{"id":906,"date":"2014-10-06T01:13:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T01:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=906"},"modified":"2014-10-05T16:23:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T16:23:06","slug":"england-days-9-and-10-high-tea-in-oxford-and-then-heading-for-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/england-days-9-and-10-high-tea-in-oxford-and-then-heading-for-home\/","title":{"rendered":"England, Days 9 and 10 \u2013 High Tea in Oxford and Then Heading for Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"View<\/a>

View of the streets of Oxford from the top of the Saxon Tower of St. Michael at the Gate<\/p><\/div>\n

Our last day in England. We were all pretty tired from the adventures of the previous days and ready to take it easier. A final trip into Oxford\u00a0started with some of us climbing the\u00a0four flights of stairs to the top of the Saxon Tower of St. Michael at the Gate<\/a>, the oldest building in Oxford. The top is open and you can get a marvelous view of the city of Oxford in all four directions.<\/p>\n

Having gotten our exercise, the day culminated with us in a small, atmospheric caf\u00e9, The Grand Cafe, on the High Street.<\/p>\n

From its website: \u201cThe site of the first coffee house in England (according to Samuel Pepy’s Diary, 1650): The Grand Caf\u00e9 has now become an Oxford institution. During the day serving lunch, cream teas and high teas all perfectly at home in the opulence of the marble-pillared, gold-leafed building. At night The Grand Caf\u00e9 is buzzing with locals, visitors and Oxford University students, taking advantage of the half price cocktails on offer.\u201d More information is available on their website: http:\/\/www.thegrandcafe.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tea<\/a>

Tea at The Grand Caf\u00e9.<\/p><\/div>\n

The place is quite small and the tables crowded close together. We weren\u2019t sure we could get Freya\u2019s pram in, but the staff helped move a few tables and chairs to make space.<\/p>\n

Other than my son, Joe, we all got the High Tea, which featured finger sandwiches (salmon and mayo and cream cheese), scones (with clotted cream and jam), hand-made chocolates, and of course, tea. This was a much more substantial meal than it sounds. The \u201cfinger sandwiches\u201d were large enough that just a couple of them were quite filling, especially when paired with a pair of generously sized scones. Scones slathered equally generously with clotted cream. I\u2019ve become a huge fan of clotted cream. The real thing has the taste of butter with the consistency of whipped cream. The Brits generally pair it with strawberry jam, but I prefer to enjoy the scone and cream unadulterated. The chocolates looked wonderful, but since they couldn\u2019t assure me they were nut-free, I had to leave them to my daughter-in-law. I have the kind of nut allergy you don\u2019t mess with. It might\u2019ve been heartbreaking under other circumstances, but by that point I was so full, I really wasn\u2019t at all concerned.<\/p>\n

The chocolates aside, the meal was satisfying and a real treat. A good way to finish out our trip to Oxford.<\/p>\n

\"B_IMG_0980\"<\/a>I spent a lot of time in the afternoon and evening cuddling the new granddaughter, knowing it would be the last time for a while. Then we had an early night, knowing we\u2019d have to be up early to get a cab into Oxford Center to catch the airline bus back to Heathrow and then the flight to Raleigh. All of that proved mercifully uneventful.<\/p>\n

We bid goodbye to Oxford and England reluctantly, but with a sense that of satisfaction that we\u2019d had a great visit with our son, daughter-in-law, and brand new grand-daughter, and a number of interesting adventures to various landmarks. Considering that we were working around the schedule of a two-month-old baby, we\u2019d packed a lot into the trip.<\/p>\n

I’m already looking forward to the English branch visiting here at Christmas and then seeing them again next summer – I hope!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our last day in England. We were all pretty tired from the adventures of the previous days and ready to take it easier. A final trip into Oxford\u00a0started with some of us climbing the\u00a0four flights of stairs to the top …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}