ample parking spaces there and there's no parking charge - free.

Upon arrival, in our case, a bus was waiting for passenger to fill-up and a £4 payment secured us 2 return adult tickets (kids travel free). 15 mins ride on the bus with one stop along the way brought us to the city centre, about 3 minutes walk from the Visitor Information Centre. The VIC offers a number of Walking Tours and we initially opted for the University Tour. However the timing did not work for us and we ended up getting some maps and guide books and walk we went. Along the same route of the tour but at our own leisure to stop at some curious looking sights along the way. It was drizzling nearly throughout the walk and with the temperate being in the single digit, it was quite a challenge avoiding getting wet.

The tour took us past some famous sights of Oxford and allowed one to immerse oneself in the amazing architectures. It felt like nearly every building there has a history of its own that spans not decades but centuries. Quite unbelievable.

Our last destination before leaving was the Natural History Museum. Kids were excited with the close encounter with dinosaurs and being able to see and touch fossilised dinosaur eggs. Attached to the museum is the Pitt Rivers Museum with interesting collections of socio-cultural exhibits.....

For a virtual tour of Oxford, try this site.

Tower Bridge and Tower of London

A visit to London would feel incomplete without a visit to these two places. Very easily accessible using the Tube and a combined visit to both is the best way to do it.

Tower of London is where the Crown Jewel is kept and a replica is on show in the visitor centre.

Opposite the Tower is a new promenade with interesting looking building and the city hall is one of them.

Stonehenge and Bath

It's the term break and we decided to take a day trip to the famous Stonehenge followed by an outing in the city of Bath.

We left home very early and started off with a quick breakfast at Subway. The journey to Stonehenge which is about 90 miles away took 2 hours. As we were approaching it, the famous rocks we visible from the road right on the intersection of 2 main roads. Parking was ample and after paying the entrance fee we were provided with an audio guide. The way it works is that you press the number when you see the markings along the way and the guide will inform you about the Stonehenge from that perspective.
We cannot get very close to the rocks as the are is cordoned off but the walk around it allowed us to observe and marvelled at them. Nobody seems to know what they were for and by all accounts, only conjectures and guesses will be available. Having been seeing them on photographs and on TV, it was quite surreal to be there in person.

We ended up spending about 2 hours there before continuing our journey to the city of Bath. Bath got its name from the famous Roman bath excavated many years ago there. Natural hotsprings are in abundance there and the Roman when they were ruling Britain, had build huge communal bath in the city.

What's magnificent about the whole thing is the hundred years old structures of swimming pool like baths and drainage system are still working upon being excavated. The warm air inside was also great having coming in from the coldness outside.