Oxford in July

So what about our adventures in London then? Well, we haven't even told you about our first visit yet. We went sightseeing by bus first and then by foot. We saw Harry Potter's train station as well as Richard Lionheart's old castle. We visited the bathrooms close to Big Ben and from the queue we had a great view over the Thames and London Eye. Other important stops were of course Trafalgar Square with the Lord Nelson statue, Picadilly Circus, St James Park, where some of us played football or relaxed, and Buckingham Palace, where the queen was auctually at home (the flag was up).

The second visit, the shopping day, started on Oxford Street for some and in Camden for others. In Camden we tried chocolate fountain dipped fruit and marshmallow sticks before buying really cool clothes, hats and jewellery. At lunch we met under the giant Freddie Mercury statue you can see above. After that we went to Covent Garden, Harrod's or Oxford Street depending on personal preference. A nice day overall, a few drops of rain but no showers.

It's only seven hours til the Arlanda group leaves Oxford and now everybody but Emma is sleeping. That our trip ends doesn't mean the blog must, though. Students, who want to add blog posts, just email Emma.

Yesterday we went to London. We will tell you more about that later today, but since Swedish newspapers have reported about a chaotic situation in London I just want you not to worry. This happened far away from where we were and after we had left. We just had a great day and most of the students are probably unaware of what's happening in Tottenham.

So finally we went punting, which means we pushed a long metal pole against the river bottom, while standing on a long flat-bottomed boat. Actually, only one person stood up in each boat, while the other four just enjoyed the slow cruise along the beautyful river. Punting might seem easy, but when your pole gets stuck in the low hanging branches on the sides of the river it's a challenge. One student even fell into the water, but he's not Swedish of course, since all Swedes except leader Emma are excellent punters. From the river we saw St Hildas College and Christchurch - an enchanting scenery. This is the very same river, where Alice in Wonderland used to go rowing with her author Lewis Carroll. Alright, I mean the little girl Alice, whom he wrote the novels for and about, but still quite thrilling, right?

Last night we were partying hard. Starting at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant we got a chance to celebrate one girl having a birthday, and another leaving Oxford earlier. Don't misunderstand us. Her leaving us earlier was of course something sad to us, but her still being there at the time was worth celebrating, for sure. After that it was time for our last disco. The theme was "Black & White", but if you associate that to good and evil I guess our red devils below were quite properly dressed.

Students helping each other out in the Blenheim Palace maze.

On Sunday we went to Blenheim Palace. It was very nice - a sunny day in the end of July. What we saw was of course the palace, built in the early 18th century. We also visited a "secret garden", perhaps not so secret, since it was on the map. Other interesting things were an organ in the wonderful "long library", a maze in the garden where some of us lost our way (picture above), a butterfly house and a waterfall in the far end of the garden (picture below). Actually there are several gardens. One is a rose garden where WW2 Prime Minister, who's actually born in this palace, proposed to his wife to be, Clementine.

The waterfall