Time To Say Goodbye ....... Parting Is Such Sweet, Sweet Sorrow.

As promised, first thing this morning we finally found a church that we didn't have to book to visit, to light a candle for all those loved ones who couldn't be with us on our wonderful, wonderful Oxford adventure......

...... to wit, the Church of St Mary The Virgin, let's just say, it did not disappoint.

It had everything, dating as far back as the 10th century, with a tower (that did have to be booked), humungous and very beautiful stained glass windows, stunning gothic architecture, a canopied pulpit, a balcony, memorials to many to really take in, engraved lists of saints and martyrs and the most glorious, rich, wooden panelling and ornately carved pews  .....

......  it was well worth the wait ........

.......... especially with its additional abundance of candles and votives .........

..... a breath-taking and sublime final place to end our journey .........

....... before having to sadly bid a heartbreaking farewell to our beloved Jan the Fan, something we had all been dreading.

It goes without saying that it was emotional .........

...... very, very emotional .....

....... with long hugs that none of us ever wanted to let go of, with promises that we would do it all again, hopefully next year, when we said we might venture up to Newcastle and perhaps revisit nearby Durham, before sadly we knew it really was time to pull ourselves away, so that Jan The Fan could start her long journey home and us walking to the station, parting was such sweet, sweet sorrow ..........

There was very little, if anything said between us on the train back home to Evesham, just eyes dabbed and tissues blown heavily into .......... we had been on the adventure of a lifetime .........

More Rife Emotion In Oxford.

As we left Jan The Fan last night, she handed us a mysterious black bag, telling us to open it when we got back to our hotel as it contained a little something that might keep us "amused" during the evening!  Our curiosity was, obviously, tres piqued!

The first thing we found inside the bag was a small, beautifully wrapped package addressed to Alice .......

 ...... it was emotional .........

...... as the ever fragrant Alice has become very much part of our lives since her rescue.  This package was put safely and securely in our case for our return home ....... but there was more ......

There was another parcel for us, with us very much loving the black and white stripes which matched Alice's gift exactly, with us now wondering whether there was a spooky gift theme going on.

With the outer paper and tags removed, we were however still none the wiser, but perhaps Mr D with his unique spidey senses could have picked it up straight away.

It was, in fact, a poignant confectionary homage to our No. 1 Fan, Jan the Fans football team  Newcastle United, to wit The Magpies.......

...... because the box contained a humungous abundance of corresponding black and white sweeties, Black Jacks, bon bons, mint imperials, and liquorice and cream jellies (of which these were all our personal favourites). 

It was, once more, emotional (but not as emotional as tomorrow perhaps), however, it would have looked rude not to indulge, lest the said sweets were rendered stale, so let's just say, there weren't many left by the time we all turned in, but making sure we left enough to share with Alice when we see her next, naturally! 

Not So New, New College, Oxford

Another day in Oxford .........

and another college to visit in Oxford, to wit the not so new, New College, which was not on our original itinerary, we just happened upon it on our meandering round Oxford with our beloved Jan the Fan and well, it would have looked rude not to avail ourselves of a little gander. 

Now, we really, really loved Magdalen College, but after not a lot of debate, we decided we liked New College even betterer, because despite it's name, it turns out to be in fact one of the oldest colleges in Oxford and so even more romantic than the much mentioned Magdalen.  However, we've not done its beauty enough justice as once again we were a very remiss with our photography. What are we like, other than quite overcome! 

We loved the dining hall, although again Darrell noted that the furniture, like Magdalen. was a little to modern for his tastes, but he reasoned, necessary and practical for the every day knocks and bumps of every day college/student life.

However, on leaving the hall, amidst all our awe and wonder, we got a little disorientated and took a wrong turn ......

...... finding ourselves somewhere below stairs, where they even had ancient buildings within the main building we were in!

Needless to say Darrell's curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help having a little poke, not only finding a cupboard of yore where they stored all the table linen for grand events .......

...... but also a hidden spiral staircase, where it seems the cleaners keep their mops and buckets and air their dusters well out of the sight of visitors, thus preserving the air of eternal romanticism surmised Darrell. When we eventually found our way back outside, we were greeted by a gentleman who politely asked where we were going and informing us that we had indeed ventured into private their private parts!  We naturally apologised profusely and quickly made our way to the cloisters .........

...... where we spent quite some time taking in, yet again, all the memorials to the many brave, young students and tutors who gave their lives in both World Wars and marvelling at the dedication and work of others to change the world for the better.  It was .......... emotional.

As there weren't any wedding celebrations going on, we were able to enter the quadrant and sit again, lost in our thoughts and partake in a little tree hugging with our beloved Jan .........

