We had dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant and then headed to the theatre. All the girls were sworn to secrecy about which show we were seeing, but I had a feeling I knew which one it was. Then when someone said they could see the "green glow" of the sign on the theatre, I was sure: WICKED! That was a fabulous show! As always, I cried to witness it. Sigh...
The nexy day, Kate, James and I headed up to Northumbria National Park, which is where we stayed to do our Great North Run, which took place in Newcastle. On Sunday, we met up with Kate's friend, Rowena, for the race. There were over 50,000 race numbers given out, but I think in the end only about 40,000 runners showed. And at least half of them were in front of us, waiting to use the port-a-potties!
Despite my sound advice, Kate decided to participate, even though she was ill. We walked almost the entire 13.1 miles, stopping frequently between miles 9 and 13 for Kate to visit the First Aid stations. But, we made it across the finish line, and straight to the fish and ship shop! I won't be doing one of these ever again, though--my poor knees can't handle the impact.
We hung around the area for a few more days, mainly in Alnwick (pronounced AN ick). There's a castle here where many of the Harry Potter scenes were filmed, but it cost a lot just to enter the grounds, and since Kate and I could hardly move, we decided against that. We did visit Barter Books, which is one of the largest second-hand bookstores in the country. It was SO COOL! Then we went home to have dinner and play a little game of Upwords, which is basically Scrabble in 3D! Despite the pain, it was a really fun weekend.
Wednesday Kate's best friend Kate and I went to London for some sight-seeing and shopping. My legs were dying, and my GOOD knee decided to stop working mid-day. But I managed to hobble around enough to get some video of the city. We didn't to the Millenium Eye thing because the son didn't come out til later in the day, and by then I could hardly move. :-(
When we got back to Oxford, Kate and I met Kate, James and his housemate Adam for a little Indian cuisine at Cafe Spice. The looks on our faces say it all--yummy! Since it was just across the street from James' house, we walked home. Kate decided the boys should carry me because my knee was hurting. I was mortified and loving it all at the same time!
Thursday, Kate and I did some more shopping in a little town called Reading (pronounced RED ing), so I didn't take any photos of that. It's a small town with not a lot to offer but some good shopping. For dinner, we went back to Oxford and had a Lebanese feast! Not sure why I didn't get any pictures of that...
Friday it was James' turn to look after me. We rode bicycles through Oxford that day, and I got to see several of the Oxford University campuses--even the halls where C.S. Lewis stayed when he attended Magdalene College! I also visited the Ashmolean Museum, which is one of the oldest in the country. We went by the Eagle and Child pub, which is where the Inklings--C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein and friends--met often, and also The Bear, which is the oldest continuously running pub in the country, if not all of Europe. I took my video camera with me that day, but not take any still shots, so if you wanna see it, I guess you'll have to come over and watch the video!
The last part of my trip is yet to come...
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