Friday. Arguably, Friday wasn't very English, but it was still quite fun. On Friday I spent most of the day up at RAF Croughton, the Air Force base where Neal works. Friday was Neal's Promotion Ceremony during which he became a First Lieutenant (or, if I'm continuing with the English theme, as they pronounce it, 'Leftenant'). Interestingly enough, because we were officially on an RAF base, they played God Save the Queen before they played the Star Spangled Banner. Afterwards, Neal (or as I now have to refer to him 1st Lt Wendt) put his entire monthly raise down on the bar and, as you can imagine, some drinking ensued. It was great to get to meet Neal's family including his mom, godmother, father, step-mother, sister, and three half-siblings. Upon our return to Oxford we continued to drink but I managed to leave and go home before Ian (1st Lt Helms), Blaine (LT JG Moore), and Neal (1st Lt Wendt) found the fight they were desperately looking to get into. Brian (2nd Lt Mueller) had to deal with them....
Saturday was meant to be very Oxonian, with the final day of Summer 8s, the annual intercollege Trinity term boatraces. However, it was English in another way-- grey, dreary, and rainy. So, rather than leave my warm house and go all the way down to the river, we just stayed at home. We made Shepherd's Pie (thanks to a lovely recipe supplied by Rescue Chef Danny Boome) and sort of overdid it in the sense that we now have enough Shepherd's pie to feed a small army. Oh well, it was REALLY good anyways. We then watched the Cambridge Footlights Revue on Michal's A Bit of Fry and Laurie DVDs while at the same time watching the US-Turkey game on our computers. The game was ok, not great, but the US got a very necessary come from behind win to lead them into the World Cup on a good note. I'm SO excited for the World Cup! That evening we watched Jeeves and Wooster and went to bed.
Sunday was, thankfully, very sunny and beautiful. So midday we took a nice leisurely walk through Port Meadow. The sky was blue and it was a really pretty day and it was nice to just walk around.
We got the end of the Meadow and went towards The Trout, a lovely little pub on the northern end of Port Meadow. Walking over the canal from there we discovered the remains of a Nunnery that we didn't even know was there! This of course got us quoting "Get thee to a nunnery" in unison as well as some of the better Sound of Music quotes regarding the abbey and convent. We also discovered a little community orchard with apple and cherry trees that I can't wait to go back to once the trees start bearing fruit!
When we got back we watched the England-Japan game and I was able to witness a first in terms of my football watching days. First of all, England won despite not scoring a single goal and missing a penalty kick. Secondly, Japan scored 3 unanswered goals and lost the game. How does this happen? Thats right, Japan scores and then scores 2 own goals on itself. England may as well have not been on the pitch! Well, thats not true. Again, England played a slow first half and then picked it up in the second half. Do you think the fact that both Jamie and Stevie were on in the second half is a mere coincidence? :) Anyways, I now have to stop rooting for England until June 13th (or after the England-US game). Not do give up on the England thing, we ended the night like we do most Sunday evenings, by watching the previous day's episode of Doctor Who. --Spoiler alert-- RORY!?!?!?!
Monday turned out to be quite the adventure. We decided to go the Isle of Wight and see, among other things, Yarmouth Castle. We took a ferry from Lymington which turned out to be the slowest ferry I've ever been on. However it wasn't too cold and so we got to sit on top and see where we were headed.
Once we arrived in Yarmouth we went looking for the castle. We did a lap of the city (it was pretty much 2 square blocks) but somehow missed the castle. How do you miss a castle you ask? Well, when the castle is, arguably, the LAMEST castle in existence, it is pretty easy to do. We decided on this nickname because of the fact that, from the pier, you could pretty much see all of the Castle and what it entailed. Which was pretty much nothing. See for yourself. Would you pay 5 quid to get into this lovely brick building? Well, we didn't. If anyone has been to Yarmouth Castle and can prove us wrong, please do. I may even go back to see it if you say its worth it.
Because we were disappointed by the castle, we decided to take the Coastal Path along the coast (yeah, you'd think that would be obvious but we soon learned otherwise) to the Needles and Alum Bay, two of the more well known areas of the island. We estimated it to be about 4-5 miles, a perfectly reasonable little jaunt. Oh boy, were we in for a treat.... It started off well. After a little walking inland, we got onto the Coastal Path and walked on the water alongside the Victoria Fort, heading down the coast towards Needles.
