My visit to Oxford was very brief; we arrived at the train station from Wales and quickly caught a bus through town and up the hill to where Jess lives. We did get a front seat on top of the double-decker bus which was fun! But this was about all of Oxford that I saw:

It was a really pretty small city, loaded with big old marble stone buildings and lots of parks and green spaces. It was evening by the time we got there so all we had energy to do was run to the store, make dinner, and head to bed.

The next morning I woke up early, said goodbye to Jess, and got the early bus to London to meet Kelly, and while on the bus I got a message from her; her plane was delayed and won’t be arriving until 9:20 pm! I stopped at the hotel I had booked for us, dropped off my bag, and wandered around until I found a library, planning to spend the day buried in travel guides. However shortly after I got a message from my friend Heather from the Camino! (You may remember, she is the super speedy walker they called “Rocket!”) I had written my few friends in the area asking if they were around London and if they could meet up; Heather took the afternoon off of work and suggested I come up to Cambridge for a tour! It was such a fun, unexpected day trip and she was an excellent tour guide. It was so good to see her, reminisce, and reflect on all of the things I have seen since parting in Spain. We even ended up at a pub that has over 500 beers!

While talking to Heather, who is an accomplished walker in the Uk and beyond, I was reminded of all of the plans that I had for my time in the UK: walking Hadrien’s Wall (or any one of the coast-to-coast paths), catching crop circles, walking in the Cotswolds or Cornwall, etc. My experience in Wales made me forget about all of those back-up plans to use up my time here, and now I’m leaving before I will accomplish most of them. But happily I have no regrets. Wales was exactly what I needed and didn’t know, and I would not have spent the last month differently.

I finally met Kelly at Kings Cross Station at 11:30 pm and stayed up until 2 am catching up. Today we did some quick sightseeing in London before catching our train north to Edinburgh!

Next stop: Scotland!