The Delightful Mr Dahl
Trip Start
May 31, 2010
1
13
25
Trip End
Jun 22, 2010
Marlow, England, United Kingdom
Thursday, June 10, 2010
This week we are in the middle of England and today we do what we came here to do..........visit the Roald Dahl Centre in Great Missenden. Mr Dahl instigated this entire trip. So we need to get a train and drag all of our stuff to his place, then on to Marlow for the night.
Meanwhile, I hate to leave Oxford. There is just so much here. The Bodleian Library has over 12 million books The Ashmolean Museum has shrunken heads and is right across the street. As Kieran says, "I am sleeping across the street from a dodo bird".
Jamie's Italian was amazing. You had to queue up to get in.....no reservations. We didn't wait long. It was busy and had a nice hum. Gorgeous bread and fresh veg in the window. The napkins look like your grandmother's tea towel but say "Jamie's Italian". We had a crab bruschetta for a starter, Kieran had squid ink angel hair with scallops and I had a truffle tagliatelle. Oh so good. The bread was alarmingly delicious. Then Kiki was too full for toffee pudding but I had the best coffee I have ever had. It was the coffee of your dreams. Strong but not bitter, foamy, creamy. I had two glasses of a Puglian chardonnay and the total was only 43L. What a deal. We'll miss you, Jamie!
Oh, I forgot to tell you that it is exam time here in Oxford. The candidates are required to dress in subfusc (black gown). Each wears a carnation - white for first year, pink for second and red for third and final exam. When they have completed the exams, the partying begins. Their heads and shoulders are covered with party hats, broken eggs, confetti, silly string, champagne and many other things. The candidate is carried along by his companions and subjected to extreme celebratory rituals. It certainly added to the atmosphere.
Well. when we got to the train station, our train was going to cost 35L ($51) take an hour and a half, and involve four train changes. The ticket agent suggested we might prefer the bus. So we boarded a doubledecker turquoise blue bus and took it to Aylesbury for 8L. Then we walked about five blocks to the train station and got a train to Great Missenden (3.90L or $5.69) We visited the Roald Dahl Museum . It was a very nice museum. We investigated buying books and shipping them and were told we could order them online for a 30% discount, which would definitely cover shipping. Then we looked into a train from Great Missenden to Marlow. It cost 25L and involved 3 changes of train (4 trains) It was suggested we try a taxi. The taxi cost 25L also, plus it delivered us right at the door of the hotel and the driver took care of our bags. One could get spoiled. In the US, you get on a train and get off at your destination. It isn't quite like that here.
Here is a London Times article about the town and hotel where we are staying tonight.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/england/article7143444.ece
Kieran
Just as I was settled down we had to use the trains again. But not at first, we took a bus before we got on the trains. A bus to where we wanted to go was only 8 pounds. A train would have been 35 pounds. The bus led us to the train station where we went to the town of Great Missenden.
This town was near the home of one of my favorite authors' home, Roald Dahl. The people who don’t know who he is will probably know the books Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and the BFG. They had a few of his things in the museum, like his pilot outfit, but I already knew most of the information.
After we went through the museum we got a taxi to our hotel in Marlow. It was a silent 30 hour drive. We had to get the grumpy taxi driver. The hotel is on a lake that has a water fall. It is really pretty.
For dinner and lunch we ate in the hotel bar. I had pumpkin ravioli and Grandma had a steak sandwich. Mine was really good and I think hers was to. But to me mine looked better so no jealousy today.
I don’t have pictures of it yet and it is dark here so I will post them in the morning. You should be able to look at them when you get up.
