Punting!

An old friend from school, Margaret, came to visit Oxford, and luckily, after a very wet start, we had a lovely summer day.

During the one bit of rain that we had after I had picked Margaret and Adrian up from the station, we were waiting (inside) to get tickets to go up Carfax Tower anyway.

The view from the top of Carfax Tower.

Margaret & I on top of Carfax Tower.

After a quick trip to PieMinister for a very-english lunch, we headed off to make the most of the sunshine in a very-english punt. Despite living here for 4 years, this was my first time punting. Adrian took charge of the punt initially. We learned very rapidly that wind is a problem when you are punting, and that the pole is a surprisingly good rudder.

Margaret took over the punting after a very graceful swap. We had decided against the mid-stream reshuffle, instead using a tree branch that overhung the river for support. Unfortunately, it did present a few problems after the switch for standing/punting/etc. But we managed. I didn't trust myself, so I left the punting to them.

We attempted to go to Christ Church College, but as every other tourist in Oxford had the same idea, we ended up heading to the somewhat less popular New College. By now we were quite exhausted, and I managed to get quite sunburnt, so we headed off for a very-english cream tea at the Randolph, and then headed home to catch the final hour of the cricket.