Turkey & Quidditch

Thursday (Thanksgiving) saw us heading into London with hopes that we would be returning full of Turkey.  Since we got such an early start and wouldn't be getting back until late, since dinner wasn't scheduled to begin until 6:30, we didn't plan a busy day.  We decided to go to a few of the Christmas markets in order to do some souvenir shopping.  We started in Covent Garden and while I won't say what we purchased, I will say they are pretty sweet.  We also saw an inflatable shop that was set-up, which was interesting to say the least.

Another one of the markets was located on the Thames, across from Parliament.  Most of the shops sold food though and since we were looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner, it was mostly a bust.  We also found a book sale under a bridge as well as a skate-park full of graffiti (pictures to follow).

As 6:30 rolled around, we were still waiting for our coordinator and a third of our group.  Not to worry though, because we had a private room at an Italian restaurant for our meal.  I know what you're thinking, because I was thinking it too, "no Italian restaurant is going to serve Turkey; you're going to end up eating pasta."  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Apparently Maria knows the owners of the restaurant, and they prepared the meal especially for us.  The first course consisted of: bread, fried mozzarella, calamari, and a platter of meat (for the bread).  The fried mozzarella was easily my favorite dish thus far.  It was so much more than a mozzarella stick.  Instead, it was a fried chunk of mozzarella the size of my fist...delicious.  Next came pumpkin soup, which I'm told was alright, but didn't really taste like pumpkin.   

Then came the main course...the turkey!  Platters of very large baked potatoes were also served brought out.  The turkey was easily one of the best turkeys I have ever had (though not better than yours Grandma).  It was very tender and seemed to melt in your mouth.  Much, much better than I was expecting.

After eating as much turkey as we could, dessert was brought out.  Pumpkin pie and small, bite-sized brownies.  I passed on the pie (which everyone said was good) and ate a couple brownies instead, which were also quite good.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable meal and I think I started the holidays off right....by adding a few pounds.

We laid  low until Sunday when we took a trip up to Oxford.  For those of you who don't know, some scenes in Harry Potter were filmed at Christchurch College in Oxford.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of not doing all of this traveling in October when the weather was still nice.  Instead, we waited until the end of November where it rains multiple times a day, is very windy, and is just cold in general.

Anyway, we got off the train and since the tours of the college weren't going just yet, decided to check out a covered market that was nearby.  Other than a bakery that had some awesome cakes displayed it was kind of uninteresting.  We still had some time to kill, so we wandered through the city looking at the sites, ducking into the occasional store to warm up.

We were one of the first in line for the self-guided tour of Christchurch, hoping to beat the crowds; we were only partially successful.   The first part of the tour takes you through the cloister, which served as the location for some of the scenes in the Harry Potter films.  This turned out to be the high point for some on the tour.  I personally enjoyed the architecture in the cathedral, as well as the dining hall.  When you think about what was accomplished before the invention of 'modern' construction equipment, it's truly remarkable.

We had originally planned on heading to Carfax Tower, which is all that remains of the 13th century St. Martin's Church, after the tour, but due to the weather, we decided to skip it.  We headed back towards the train station, stopping at a pub a couple of blocks away for dinner before heading back to Reading.

-Justin

UPDATE: Pictures can be found on my facebook here.

-Barbara