Following Victoria Fort, we reached a small town called Cowell Bay. We were told in the Visitors Information centre that we would go off the coast once we reached Cowell Bay and so we weren't too concerned when the Coastal Path took us inland and through some nice fields and around pastures.
We began to get slightly concerned when we continued to walk pretty far from the coast for quite the extended period of time, but eventually we made it back down to the coast where we were greeted by this big boardwalk with a large pier in the distance. At this point we could see the Needles and thought that we'd be walking along the water until we reached them. Again, we were in for quite the suprise. Also, as we were walking on the boardwalk, we caught up to and passed a couple walking with their two dogs. Strangely enough, we had passed them shortly after Victoria Fort. How on earth had they reached this part of the walk before us? Did they know something we didn't? Clearly they did, as you will find out.
We reached the end of this long stretch along the water and found that you could no longer continue along the water towards the Needles. So, we took the only other option and started climbing the stairs that were conveniently placed at the end of the boardwalk. This began our epic adventure. Pretty soon we found ourselves in a forest. Now when I say forest, think Narnia + the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter + Jurassic Park. Thats what we mean. What looked like a path soon turned into a sort of maze-like series of things that looked like they might maybe be something similar to paths. We wandered in a very serpentine way through the trees, knowing that if we kept the water on our right (well, where we though the water was. The forest was too think to see it) we would be going in the right direction. Each time we made it to a clearing we thought we were back on track, but soon enough, another forest would appear in front of us... Also, when we actually could see the beach, the Needles were no longer in view. We pretty much just kept walking, assuming eventually we'd find the darn Coastal Path again.
After hours (literally) in the forest (where, thankfully, we avoided the Calormens, the werewolves, the crazy teachers drinking unicorn blood, and the dinosaurs) we emerged into an area full of brush and small bushes. Finally, we could again see the Needles and as we rounded a corner, saw the car park of Alum Bay. Never have I been so excited to see a Parking Lot! However, we weren't done because we had to hack our way through some extremely violent and vindictive plants to get there, a battle that I'm afraid to say my lower legs lost.
Finally, we made it to Alum Bay and descended to the waters edge to sit on the pebbly beach and eat our long overdue picnic lunch. After enjoying our sandwiches, Goldfish, Cheez-its, and apples, we lay down and both wound up taking a short nap. I love being on the beach and really miss being somewhere were its a mere 15 minute drive to the shore. We stayed at the bay for longer than we anticipated, but considering everything that day was taking longer than we meant it to, we didn't mind.
After enjoying the bay a bit, we walked up the 186 stairs to the top of the cliffs to the Needles Amusement Park, a sort of Coney Island/Balboa Island fun zone with food and rides and games. We walked along the (clearly deliniated at this point) Coastal Path to the Needles Battery where we were hoping to get a good view of the Needles. However, because it is a National Trust site, you have to pay to get in and at this point we were both completely over it and so we just went up the new battery site.
At the New Battery they had a cool exhibit (well, I thought it was cool, Michal maybe didn't) about the rocket testing range that used to be on the Isle. It was interesting to see the documents, including blueprints and layouts of the site, that they used, as well as models of the rockets and the Propsero, the one British satellite that Britain itself launched into orbit.
Finally, when we finished in the battery, we got on a bus to drive back to Yarmouth because there was NO way we were attempting to make our way back on foot. The ride was nice, despite the overgrown trees along the side of the road threatening to take Michal's head off.
However, when we arrived back in Yarmouth on the bus we were greeted by one more suprise... the couple with the dogs walked past our bus as we were pulling in! How is that possible? Where did they go? Did they have some sort of teleporting ability? Did they just know where the actual trails were? Why did we keep seeing these silly people and their silly dogs!!Anways, we took the ferry back to the "mainland" and the train back to Ox and, after a long long day, enjoyed some leftover Shepherd's pie (still good) and watched a bit more Jeeves and Wooster to finish off a lovely English weekend...
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