An Oxford Church

I did read the name of this church when we entered it. And, I sort of remember that it was sort of a long name for some reason. But I couldn't remember the name. So, I googled, "Churches in Oxford, England." (Actually I googled, "Churches in Oxford, Englad" and Google asked me, "Did you mean, "Churches in Oxford, England?" and I clicked yes. Then I got a full list. Not as many came up for Englad.)

I was able to identify this church as The University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. It was a pretty little church on our walk around the block before lunch in Oxford on our way to Birmingham on a pleasant spring day. Here are the photos I ended up sort of liking.

Spring was springing in Oxford.
Church exterior.

S walking into the interior.

S then posed for me in the interior.
His Hollywood look.

Some of the beautiful windows.
And the pulpit.

These were all over the floor - I'm pretty sure they were crypt markers.
I could be wrong. Notice the date 1628.

Some of the detail inside the church.
We saw a lot of gothic-ness in the churches of this part of Europe.

Another window detail.

We'll move on down the road tomorrow. See you then.

Oxford

My great aunt Betty (her full name was Elizabeth, and one of the people who I was named after in reference to my middle name - the other person, my Grandma Irene, who's middle name was also Elizabeth) only went to school through the 8th grade. This was not that unusual in 1916 for women, for many reasons. But her reason was that her mother died, and she was needed at home at age 13 to care for her little sister, my Nana, who was 3. They did have a brother and sister who were older, but the older sister was married by then and an older brother would not have been an acceptable caregiver in that day and age. (I don't know if he was married yet - can't remember this part.) So she, with the help of a nursemaid, raised my grandmother in large part.

So, Aunt Betty, while a very wise woman as I remember her, only had a formal education to the 8th grade. And, later on in her life, she married a man that landed her in social circles where many of her fellow ladies were college graduates. At social events with these biddies, these women would talk about their time in university, sharing stories, etc. And, they would ask Aunt Betty, "Where did you go to college?" And, she would answer, "I went to Indiana University." And, she felt she was not telling a lie because she had been to IU - she had visited the campus. So, that was her answer.

Today, I can tell you that S and I, we both went to Oxford. How's that. We stopped by the hallowed town on our way to Birmingham, the first stop on my trip for work. It was about lunch time, and it seemed like a very good place to stop. Here are some highlights of the photos I snapped. The sun was straight above, so the light is not the best. And, I had some serious jet lag settling in. Just like to apologize for the photos before I post them. Ahem.

And, I really have no idea mostly of what I was shooting, except the buildings were interesting and I wanted to take their photo. Since I was on a business trip, we didn't really purchase vacation guidebooks for the UK. Had we done so, I might be able to tell you. I could have referenced the Oxford chapter. But, I didn't have such a guide. Oxford scholars, please identify my photos for me. I would be much obliged. Thank you.

This is where we found a place to park.
That's S over there putting the voucher on the dash of our car.
We sort of made a loop from here, ending back down there, in the distance in this photo, for some lunch.

This was near the car.

There's S walking on into some part of the campus.
Look how baggy his jeans are - he lost about 25 pounds during his illness.

I think I remember this was a library, but maybe not.
There was a round library in Manchester and I could be confusing them.
And, I was sleep deprived when I saw this one.

Don't know what it is, but I liked it.
Beautiful weather this date - generally, we had good weather in the UK.

They just don't mark buildings in the US this way.

There's S in the courtyard.

I liked this detail of the window.

I took this one because it references music.

Similarly, we don't have walkways like this one in the US.

This building was behind a big gate. So stately.

There's the gate.
It reminds me of that 80's sitcom Silver Spoons for some reason.
I was totally in love with Ricky Schroeder.
I was so excited when he joined the cast of NYPD Blue.

Another one of that building.

And, this one that just looks Oxford-esque to me.

I took a series of photos of a church we wandered upon as well. I will share those tomorrow. It'll be the first of many European church posts. Churches are sort of mandatory when you're in Europe. See you then.

Something for this Happy Friday

I am starting through all these photos I took. I take way too many photos - a malady of the digital age. And, I am still jet lagged a bit. I went to bed around 9 last night, feeling totally drugged by the time I made it there. I feel pretty good this morning, but woke bright and early. Which could be a good thing. I get so much done when I wake bright and early!