...... only to discover that the beautiful Holm Oak we had all hugged and stroked lovingly had actually featured as the Draco Malfoy tree in Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, which we now fully intend to watch when we get home. It was magical.

Though New College doesn't have a flock of deer or river flowing through it, it's grounds are surrounded by the city walls, which we all in turn felt compelled to hold on to, in the hope of becoming at one with it's history.  It also has an Elizabethan Mound used in the olden days to view over said walls, but sadly not open to the likes of us modern day visitors. 

Courtesy of:- https://gilbertscott.org/buildings/new-college-chapel-oxford

We thought we'd seen everything, but as we retraced our steps we found that we'd only gone and missed the chapel ........ and oh what a chapel! However, we got VERY mixed up and confused until our heads hurt, trying to find a suitable picture to replace our untaken ones until our heads hurt, because the reredos behind the alter was spookily very similar to the one we'd seen at Magdalen the day before.  There was nowhere to light a candle again, but we promised Nigel that before we returned to Evesham we'd find him one, 'twas a case of so many churches with so few candles, compounded by the fact that in most cases you'd got to book your church visit before you could even enter one!

Yes, New College made quite an impression on all of us, with Nigel seriously considering asking whether his volunteer reading in school could somehow be counted as part of an A Level in order to "win" a place there!  Oh dear, I feel a not so long felt want coming on!

OMG - Magdalen College With Jan The Fan

Greeting on our second day with Jan the Fan, where Nigel just couldn't help double checking that we really were still in Oxford, taking in the academic air, to make sure we weren't actually in a Dallas shower dream type scenario ........

...... before meeting up with the aforementioned Jan the Fan, in the very lovely Love Coffee Co for breakfast. 

It was the cakes that drew most of Nigel's attention, they were quite magnificent, however rather than look like a culinary philistine in front of our beloved friend ...........

...... opted for much more cultured and suitable (for that time in the morning) Croque Monsieur with an orange juice, while Darrell and I availed ourselves of a very ample full English.

Then it was back on the "Hop on Hop off" bus to visit Magdalen College, participant of many a University Challenge and attended by the likes of Louis Theroux, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Oscar Wilde, to name just a few.

However, it has also now become obvious that in our state of total overwhelmness upon entering Magdalen's hallowed portals that our usual vim and vigour for capturing such moments on camera, had left us, we just wanted to experience everything through our own eyes, in real life and not through the lens of a camera, we were soooooooo truly captivated.

..... especially by the chapel, our first port of call. It's not often we're speechless, but let's just say never have we been soooooooo rendered!!!  To be honest, it was more like a cathedral with its stunning reredos (?) behind the alter. 

Picture:- https://www.patrickcomerford.com/2023/09/visiting-chapel-in-magdalene-college.html

We couldn't help but stroke the beautiful choir stalls, the awe and wonder of all the history charging through our veins.  As you know we love a Greek church but this was something else and if we could have lit a candle, as often is our want, we would done so, but unfortunately we couldn't find a devotional stand, which was such a pity as we'd have set the place ablaze with our homage!

We visited the great Dining Hall next .........

......  where students and guests have all their meals, not quite Hogwarts as Darrell wasn't that keen on the tables and chairs, if he was brutally honest, but reckoned they had much older and traditional spare set squirrelled away for more formal affairs, but whatever you ate in these most exulted and salubrious of surroundings would sing on your tongue, even curly fries, he mused!

And then onto the cloisters to find a full on wedding in swing, can you imagine?

One of the lovely, young ladies in the ticket office told us that students could marry in the chapel and have their receptions in the quad, but it was awfully, awfully expensive, they couldn't get it for free, even if they got top marks in everything.  However, we all made a note that should we ever return to Magdalen, we need to bring Alice with us.........

Then, would you believe while walking through the grounds, we found that the college has it's very own flock of fallow deer ........

...... how romantic must that be at Christmas, even if most of the students would be enjoying the festivities at home at that time.

We went on to explore the grounds a little more, following the River Cherwell, each very much lost in our own thoughts as we walked along ........

...... before stumbling upon the boat house ..........

...... and real life punters, punting, in real life punts and poles  .........

It was ALL too impossibly romantic for words and all this in a place where you came to study and hopefully gain a degree. How could you fail?  I'll tell you, it fair blew our minds.

It was hard to drag ourselves away, but drag we must, as our tummies were by this time rumbling a tad, so we availed ourselves at the Queens Lane Coffee House, the oldest established coffee house in Europe (and we're sorry, for another sad lack of photos, but we were hungry!) https://www.qlcoffeehouse.com/

Nigel was at first quite pleased with his lunch time selection of koftas, however, when he laid eyes on Jan the Fan's considered menu choice he suffered a severe attack of food envy!

What is he like?  To be continued ......... our adventures not Nigel's food envy!