Windsor castle is the home of kings and queens for centuries. Also St George’s church is nextdoor, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married. I was allowed admittance for services only, no touring, so I enjoyed a 30 minute sermon.

The church is divided in half, making the ceremony more intimate. I comfortably sat where royalty sat, to watch the sermon. The church is also site of tombs and memorials. King George VI (Kings speech), Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) and Princess Margaret (QEll sister) are interred in a memorial chapel. The coffin of Henry VIII is also buried here.

Windsor Castle burned in 1992, after 5 years of rebuilding, there is little remnant of charred wood. The castle wasn’t as cold and drafty as I expected.

The state rooms were posh, high painted ceilings, and expansive Turkish rugs. The countryside was lovely, green pastures, Thanes meandering with swans swimming.

The blitz lasted 9 months of unrelenting bombing, London was the main target but 16 cities, killing 60,000 civilians. The Germans desiccated the area around St Paul cathedral, where the their aim was to take down the stock exchange. In actuality, the Brits had already dispersed their central stock exchange. This picture shows Saint Pauls Cathedral surrounded by post World War II modern buildings. How did the British win the war, the Brits out maneuvered the Germans.

The British are not particularly organized but when they put their mind to it they excel. They caught a large German spy ring and offered them death or work with the British. Half chose death as they were die hard Natzi but the other half worked with the Brits. The other maneuver was the double cross committee, aka XX, actor David Niven was a member, who would think up ideas to scramble messages and relay false info to the Germans using the spy’s under the direction of Brits. Lastly, the Brits decoded the Enigma code, made famous by the film, The Imitation Game.

The Commonwealth fought with the British, against German, in fact Canadians had heavy casualties.

The Norwegians in their gratitude, send a Christmas tree directly from Oslo, Norway, set up prominently at Trafalgar Square annually. Simon, traveling to London for 2 days told me his Father fought in World War II as a merchant marine was on the boat when the first tree was delivered to the British people.

The symbol of British resistance was St Paul’s Cathedral. Today, modern skyscrapers post WWll replace the downed buildings.

I was your typical Oxford tourist; first thing out of my mouth was where is the University. In actuality the university is all of Oxford; the campus surrounded me.Known as one of the oldest universities in the English speaking world, Oxford doesn’t disappoint.

Notably:

◦ The stairwell from the Harry Potter scene was filmed here at Christ Church. The Great dining hall was not filmed here because of the small space. So Warner Brothers scoped out the Great Dining spaces of Oxford and returned to the studios to film.

◦ The Oxford daughter was immortalized by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s adventures in Wonderland 1865.

◦ JRR Tolkien (author of the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings) took the towers from Oxford University for his story, The Two Towers. A dual edged sword Tolkien became famous in his lifetime and yet he was a very private man. He would find devotees in his home following him, calling him, he finally had to disconnect his phone and move. Tolkien passed in 1973, Oxford.

◦ CS Lewis author of Chronicles of Narnia wrote about the children who see a lamp post, original lamp post in Oxford.

◦ Tolkien and Lewis were good friends and at one point they taught at Oxford at the same time. Imagine being a literary major at that time!

◦ Notable alumni: Albert Einstein, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Steven Hawkins, Oscar Wilde, Bill Clinton, High Grant.

Walked thru University Park to the Natural history Museum, where the highlight was the skeleton including DNA, of the extinct dodo, a large kind of pigeon that lived on an island off the Indian Ocean. The road to extinction likely began when the dodo lost the ability to fly because there were no predators. When man invaded, they were easy to catch. Even though they were foul tasting, still the bird became extinct in the 1680.

The gargoyles on St Mary’s church made a gargling sound when the water runs out, thus called gargoyles.

The Bear Inn is the oldest pub in the quaint town of Oxford. A distinctive feature of the Bear is a collection of over 4,500 snippets of neckties. Tie ends were clipped with a pair of scissors in exchange for half a pint of beer. These are now displayed in glass-fronted cases on the walls and even the low ceiling.