Oxford and Stratford Upon Avon

Yesterday I took a day trip out to Oxford and Stratford Upon Avon.

Stratford Upon Avon is a lovely little town, best known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The visit was made even better with a beautiful sunny day! We visited Anne Hathaway's cottage, the home of Shakespeare's wife, this cottage was really cute and surrounded by a beautiful garden. Took a walk along the River Avon and learnt that there is a Harvard House, where John Harvard lived with his parents before he set out to America helping found Harvard University!

Oxford, home to the oldest University in England. Oxford is an old city with quite a few things to see and do, had a look around the city but unfortunately we only had a few hours to look around so I spent most of my time visiting 'New College' one of the 39 colleges in Oxford. Mainly to see the dining room which was used as a basis for designing the dining room at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies!! It does surprisingly resemble what you see in Harry Potter movies, very cool!

Cologne, Germany

I spent the weekend in Cologne, Germany visiting Natascha who I met in July when we did our Shamrocker tour of Ireland.

Natascha and her boyfriend Sven were my personal tour guides and showed me the sights of Cologne - Cologne Cathedral, Old Town, Beer Halls, Cologne Observation Tower, Shopping district, Rhine River, Cologne Carnival Museum, Chocolate Museum etc.

We took a day trip out to Bonn, nearby University town where we visited Beethoven's birthplace and took a lovely walk along the Rhine River.

A lovely weekend away and a nice chance to experience more of Germany. Sampled the local beer, wine, tried lots of different breads, had a great goulash on Friday night at a local beer hall and Sven's friend Ryann cooked for us on Saturday night his special '13' dish :) I can even say that I have attended a German history lesson in a local German school ... Natascha is a training college teacher so I accompanied her to school on Friday morning and sat in on her teaching her history class. Couldn't understand a word of it but sat at the back of the class room and watched!