We are so fortunate to have a wide swath of of followers and friends who are fans of the
All Souls universe! Today's post is from Ann, our guest blogger today, who was so gracious to share her adventures with us. There are a
LOT of pictures, so we will show some here on this post, then direct you to the full experience!
From Ann:
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| Bus ride to Oxford |
We landed at Heathrow at 7:05 am on June 16 and headed straight for the bus to Oxford. Our introduction to England was this crusty bus driver, who yelled at me because I was not loading my suitcase fast enough. Then he yelled out the door at the passengers coming up behind us to “hurry your asses up or I’ll leave you!” He turned out to be a complete hoot ~ entertaining us the whole way to Oxford. His driving? Like being in a Washington, DC cab. A really big DC cab!
This is the lovely little B&B we stayed in. Our room and bath was in their basement, with a separate entrance. But we ate breakfast with the owners, Hoonie and Hugh. Hugh graduated from Exeter College, Oxford University and teaches there. He was the quintessential English gentleman / professor.
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| Although it wasn't the Brown's it was a Brown's! |
“Wordlessly he closed the car’s door behind me and opened the cafe door. I stood resolutely in place, waiting for him to enter. A gust of warm, humid air carried the smell of bacon fat and toasted bread. My mouth started to water.” ADOW p. 67. We had been awake for over 24 hours, but decided to take in some of Oxford as soon as we arrived. I wanted to eat at Brown’s Cafe in the Covered Market, where Diana and Matthew had breakfast together. Our hostess sent us to this Brown’s ~ a quite upscale restaurant ~ and by the time we registered that we were not in the right place, we had already been seated. Not wanting to be the rude Americans, we stayed. Jet lag. The mother of muddled thinking. The meal was delightful, however.
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| The Bridge of Sighs |
“The vampire sat in the shadows on the curved expanse of the bridge than spanned New College Lane and connected two parts of Hertford College, his back resting against the worn stone of one of the college’s newer buildings and his feet propped up on the bridge’s roof.” ADOW, p. 27 I was awestruck to see the Bridge of Sighs in person. The beauty of Deb’s story is that she weaves what is real into her fiction. We took many photos from several angles, but this was the best. No tourists in sight. Just an Oxford don in his robes. And maybe a vampire up on the roof.
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| The Tower of Five Orders |
“My feet clattered against the linoleum floors and echoed against the stone walls as I sped through the reading room’s lattice gate, past the books guarded with velvet ropes to keep them from curious fingers, down the worn wooden stairs and into the enclosed quadrangle on the ground floor.” ADOW p. 21. The Tower of Five Orders in the Schools Quadrangle. It is so named because it is ornamented with the columns of each of the five orders of classical architecture, in ascending order ~ Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.
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Ann goes on to show us the statue of William Herbert, The Divinity School, The Sheldonion, the Ashmolean Museum, and much more! It's a fascinating personal tour, that we were happy to virtually attend! Go ahead! Take the tour with Ann!
All photos provided by Ann Daniel (and husband, Lee!). To see the photos in full resolution, click them to enlarge.
Click to Read Ann's Full Post...
Thank you, Ann!
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