Merrie Olde England, Oxford
I'm here in Merrie Olde England, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK, what what. (sorry about that last.) I'm using a somewhat wonky wifi connection in a pub, the Turf Tavern on Bath Place. Bath Place is a street, although I have wider corridors in my house (literally so) and one gets to the pub by walking through a hole in the wall. Since this connection is slow and wonky, this post will be a radio show.
The flight over from Chicago was uneventful, although there were three SF fans I knew on the same plane. I scored a seat on the mid-deck emergency exit row, so I had scads of legroom. Alas, despite the best efforts of my blood-pressure meds and Mister Jameson's finest, I couldn't get a wink of sleep on the flight.
Based on John Lowrie's recommendations, I caught the bus from Heathrow. Terminal 2 (recently opened) is where Aer Lingus lands and because I was coming from Ireland I didn't have to clear immigration in the UK. Once in Oxford, I linked up with John and we did the nickel tour of several colleges. Included was a visit to the Bodelian, John's library, which nearly had me in tears. Rare books that in the US would be locked in glass were just sitting out. I had an early dinner, and crashed, hitting the sack at 7:30 PM my time.
Today, after a breakfast in the College's dining room, we hit several museums, including most interestingly Pitt River. Named after a Victorian general, the place looks like somebody took a world-traveling hoarder's stash and made somewhat of an effort to organize it. Turns out (after touring 2/3rds or the place) that Mister Pitt Rivers was interested in how ideas became reality. Thus, for example, he collected different types of spears from around the world and displayed them together, illustrating the different ways various people tackled the same problem.
John's program is still ongoing, so he has "work" tomorrow, thus I'm on my own. Thus, after I battle the late-Victorian plumbing in my student housing room, I will hit the Museum of the History of Science, do a bit of shopping, and then taxi to the train station and on to London.
If and when I get more reliable Internet, pictures to follow. Also my comments on English Fire Codes (apparently they don't have them here) and other thoughts.
The flight over from Chicago was uneventful, although there were three SF fans I knew on the same plane. I scored a seat on the mid-deck emergency exit row, so I had scads of legroom. Alas, despite the best efforts of my blood-pressure meds and Mister Jameson's finest, I couldn't get a wink of sleep on the flight.
Based on John Lowrie's recommendations, I caught the bus from Heathrow. Terminal 2 (recently opened) is where Aer Lingus lands and because I was coming from Ireland I didn't have to clear immigration in the UK. Once in Oxford, I linked up with John and we did the nickel tour of several colleges. Included was a visit to the Bodelian, John's library, which nearly had me in tears. Rare books that in the US would be locked in glass were just sitting out. I had an early dinner, and crashed, hitting the sack at 7:30 PM my time.
Today, after a breakfast in the College's dining room, we hit several museums, including most interestingly Pitt River. Named after a Victorian general, the place looks like somebody took a world-traveling hoarder's stash and made somewhat of an effort to organize it. Turns out (after touring 2/3rds or the place) that Mister Pitt Rivers was interested in how ideas became reality. Thus, for example, he collected different types of spears from around the world and displayed them together, illustrating the different ways various people tackled the same problem.
John's program is still ongoing, so he has "work" tomorrow, thus I'm on my own. Thus, after I battle the late-Victorian plumbing in my student housing room, I will hit the Museum of the History of Science, do a bit of shopping, and then taxi to the train station and on to London.
If and when I get more reliable Internet, pictures to follow. Also my comments on English Fire Codes (apparently they don't have them here) and other thoughts.