A wintery visit from the US

On New Years Eve, Kit's parents flew in from the states to visit for a week. We hadn't seen them since last Christmas, so we were really excited that they decided to come for a visit. We had a blast while they were here! We visited places around Leicester, did some baby shopping, went to Oxford and Foxton Locks, and even went to the countryside for a falconry day.

On New Years Eve, we went out for a nice meal, opened presents and watched the London midnight fireworks on TV. We were all impressed by the fireworks that they shot off over the Thames and Big Ben. We lit some sparklers in the yard to celebrate and called it a night.

The next day was a sunny one, so we went to Bradgate country park for a walk and lunch.

The Elam's

Another day of the trip we had high tea at Mrs. Bridges tea room in Leicester, it was delicious!

During the middle of the week we decided to drive to Oxford for the day and see the sites. We had a wonderful day taking in the history of Oxford. Kit and I had been before but we visited different buildings this time around. I think you could spend days there visiting the different colleges and still not see everything in Oxford.

Carfax tower

99 stairs up to the top to see the views of Oxford from above.

Dave and Barb at the top of Carfax tower

Last time we were in Oxford we stumbled upon a burrito restaurant that is based off of a burrito restaurant in San Francisco. Kit and I love mexican food so this was an awesome find for us. Kit's brother Cody lives near the Mission district in San Francisco (where the burrito placed is based off of) and I would say these burritos are great for the UK, but they are so much better in San Francisco!

Bodleian Library

We decided to do the tour of the Bodliean Library which is one of the oldest library's in Europe.  In the late 16th century Thomas Bodliean took control over the redevelopment of the library and built the library that you can visit today. The library has many rare books in it and has a very strict admissions policy. As a student or staff you have to sign a document stating: 

I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.

This is the entrance area where we began our tour of the library.

This room was used as the hospital from the first Harry Potter movie.

Waiting for the tour to begin.

An old court room in the library

Upon entering the main library room we had to lock our bags and cameras in a trunk before entering the old library, so no photos but: 

Here is a picture I found from the Guardian website of what we say inside the Old Bodliean Library:

The Bodliean Library was beautiful and very old. We all enjoyed learning about the history (which I promptly forgot) and being in a place that made you feel like you were back in time.

Oxford is run on a college system where students reside in their own respective college, each housed in a grand old building. Each college usually has a grassy lawn, banquet hall, and is beautifully ornate. Students take most of their classes within their college.

We walked around more of oxford and walked by the All Saints College

We also visited Christ Church College 

where they used the banquet hall as the great hall in the first Harry Potter Movie.

It was a very impressive college.

The Great Hall-

If you're a Harry Potter fan, you can just picture Harry sitting at one of these tables!

They also used these stairs as the the stairs the first year Hogwart's students had to wait on before being called into the great hall to get sorted into their houses. Hufflepuff!

Me in Harry Potter Heaven.

We had a great day in Oxford and visiting places around Leicester with Kit's folks during the week.

 Next up on the blog: the falconry day!