Oxford

Tuesday 13th May
Oxford again. I love this city. Moored at the end of the canal where there are surprisingly few boats at the moment. Suppose it's not quite the season yet. Apart from the trains which seem to rumble constantly, it is very peaceful here.

We attempted to wind the boat in the allotted hole which is meant for boats up to 52foot. Ours is 50, so it was a nuisance when we got widthways across the canal and could get no further - the bow wedging into thick bushes and tapping on the bank wall. We gave up, went through Isis Lock and turned around there, a thing you are not supposed to do. Rules are that you should carry on to the Thames to turn, which is pretty silly. Perhaps they should do something to widen the winding hole?

On sunny Wednesday, we visited the Cezanne exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, bought some lovely cheeses from the market and bread from another, sat in the bow in the sunshine watching people cycle and walk past, then went into Jericho for our evening drink and dinner. What could be better? Dinner at Brasserie Blanc, a favourite, and we marvelled at the value once again; the bill (because we'd been able to take advantage of fixed prices before 7pm) was almost exactly the same as our Pizza Express bill; the food a million times better.

Jericho was apparently the ironworks area and then home of the Oxford University Press. Hence the lovely Old Bookbinders pub where we had a drink. Streets are really pretty, rows of Victorian terraced houses, which are now gentrified.

A lovely day.