Reunited in Denmark!

Thursday was largely a travel day for all of us. I took the train from Moreton-in-Marsh back to Paddington and then the tube to Heathrow, where I then flew to Copenhagen and Abby met me at the airport. Kevin and Benji got on a redeye out of Dulles on Thursday night and then took pubic transit (navigated by Benji of course) to meet us at Abby's apartment on Friday afternoon. While we waited for the boys, Abby and I had brunch and did some shopping as it snowed steadily in Lyngby (where she lives) all day:

Brunch at The Roots

The traditional Danish brunch seems to always be made up of some combination of these items

Flower market at the Lyngby train station, where we eventually bought Abby's little tree

Someone walking by offered to take our picture, so we said sure. Look at all the snow coming down!

Decorations in downtown Lyngby, which is a cute little town

Once we met up with the boys and they had a chance to see Abby's apartment, we made our way to downtown Copenhagen to check into our hotel (Benji stayed with Abby), get a quick dinner, and then relax with some snacks and TV before an early-ish bedtime for all:

A Day in Oxford

My original plan for my second day in the Cotswolds was to explore on my own, take in some little shops and maybe have tea in one of the cute little tea parlors. Over lunch on Tuesday, though, my dining companions convinced me that I really should go see Oxford while I was so close, so I hopped on the train Wednesday morning and 30 minutes later was in Oxford. On first sight, I knew I had made the right decision:

No idea what this building is, but it was the first university building I came to as I made my way from the train station to the campus

Tower of St. Michael at the North Gate: built as part of the Anglo-Saxon fortification on Oxford between 1010 and 1060. Charles I came through this gate as he fled London in 1642. You can climb the tower for great views of Oxford 

View from the top

Hertford Bridge, better known as the Bridge of Sighs

The Radcliffe Camera, which is the most photographed building in Oxford. It is a library expansion built when the Bodleian ran out of room

All Souls Chapel

I had originally planned to walk into All Souls College to see some of the Harry Potter filming sights, but they charge a steep fee and I decided I'd rather pay to see the Bodleian. I did walk into New College, which lets you explore its square for free

View along the main street in Oxford

I was most excited for my tour of the Bodleian, but the first available was at 3pm (when I walked in at 11am to purchase a tour). After looking around the town for a while, I decided to have lunch in the oldest pub in Oxford, the Kings Arms:

I still had a little time to kill, so I walked into the exhibit in the new Bodleian library (Weston Library). It was on edited manuscripts, and when I saw it I wish I'd actually left more time. It was the handwritten mark-ups from dozens of famous authors, including JRR Tolkien, Jane Austen, TS Elliot, and Percy Bysse Shelley, whose handwritten notebooks were a marvel:

This was an early copy of Frankenstein

Shelley's Ozymandias

It was finally time to join the Bodleian tour guide, and it was worth the wait:

Statue of Duke Humphries, whose collection started the library

The tour started in the old divinity school, which is where the infirmary scenes from Harry Potter were filmed

Wooden ceiling on the second floor

This spot is where they filmed "the forbidden section" of the library for the HP films

View out the second floor windows of the library

Tour ended promptly at 4pm and I booked it to catch the 4:18 train back to Moreton-in-Marsh, where I enjoyed a third dinner in front of the fire at the Redesdale Arms (where I was staying).

A Tour of the Cotswolds

I arrived in Moreton-on-Marsh on Monday night. It is the only town in the Cotswolds served by the rail line, but also the town where JRR Tolkien's brother lived, so it served as the model for Brie in the Lord of the Rings books. The inn where I was staying was just a few doors down from the Bell Tavern, which was the model for the Prancing Pony:

The inn across the street was the White Hart Royal, where Charles I fled when he was deposed by Oliver Cromwell:

Since I did not have a car and the weather was predicted to be poor (in nice weather, there is a seven mile heritage trail you can walk between villages), I signed up for a tour on Tuesday. Mid-November is off-season, so it was a tiny group (just four of us), but we got a delightful surprise in a very early snow that our guide could not get over. The tour visited five little towns throughout the Cotswolds, with varying amounts of time to spend in each depending on their size. First stop was Chipping Camden (Chipping means market town in Old English)

This one is actually in Moreton-on-Marsh -- I snapped it on my walk to the train station to meet the tour

Thatched houses on Sheep Street

Our guide told us that the birds on the roof are the thatcher's mark, to show that the last payment was made on the thatch

St. James Church

This is a memorial to the young lady who died of an infection after pricking her finger on the spindle of her spinning wheel. It is supposedly the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty

St. James Churchyard

Our second stop was Broadway, which is a sleepy little town built around a beautiful church and manor house:

The manor house

This house is notable as the one they filmed as Bridget Jones' parents' house

Very pretty church. The stones in the graveyard are mostly from the 17th and 18th century

This house had staddle stones, typically used to keep grain off the ground, set into its walls

Our next stop was Stow-on the-Wold, which is where we had lunch. Our guide suggested the Porch House, which is where I headed with two of the three other people on the tour:

The Porch House is apparently the oldest pub in England, with its beams carbon dated to 947AD

After lunch, I made my way to St. Edwards's church, whose back doors served as the inspiration for the Doors of Durin from Lord of the Rings

By this time, it was snowing so hard that I ducked into some stores to get out of the weather

By the time we reached Bibury, the snow had largely stopped. Bibury is famous for its Arlington row houses, which are a heritage site. They were built in the 14th century as a wool shop and converted into weaver's cottages in the 17th century. They can be rented now, but the rent gets paid to the national trust:

Without the snow, it looked more autumn than winter

Our last stop was Bourton-on-Water, which is nicknamed "the Venice of the Cotswolds" because of its canals:

By the time we got back to Moreton-on-Marsh, the sun had set and I was ready for a hot shower, but I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone.