Day 3 - Windsor and Oxford

Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle On Wednesday morning, about 9:30, Nicole and I were taken to Windsor by another workmate. There we saw Windsor Castle, where the royal family reside sometimes. But we saved the £11.50 entry fee...

The train station
The shopping street
The end of the shopping street Then we went to look at the shopping street of Windsor (after all, I was there with a girl...). There I happened to enter a "Virgin Megastore" for the first time. On the first hand, I thought, it would be something special but during the following days I realised, it's something very common in britain...

Standing on a bridge behind the shopping centre, I took the following two photos. Looking at them you easily recognise, that the english drive on the wrong side of the street. They're taken standing on one point, just turned around 180°...

At half past 12, we were taken back to Pangbourne and had our lunch.

In the afternoon, we went to Oxford. This time, we went by train. Either by Virgin Trains or Thames Trains, can't remember. It was £6.90 return.

Oxford, near train station
Oxford, near train station Oxford is in my opinion a wonderful city. It might be exaggerated to say it's an old city, but its houses are very beautiful and typical...

A fingerpost in Oxford Being in Oxford, it felt like an old city where everything is going its own usual way. But after spending some hours there, you realise, that most people there are students and young people, so there are many possibilities to spend your time...

Oxford Castle
Oxford, near shopping street

Oxford is famous for its colleges and its university. Lewis Carrol, the writer of "Alice in wonderland", worked at the Christ Church College and was inspired by the deans doughter (Alice Lidell). The Harry Potter Movies were shot there, too.

Church College

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin And, although the following university looks like it, it somewhere else and is called University College.

After the exertive walk through half of Oxford we went to have a wonderful meal at a Burger King. Nicole got a text message from Petra (a german, too), who works at the Co-Hotel in Pangbourne and asked if we want to come to ice-skating. I actually can't, but I thought, I could learn. So we agreed and met Petra, Sophie and Vern at the train station. Sophie is a french who's working at the same hotel like Petra and Vern is an acquaintance of Petra from Reading. With a corresponding accent... er... well... after listening and trying to adapt I came to understand him.. after about two hours or so :-)

Sophie
Petra
Vern The Oxford ice rink only was opened for ice-hockey and Vern suggested to go ad shoot each other. Big surprise... But we found out, that he was NOT a perverse running amok but talking about Laser Quest. Wondering what this might be, we followed him and registered for one game which was £4. We were told, that it's still half an hour to go so we went to KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and the other three had their meal.

Back at the Laser Quest we were led into a black room where we should take on vests a lasergun in our hand. Attached to the vests, there are sensors which detect if you're hit by the laser. Those sensors are marked by lights. If you're hit, everything beeps and you can't shoot for about 20 mins. One game is about 20 mins and it's really really funny. The arena is painted all black with some paitnings which glow in ultraviolet light. It's quite big, so the five of us could run some minutes without encountering another. The points you get are differented by the sensor you hit. The areas are Front, Back, Shoulder and Gun. Sophie won with 362 Points. I was second last with 238 Points and had a hit rate of trmendous 6%... You can read more about Laser Quest at http://www.laserquest.co.uk/. I'd say this game was the best part of my travel to britain.

After that, we went to a Bar called "Yates Wind Lounge" which formerly was, if I remember Vern correctly, a post office. After that, we went to another pub, where the others played pool and I gave good comments :-)

An original british postbox
The George Hotel at night Back in Pangbourne, we went to visit Sophie where we had some drinks, listened to music, talked and ate some Crépes. On our way back, from Sophias to Nicoles, which is a way of about 5 minutes, I shot about 10 photos...