Welcome to Oxford!

Earlier this year Delta advertised a great Skymiles deal to London. Our good friends Peter and Janice (we've been on many many adventures with them!) recently moved from London to Oxford, so Paul decided to take advantage of the Delta deal and go for a long weekend in Oxford.

The trip was short - I took an overnight flight on a Wednesday and came back Sunday, which only gave me about 3 days total. With the flight time to Europe (8 hours there, 9 back) I wasn't sure about such a short trip (ugh, jetlag), but it worked out really well. Would do again!

I landed at Heathrow on a Thursday morning, and took a bus direct from the airport to Oxford. It was easy and comfortable, and I saw a lot of sheep and took a little nap. Janice and Peter greeted me in Oxford, and I dropped my bag off at their apartment before heading out for the day. We started at Hinksey Park right next to their apartment, and walked towards downtown via the new Westgate mall. We had lunch at the atmospheric Vaults and Garden, a cafe/restaurant in a 1320 addition to the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

After lunch we climbed up to the top of the church, pretty much right above the restaurant. There was a great view of all of Oxford, especially the Radcliffe camera which is one of the most photographed sites in the city. Highly recommended.

The three amigos in Oxford.

A small pond in the park next to the apartment.

Janice and Peter being casual in downtown Oxford.

There are historic buildings all over the city. But the most important thing in this picture is FUNGRY.

The Vaults and Garden restaurant.

Climbing up the spiral staircase at the church. Not a lot of room for two-way traffic.

Narrow doorways up at the top.

The postcard view of the Radcliffe Camera.

Oxford is a quaint historic town.

A bunch of University-related buildings.

Old graffiti at the top of the church.

Inside the chapel.

There are family crests like this all over Oxford.

We spent some time walking around the center of Oxford, passing the "Bridge of Sighs" (which is actually similar to the Rialto Bridge in Venice, not the namesake Bridge of Sighs), and walking down a little alley for a drink at the historic Turf Tavern before visiting Blackwell's bookshop.

The bridge.

Narrow little alley.

Having a proper pint at the Turf Tavern.

Blackwell's looks small from the outside, but is a huge multi-level bookstore. This part is the basement.

Our next stop, the Bodleian Library, is one of the most famous and impressive sights in Oxford. You have to sign up for a tour, and it's worth it. The oldest part of the building is from 1487, and thousands of priceless historic books line the shelves. We also visited the adjacent history of science museum, a free museum with a variety of scientific items on display.

The outside of the library.

The ground floor. A lot of movies are filmed in this room. No pictures are allowed in the main library room.

The outside of the history of science museum. There's a unicorn!

Some of the historic objects on display in the museum.

Neat vines on a building.

After leaving the library and museum, we walked by Balliol College and decided to take a look inside. Oxford University has a number of separate colleges, many of which can be visited with a small entry fee. They typically have an atmospheric central courtyard, a Harry Potter-esque dining hall, and a chapel. Balliol was founded in 1263, and is worth a gander if you're passing by. Next we walked through the covered market in downtown Oxford, which was closing up for the day, but there was a new microbrewery (nano-pub) called Teardrop that was still open. It's run by the folks at Church Hanbrewery, and featured some beers that were a step above the typically bland beers that are served at pubs around town.

Dining hall in Balliol College.

A scene that just screams Oxford.

There were a lot of weird little guys on the walls.

Balliol College.

A typical Oxford street scene. Lots of bikes; cute little shops.

An old cemetery right in the middle of town.

A busy pedestrian street. Janice likes the old building on the left.

Some beers in the covered market.

It was a bit too cold and cloudy for boating.

Our last stop of the day was dinner and drinks along Cowley Road, which is lined with a variety of restaurants and funky shops. It's a short walk from downtown. We had a great Turkish meal at Antep kitchen followed by a pint at the Library Pub. Pro-tip: try the "turnib" juice at Antep. ;)

So much meat!

Peter with his giant delicious dinner.

The Libary Pub.

Janice and Peter in the Library pub.

After a successful but exhausting day exploring Oxford, we took a taxi home. I still had two full days to explore Oxford - coming up in the next post!

Goodbye Cairo!

For our last day in Cairo we started with a stroll through Zamalek to the Aisha Fahmy Palace. The weather this day was amazing, with sunny bright blue skies. Along the way we came across the Zamalek Art Fair, features some craft vendors and what seemed like a battle of marching bands!

The Fahmy palace was recently renovated and reopened in 2017. It provides a window into the life of the aristocracy of Egypt in the early 1900s. It was built for King Farouk's army chief. The palace houses a museum with rotating exhibits and lavish interior design. We weren't able to snap many pics, since we weren't sure if we were even allowed to take photos, so you can visit this link for some good pics of the inside. It's an interesting stop if you're staying in Zamalek, but not worth going out of the way unless you're particularly interested in early 20th century houses. It does have nice (but small) grounds with a great view across the Nile.

There was a coke truck at the art fair!

The leafy streets of Zamalek.

Crafts for sale at the art fair.

View from the palace across the Nile.

Recently restored palace.

The exhibit in the basement was about the last kings of Egypt.

