As promised, I shall now tell you about the visit to Oxford.
We had arranged to go to see the Tolkien exhibition at New Weston Library with the friends we play D & D with on the Tuesday after a weekend of campaigning.
We decided to go up on the Monday, spend the afternoon and the next morning going round Oxford before the ticket entry time of 1 PM.
The journey up was not pleasant. Oxford station is closed due to upgrading the line to electric, so we had to get a Weston-super-Mare train to Didcot and change to a bus. The train was packed-all the seats were reserved from Padington and we had to stand in the small vestibule at the end of the caridge - by the loo.
Still, at least we were given free water by the train company when we got to Didcot and the bus was air-conditioned.
Here are some of the pictures I took around Oxford
I take some pictures to record the trip, but most I take because I may use them in my art. Some may become watercolours, others may by used in my oil paintings.
The exhibition was quite small, but was very good, with many details of Tolkien's life, influences and the background , as well as many examples of his art and interesting facts about his writing.
I was particularly interested that the he initially proposed to use the name Gandalf as the leader of the dwarves in the Hobbit and later changed it to Thorin Oakenshield.
I didn't buy any mementos from the shop, as everything was hideously overpriced and I already have a rather nice volume of Tolkien's artworks.
After a tip from a helpful street guide, we managed to get into Exeter College and spend a pleasant half hour wandering round.
The journey back was much nicer- though Trainline had mucked up our tickets and we found we'd been given Day Returns instead of Period Returns. Luckily the nice lady at the station upgraded them for us, so we only had to pay about £3.00 extra each- rather than a full single fair of £23.00( or thereabouts).
Despite the difficulties and the scorching weather, it was a nice trip.
Until next time
Adieu
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