So, I am still not really prepared to give you a lot of detail about the trip, sadly. I will have the weekend to recoup and see you here next week with all sorts of interesting tidbits that I'll make up since my life just isn't that interesting. But, for today, I thought a good post would be to 1) wish you a Happy Friday and 2) show you the first photos we took on the trip. The beginning is a very good place to start.

This one is a little blurry, but shows the Heathrow sign.

We landed at Heathrow airport terminal 5 on a Friday morning. Once we made it through customs, I had an appointment at the airport, near terminal 4 we needed to get on to. So, we found the Heathrow Express train system to take us there. This, as it turns out, was not the fastest way to go. But, live and learn. And, take pictures!

So, when we got there, we read the arrival/departure sign (above) and waited for the train to terminal 4.

If you're a world traveler or even a reader of the business news, you know that when British Airways decided to build Terminal 5 at Heathrow, it was to be the answer to all the airport's woes. As it turns out, it made them worse. They have done a lot of work to fix the problems, but here is one not really fixed or fixable - to get to terminal 4 from terminal 5 via the train, you have to go to terminals 1, 2 or 3 and then take another train to terminal 4. It wastes at least 30 minutes of your time if this is your route.

Look, there's the train entering the underground platform!
Is it ours?

Um, no, I don't think so.

My favorite of the bunch that I shared with you previously.
I slowed the ISO down to get more blur.

.This train, the Heathrow Express, did not stop either.

So we waited for the next one.

Best wishes for a happy weekend!

Spanish Moss

We are back in the states today, and too tired to blog. So, I'm posting the last of the group of posts I prepared before leaving for Europe about my time in Florida. After this, I hope to be up and running again as usual. The new April header is up, too. That's all I've got for this morning.

Hope you enjoy the Spanish moss today.





One thing you see in Florida is Spanish moss, hanging from and probably killing the trees. But, it's pretty. And, my dad, while riding his bike, saw some good examples of pretty trees he thought I might like to photograph.

This is dad explaining the shot.

And, here I tried to get that shot.

And here too.
Did I get it dad?
The sun was very high in the sky - it didn't help.

On our little bike ride to look at trees, we saw many fine specimens.

We also saw plenty of swampy marshland.
Picturesque swampy marshland, no?
I liked it.

Look at that seriously huge vine!

We also saw this tree.
He's the tallest kid in his class.

This is the path back to the park.
I thought it was pretty nice, too.
Also had some nice moss hanging around.

Here's a close-up of the moss, for good measure.

Thanks, dad, for showing me around the pretty parts. It was a nice bike ride.

See you all tomorrow with some more from the Europe trip.

Random Europe Downloads, Day Three

As you read this, or sometime before or after - today, anyway - we return to Dallas. We fly through London Heathrow during the G20 summit - great choice on my part - and then to Dallas. This is the last of the "random downloads". I'll get myself organized to comment and post appropriately at least by the end of the week. I know you will not hold your breath.

While we're flying across the Atlantic and you are reading this, if you haven't become a follower of this blog or the others you read, feel free to do so! We love company here at Ate Up Amateur! Over there to the left is a box where you too can be featured as a follower of this blog. What's more, if you sign up to read all your favorite blogs, when you sign in, all the updates are there for you in one place - simplicity. Give it a try!

Once again, wonky spacing. Sorry!

And, I do have a new April header, but it'll have to wait until I'm stateside. So April Fool's on you. It isn't really still March for most of the world. But, here at Ate Up Amateur we'll lengthen it for one more day. OK, on with the show.

A very overexposed photo of S in Amsterdam.
This is the period of time when the camera was on the wrong setting.
This sculpture is in front of the Rijksmuseum.

This is out our hotel window in Bielefeld.
It was snowing. That was the point of the photo.
Not very effective.
The city, however, I can report, does exist.

We lit a candle in reverence at the Cologne Cathedral.
There WILL be other posts about this place.
Amazing.

The newest stained glass at the Cologne Cathedral.
Designed by Gerhard Richter in 2007.

The Brandenberg Gate from the old East Berlin side.

Some lovely blooms we passed as we walked between the
Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag, Berlin.
We did not go in the Reichtag, sadly.
The line was days long.

A tribute to Mozart in Vienna.
Don't you think a treble clef of pansies would look nice in my yard?

A cool gate, and a cool building through the cool gate.
On an overcast day.
I chose to leave the tree in the shot.
Now I'm not so sure that was a good decision.

OK, so that's it for now. Until I'm back on American soil...