The main hall was impressive, with large stained glass windows.

From here we went to lunch at another restaurant we'd highly recommend called Zooba. This restaurant features upscale interpretations of Egyptian street food. We had some ful, taamiya, shawarma and koshari. Delicious! The space is really small, though, so try to come off hours for a spot to sit. We waited for about 15 minutes for a counter spot.

26th of July, one of the main business streets in Zamalek.

Fresh bread on the street.

Oranges for sale.

Lunch at zooba.

The koshary wasn't our favorite (go to Koshary Tahrir!) but all of the food was really good.

After a pit stop back at the AirBnB, we decided on a downtown walking tour starting from Midan Orabi, where we met Alex, and ending up near Tahrir Square. Paul and David had spent a couple days downtown in the beginning of our time in Egypt, but Thomas and Alex were both interested in seeing what it was like. There are several streets that are now pedestrian only, a welcome addition to downtown. A number of 19th century buildings have also been renovated and cleaned, especially on the main squares. After strolling for a while, we ended up at the Tahrir location of Le Poire, and Egyptian cafe chain. The place was packed and we were luckily able to find a table upstairs. The service here was really bad and due to its location and western appeal it was very overpriced. We'd recommend avoiding.

Dog on a car: downtown edition.

One of the new pedestrian streets, lined with restaurants and cafes.

Giant shawarmas!

Identical buildings, but the one on the left has been cleaned and renovated.

There are a couple of elaborate 19th century buildings in downtown.

If you're tired of dogs on cars, here's cats on scooters!

Beautifully restored Talat Harb square.

After our break at the cafe, we walked across the Kasr Al-Nile bridge towards the Cairo Tower to take in the sunset views of the city. The walk wasn't too bad, and we avoided the panic-inducing Tahrir traffic crossings by taking the metro tunnels under the roads. When we arrived at the tower we purchased tickets and queued up. The wait was much longer than we expected, since restaurant and tower visitors share the same elevator, with preference given to the restaurant patrons. It ended up taking around an hour to get up the elevator and enjoy the view. Luckily, we made it to the top about 10 minutes before sunset and the view was absolutely stunning!

Walking across the bridge to Zamalek.

The Cairo tower, built in 1961, is the tallest structure in Egypt.

The elevator lobby had some nice mosaics.

You can see the pyramids of Giza in the distance!

We arrived just in time for sunset.

The red pyramid and bent pyramid were also visible to the south.

Sunset through the Giza haze was beautiful.

Sunset Nile views.

View towards the citadel and the mosques of Mohammed Ali and Sultan Hassan.

The Ritz Carlton just across the Nile.

Great view of the skyscrapers lining the Nile, and the gardens of Zamalek.

Taking in the views!

Alex, Thomas, and David with the Nile.

Sunset was stunning.

Goodbye, sun!

As a fun side-note, there was a young (11? 12? -year old) Egyptian boy who seemed to be visiting the tower alone. He wasn't too interested in waiting in line and tried to cut people at every possible moment. Unfortunately, he'd met his match in Thomas and Alex, who were having none of his sneakiness and kept sending him to the back of the line. Nearby visitors thought the situation was hilarious and gave us thumbs up and thank yous. The kid looked a bit like Manny from the TV show Modern Family so the hour long wait up, and then the line back down, was mostly filled with conversation about how to thwart Manny.

Thomas and Paul, with Manny behind in a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. Nice try, Manny, no cuts!

From the tower we decided to have dinner in Doqqi, a relatively modern neighborhood just southwest of the Nile river across from Zamalek. A short Uber ride later and we were at Garbi (Greek for barbeque), a self-described Greek restaurant. The restaurant was modern and trendy, with lots of young people smoking shisha and eating. There were some large TVs showing a soccer game and a wall that was covered in ivy that people took pictures in front of throughout the evening. The interior design reminded us of some of the places we'd seen in Bogota more than anything in Cairo. The only odd thing about Garbi is that there was actually no Greek food here. The menu featured a mix of Egyptian and western food, similar to Crave, but better. David managed to find a beef gyro, but wouldn't actually call it a gyro when it arrived. That said, everything here was great and we'd recommend the place if you're in the neighborhood, or looking to visit a non-touristy area.

Oreo milkshake!

David and Alex with dessert.

After dinner we bid adieu to Alex and Ubered back to our AirBnB to pack and rest up before our flight. Our flight departed Cairo at 4:30am the next morning and Thomas's was at 3:45am so we slept just for a bit, and then shared a ride to the airport.

So ends our trip to Egypt. We had a great time. The many little annoyances of travel in Egypt don't outweigh the good things about this country and its people. Without doubt Cairo is the most chaotic place we've visited in our trips and it makes the other developing countries we've visited in Latin America and southern Africa seem much more put together. Paul's love for this place is easy to see, and with patience and understanding it's possible to have an excellent time here.

This also wraps up David's three week goodbye ARC tour. In a couple days he starts his new job with FHWA. Taking the time to make this long trip was valuable and even with the unpaid leave he's happy he made the effort to explore two new (Barcelona & Egypt) and one familiar (Athens) place.