Friday 2 April 2010 Long Wittenham to Oxford

Friday 2 April 2010 Long Wittenham to Oxford 21km

We were both still feeling a bit knackered from the cold so instead of following the Thames Valley Route (5) up to Oxford which was about 50km via a very wiggly path we chose to find some quieter roads that at least headed toward Oxford and cut the journey in half.

The Grange B&B at Long Wittenham

As we left Long Wittenham we rode across the Thames to this view

We headed off and rode across the Thames and through a collection of classic thatch cottages.  The thing that is so amazing is that in Australia you see the odd amazing house or cottage but over here it's every house building, fence or shed.

The weather was cool but not freezing and I, for the first time on this leg of the trip, felt like riding but poor Sandy was still chesty.

We got onto the A415 and steeled our nerves for riding with traffic but were nicely surprised by a seperate cycle path the whole way to Abingdon.

Riding over the bridge into Abingdon

Once at Abingdon we rejoined the Thames Valley Route (5) to get to Oxford.  

More mud....love the Rohloff hubs

We arrived in Oxford and followed the route all the way into the City Centre without having to ride on a main road.  I'd read somewhere that Oxford was the most cycle friendly city in England and my the number of bikes out the front of houses/units/terrace houses it must be.

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We got to the YHA hostel and Sandy was handed the bike locker key on the biggest stick!!!

There are alot of cyclists here, this is the car park at the train station and there were only about 20 cars.

Yep alot of bikes

This is St George's tower......I have some history to catch up on. (Mary I've bought a book on St George)

The Oxford mound.  I thought there must be some special reason for it's existence but no it's just the pile of dirt left over from digging the moat and they didnt clean it up.

Went on the cheesy double decker bus tour, it was interesting