Oxford : Part Three

Now today just happens to be our 11th Wedding Anniversary - and as I far as I was concerned the best activity day yet!!

Yesterday on route to find an evening meal, we discovered the local Canal Group were offering Canal Boat Rides - approximately 30 minutes long on the Sunday (Today).  I have always wanted to go on a canal boat (I have to say I did get a little excited that perhaps we could make this happen - although I would like to state not anywhere near as excited as D and the three year got yesterday!!!!). We had already planned on going to this part of the canal anyway as today we were doing an 8 mile trip along (the other side of) the Oxford Canal - into Wolvercote and then back into Oxford via the Thames Path.  One of my 'bucket wishlist' for when time is no object, is to ride the Thames Path from start to finish!

We made it to the ticket office half an hour before it was all due to start - only to find a massive queue had already formed and that two boats had already gone early because of the amount of people there.  Our ticket was allocated for 11am - a lot later than we had hoped.  It was no good starting our walk - as this was going to take a few hours.......a quick shuffle of this afternoon activities and a very quick walk over to the castle to view a display of Morris Minors (it was a 100 years this year that the Morris was introduced to Oxford).  We had been informed yesterday that a large number was expected.....

Disappointment as only three had turned up......although excellent condition .... not really much to view. 

So we decided to head back to the boat ride and see if we could squeeze onto an earlier boat - and luck would have it the 10.10am boat was half empty so on we jumped!

That was soooo much fun....... I totally got the reason why people enjoy a canal holiday - there is slowing down when on holiday - and there is slowing down!!!! 

And then off we go on our planned walk!

Wonderful colours.....

Nearly every house that backed on the cancel had some kind of boat at the end of the garden - others has wonderful sheds ...... 

Local wildlife......

Our walk continued....

Finally, after nearly an hour we reached the bridge we needed to come off at....

Another 15 minutes walk along the road into Wolvercote itself, we arrived at the pub where we had decided we would try and eat lunch...... The Trout.

And so after a long lunch (as all lunches should be on holiday...... our return journey started ... back along the Thames Path back into Oxford.

An excellent day, another wonderful Anniversary.