Watford & Oxford

Monday night we packed up our bags and left London - probably leaving behind heaps of things at the hostel because it was too dark in the room to pack properly! Matt was feeling a lot better which was lucky. We actually ended up being picked up by Matt's cousin Ian and he drove us out to his home in Watford. We met his gorgeous little daughter Esme and played with her in the garden for a while before taking a walk through the village to pick up fish and chips and taking Esme to play on the swings in the park. Matt and Ian both love this curry dip that you have with your chips - apparently everyone likes it here, but i just found it weird haha.. it was like mixing Indian food with fish and chips. Ian's wife Dee met us at the park after work, then we went and looked at a few cars (no luck) and STUFFED ourselves with Dominos. We stayed with them for a night in their cute little semi detached house - it was so good to have a big bed! This was the view from the window...

Tuesday Morning we headed to Oxford (where Matt is from). He was buzzing to get there and start showing me around. As we had decided to go there quite last minute we didn't have a huge choice in hotels in our price range. We are trying to stick to $100AUD a day in total. So the more we spend on accommodation, the less we really can afford to do during the day. But we managed to find a hotel for $38AUD a night each in Iffley which is a 25 minute walk from Oxford. It was called the Tree Lane Hotel. They had tea facilities and shortbread waiting for us on a little table and a corner bath. Our room was the middle one in the photo below... It wasn't fancy but we loved it.

Every day we would walk into town along the Thames River and watch the narrow boats and rowers on the water. There are also horses, deer, geese, ducks that we spotted along the way.

 From Tuesday to Saturday we spent our days walking, walking and doing more walking seeing all the sights of Oxford.

Outside the front of Christ Church College

Matt doing his thing

Walking, Walking, Walking

Punting down the Thames

Botanical Gardens, Oxford

The boy in Botanical Gardens

Hiding

The Great Hall in Christ Church University - this was the inspiration behind the hall in Harry Potter. 

Inside the grounds of Christ Church College

My boy :)

Me outside Corpus Christi College

Wonky Mitre Tavern

Me receiving death penalty

Matt in his prison cell - Oxford Castle

Oxford Castle - standing between 1000 year old pillars underground - Geffrey of Monmouth created stories of Merlin & King Arthur down here. 

Oxford Castle

Oxford Castle Steps

Oxford Castle Steps

That's all for now!! Currently in Milton Keynes so will touch base on how that is going soon!

also.... HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!! xxx