Day 3, Oxford, England

Breakfast was one of our favorite parts of the trip! Phillipa treated us in style with a full English breakfast every morning. : )



Bus tour of Oxford! Benjamin was again less than thrilled but it was way to cold and windy to walk. ; )

I will tell you I was confused when we went to Oxford. I didn't realize that Oxford University was the whole town of Oxford and that it consists of tons of smaller colleges. There isn't just one building that is Oxford University.



The picture to the bottom left  is Christ Church College, Oxford. Like Bath, the town of Oxford has beautiful stone architecture. The buildings are just beautiful and much more well built than anything we have here in the States.



We did make a quick stop by Alice's Shop which was inspired by the original Alice In Wonderland. Alice Liddell's father was a dean at Christ Church and that is where she grew up. The author of the book, Lewis Carroll, went on a picnic with Alice and her family and that is where he got the idea for the stories about Alice. The original manuscript is still in the British Library.








To the left is the Radcliffe Camera Library. To the right is another picture of Christ Church. Remember the cafeteria scene in Harry Potter? It takes place in this building! They were currently doing construction on the building so we weren't able to go inside, but we were able to peek in! ; )








The traditional British fish and chips! I could totally eat this more often!








The pictures below are from C.S. Lewis' and J.R.R. Tolkien's favorite hangout--The Eagle and Child. It is such a quant little place with super yummy food. Inside you can actually sit in the little corner where they sat and talked for hours.



Can you believe Benjamin ran into someone he knew?! In a Starbucks. In Oxford, England. On the other side of the world. Pure craziness.

Matthew Crawford is a dear college friend of Benjamin's from Union University. He and his family are currently living there in Oxford while transitioning between jobs.

I LOVED the cute little market places. Such a fun place to hang out!





















Who drives in Oxford?  All of these bikes were parked outside of the train station at like 9 o'clock. Can you see the building in the back? They were stacked all the way to that building. I have never seen so many bikes in my life. Where are all these people at?!

Day 2, Bath, England

Today we decided to take a train ride over to visit Bath, England.

It was a beautiful city with lots of stone architecture. The picture to the bottom right is of Bath Abbey or Abbey Church of St. Peter & St. Paul.  The building was also a former monastery.








Isn't the area beautiful!? I don't believe I snapped a picture of it but we did drive by an apartment that belonged to Nicholas Cage and his family.





Isn't the inside the Abbey breathtaking?!



We also couldn't pass up the chance to tour the Roman Baths.



This was a model of what it would have looked like. The first temple was built somewhere between 60-70 AD.



Below is sample of some of the coins that have been found in the baths.





You could actually see the steam coming off of the water. They said the temperature ranges anywhere from 64-96 degrees Celsius. I'll be honest, I love a bath and this water was super tempting! ; )








At the end of the tour they gave everyone a sample of the water to drink. Yea, it was gross. Who likes hot water, but we did it anyway! : )



Below is a picture of our tour bus we road around Bath in. It's kinda like the open top buses you see in New York. Since our time was short in each city this was the quickest way we could get an overview of the whole city in a short amount of time. Ms. Gayra & I actually loved it, but Benjamin....not so much. He just wanted to walk and wonder. : )










Yummy Fudge store in Bath! Every chance we got we would stop in somewhere for hot coffee.



The shopping in Bath was a treat! Super nice stores. I think we all bought something in the North Face Store. When you're freezing your booty off you're even more likely to give them business. : )

You can't tell it in the picture on the bottom right but it was snowing!

England Here We Come!!

Can you believe it's time to load the plane and head to Europe for Benjamin's PhD graduation?! It's unreal to think that the time is here!

First thing is first. We had to pull out the YL diffuser with some Thieves inside to kill all these circulating germs on the plane. Just yuck!

First leg: RDU to Atlanta.



Our flight from Atlanta to London was aboard one of the new Virgin Atlantic planes. OH MY WORD! It's like a party in the sky. Hands down the nicest plane I have EVER been on and one of the largest, too.

When you boarded the plane they had a full bar in the middle of the plane. Not just a bar but a fancy smacy bar. Then you turned left to go to first class where they had these full bed pods. The area was huge!

Of course we turned right and went to the regular class but it was not like the regular class we are used to. It was better than any first class I've seen on any other airline.

Oh, and the flight attendants. I wanted to bring them home to be nanny's for my children. Really. They were all English and wore the formal red flight attendant wear with their hair up in buns with little hats. SO cute and overly sweet and kind.

Can you tell I LOVE this airline?! One of the best parts of the trip. : )



RaRa and PePaw were so gracious to come up and watch the kids so that I was also able to go over for his graduation. So thankful for their willingness to help! We had such a great trip and GG was able to find some time off work to join us!



On the flight over I was able to present Benjamin with his graduation gift I'd be working on for over a year. Thanks to the internet I was able to get in contact with people who have had an impact on his journey to fulfilling his calling to which God called him many many years ago. From his pastor as a very young child to Dr. Akin who is the president at the Seminary he now works. College professors, faculty, friends-past and present, family...they all joined in to help me write him a book of encouragement, humor, words of wisdom, and congratulations.

We had plenty of time to read through each one in detail on the way over. : )



We made it to London!!



Once in London we took a bus ride to Bristol. We were all so exhausted from the travels that we all snoozed on the bus. : )

One of the first sights we saw when we arrived in  Bristol was Bristol University. This is the school that Benjamin received his doctoral degree from and graduation was to take place in the hall on the right.





Inside Bristol Cathedral was breath taking. SO beautiful!



First let me say that the wind in England while we were there was almost unbearable. I told Benjamin I had never felt like the wind was actually going to lift me off the ground but at times I felt it really could!

The picture on the bottom right is the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. It's one of the worlds first, if not the very first, suspension bridge. You can't tell it so much in this picture but it was HUGE and super high. There were several people walking across it but there was no way I was going across that thing. One I'm terrified of heights and two can you imagine how rough the wind has to be on the middle of that thing?

The picture on the bottom left is a lookout that we hiked up to to get a better view of the bridge.













We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast within walking distance to the college called Downs Edge Bed & Breakfast. The people there were so great. If we were to go back we would definitely stay there again.

One day I asked Phillipa how old her home was and she responded with, 'Oh, it's not that old at all. It was built in the early 1900's. We are looking to buy a new home built in the 1600's.'

What the what?! Isn't it crazy that we consider homes here in the states built only 20 years ago, old?

For our first night in Bristol Benjamin said we had to try the Burger Joint. Oh, the food was spot on. Awesome burger!








Since we had flown through the night we were all exhausted by the end of day 1. Early showers and bed times for all of us were certain! : )