July 24

Day 4 - Bladon (Woodstock) to Oxford

The pets of Appletree House (who stayed up late with us while we blogged and Skyped the night before)

Henry

Casper

Claude

Here we are in front of Appletree House, ready to begin Day 4!  Oh, I have something in my teeth...

Here is the White House Inn - our checkpoint to get back on the path.  Remember, Bladon was a mile out of our way, so Caroline's mother drove us back into town, despite the horrific traffic from the game fair.  We have been so blessed to meet such kind and wonderful people!

We just missed services at this church...

...which is where Winston Churchill and his wife are buried.

Also, a Duke of Marlborough is buried just behind Churchill.
P.S. The highlight of the day: we saw a dog pee on Churchill's grandson's grave.  Hee hee.

The inside of the church - a beautiful stained glass window.

This view is a little way out of Woodstock - see the Column of Victory in the landscape?  We could hear the guns going off at the game fair for miles; the visitors were shooting clay pidgeons this morning.

I had to stop and take a picture of the clear sky.  We did not expect to have such perfect weather for this walk - it has just been ideal!

From the top of the hill behind Hall Farm.

Karen likes to photograph the signs...it helps her to know that we are in the right place :)

The Red Lion - time for a pit stop...

...and some amazing desserts!  I got lemon cheesecake...

...and Karen got the apple crumble.  They were both delicious!

After dessert, we headed back toward Oxford and found this pretty "trellis" on one of the next paths!

Can you read the sign?  It says "Welcome to Oxford"!!!!!!

The trek to Oxford only cost us seven miles today.  Practically nothing!  We were in our room at the Five Mile View (shown here) by 3pm!  It was great - I had some extra time to catch up on the blog.  :)

Cute and cozy bathroom.  It's nice to have it en suite - not all of our accommodations have that.

Here is the front of the Five Mile View.  It is small but quaint - we stayed on the second floor and opened the windows.  It was quite refreshing during our afternoon rest.

In the evening, we attended a production of As You Like It at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

This is the set for the show, which took place outside in the courtyard.

Some notes about the play:
~The entire show was performed by only 7 actors playing multiple roles.
~Orlando is dreamy!  I really like that particular character.
~The actress who played Rosalind was Amy Gilliam's British twin.  It was uncanny.
~The actress who played Celia was wonderful...so expressive!
~Jaques was played by a woman...I have never seen that done before...but it worked very well.
~Overall, I thought the production was creative, clever, and very well done.

 The pedometer said: 7 miles; approx. 14,800 steps; 632 calories burned.  Really?  That's all?
Total so far: 48 miles.