A longer walk than planned!

Friday 23^rd August; Aristotle bridge

We had a lovely relaxed start.  After breakfast I popped over to the deli for the paper and some samosas and a pasty, then after a coffee it was time to give Meg a good walk.  We started off across the park to Port Meadow, then began walking towards Wolvercote, intending to come back down the towpath.  But it was such a beautiful day, and the river was calling .... we wished we had more time to go up to Lechlade.

On the way across the meadow we found some lovely plants which thrive in the general dampness of the meadow –

Water mint and anphibious bistort (?)

water forget-me-not

Then across the meadow we went to the river at Black Jack’s Hole.  The cattle were wandering by, so we moved away from the water to let them past. 

 

The river was so beautiful we just carried on walking, all the way to Godstow.  There is a car park there, a picnic area, and a memorial to the aircrew from the WWI training airfield on Port Meadow, who died in accidents while stationed here or visiting.

Unfortunately, as we were only intending to walk for an hour, we had no water or food – so the logical thing was to call in at the Trout.  Lucky Dave had some money with him, wasn’t it!  It was still before midday and not very busy, but I think over the bank holiday weekend it will be heaving.  I counted over 40 tables outside and there are plenty inside too …

The beer was expensive and the kitchen hadn’t opened, so we had expensive crisps with our expensive beer.   Then we walked back over the bridge,

and past the lock, where of course we had to stay on the public path.  We walked through the ruins of Godstow Abbey, which are not extensive.

But there is some fairly ancient graffiti.

1906

1860

Does its age make it ok?

Then we strode out along the Thames Path, to cross at Rainbow Bridge and return across Port Meadow.  The bridge near the marina was, as usual in the hot weather, in use as a jumping platform into the pool.

We were ravenous when we got back and those tasty snacks from the deli went down very well.

After lunch, Dave went for another visit to the Natural History museum and I went down through Jericho to get a fridge magnet of the fish mosaic we saw in the Pompeii exhibition.  I never normally buy souvenirs, but this reminded me of our previous visit to the big exhibition in London years ago.  Anyway, our grandson loves fridge magnets!

We ate on the boat, but before we did we went to the Anchor just over the bridge.  It is a hipster pub and apart from one other couple everyone was 40 or under.  Our beer was served in mugs with handles, which I commented on – the barmaid (who had been discussing Betamax/VHS tapes with a customer, and who apparently also has an MA) explained that their customers liked retro, and proudly showed me their soda syphon.  Nice beer, anyway.