Holy Harry Potter!

This weekend we finished up our Christmas shopping and visited a few new places. Friday, we took a bus to Bicester Village (pronounced 'Bister'). A market town of Saxon origin, Bicester Village is now the home a rather large Retail Outlet mall with shops from every designer from Paris, back to the States. Honestly, at first we were a little disappointed, the USD exchange rate is still pretty awful ($2.06 for every GBP). Most of the places were places we could visit on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and pay the same in dollars as we would in pounds here. So we left the shopping centre and followed the church steeple in the skyline. A nearby footpath lead us to the St. Edburg church graveyard where we saw headstones from WWI all the way back to the late 1700's. The place was so well cared for and neat, it was a beautiful place. You really should take a look at all the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/amypvaughan

After passing be the church, I used my shopping-senses to sniff out the old market square and it was there we found the kind of shopping we were hoping for. A lot of one-of-a-kind shops, second-hand, antique, and local stores. Some tucked in and hiding down little alleyways. Next, we stopped off at The Penny Black, a local freehouse where we had a nice fireside lunch where we warmed and rested ourselves before heading back out.

Today, we finally managed to get ourselves over to Christ Church College.
We were really looking forward to visiting this particular college for a few reasons. First, it is where they filmed several scenes from the Harry Potter movies, it is also where Lewis Carroll lived and worked on the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the large bell steeple designed by the architect Christopher Wren. I also learned while I was there that Cahterine of Aragon once prayed here at St. Fireswide's monument in the chapel.

Unfortunately, my digital camera went on the fritz and I had to use my phone camera. Though it is a really nice camera, most of the interior shots were too dark. But I have posted up the best of them for you to see. Let me know what spots you recognize from the movies!

Since we will be back in the States come this Wednesday, I am not too sure how often or if I will post anything new before the New Year. So in case I don't I hope everyone has a safe and very Happy Christmas and New Years!

Thanks to everyone who'd been reading! I am sure we'll have lost more interesting posts coming 2008!