A Walk Along the Thames

Although I have driven through a fair amount of countryside on the way to class, airports and other destinations  I haven't spend very much time in the actual countryside. For the most part, we've only stayed in cities--Oxford, London, Dublin, Edinburgh. Because of this, I'm not frequently far from roads, cars and other general busyness.

That's why I enjoyed our walk along the Thames a few weeks ago. We were still in Oxford, but we were away from everything. We got off the bus in downtown Oxford, walked down some steps to the riverbank and within five minutes we were immersed in the peace of nature.

Walking down the path with the river on one side, houseboats floating near the edge and fields with various animals grazing on the other, it was easy to focus on spend time with friends, away from the distraction of the city.

We did the Thames walk as a Travel Writing class (Sarah couldn't come but Libby tagged along) so there were seven of us total; a perfect size group for the excursion.

It all started when Dr Schweitzer did the Thames walk in September only to find that the pub located by the Iffly Lock wasn't open. It's only open on weekends so she had to walk back quite hungry with very little to tide her over before she returned to civilization. When she mentioned this is us, we, as a class, became fascinated by this pub, not accessible by car, located on a river and only open a few days a week. Such an enigma that of course we had to go.

So on Friday morning we all met up to do the Thames walk and then have lunch at the Isis Farmhouse pub. As I said, there were seven of us--Dr Schweitzer, Libby, Caitlin, Austin, Collier, Kenzie and myself and we were able to get to know each other better.

When I dressed that morning I put on enough layers so that I wouldn't be cold--I pretty much hate being cold. I kept thinking that his English weather I'd been hearing about would kick in (spoilers: it finally has) and add in the fact that we were going to walking along a river and I prepared fro the worst. It really wasn't all that necessary. It was a beautiful English cool but sunny morning and the air was crisp. That kind of air where just breathing is exhilarating because it cools your lungs and refreshes you with every breath.

We got to the Isis in no time at all; It took us between 30 and 45 minutes to get there. We passed a fair number of people while we walked  probably because it was such a nice day. I personally was amazed by the number of house boats along the river. When I've seen houseboats in America, they are usually relatively large--at least tall enough that you can stand up in it. A number of these boats seemed too small to even get around in, but maybe that's because building in general are small here and they really don't need/aren't used to having a lot of place to occupy.

I digress.

When we got the the Isis we had to wait 30 minutes until they began serving lunch. They don't start serving food until 12:30pm, though they do start serving drinking at 9:30am. What? Who exactly is going in for drinks at the Isis Farmhouse at nine in the morning? It's five o'clock somewhere.

We went to check out the Iffly Lock while we waited. The lockkeeper house was really pretty and so was the area around the lock, What I didn't especially appreciate were the ducks (or were they geese?) roaming around. It was obvious that people frequently feed these birds because they were walking right up to us without any hesitation. Now, I wouldn't say I'm afraid of geese per se, but I really don't like when they walk up to you and expect things from you. It freaks me out and this is why you shouldn't feed the birds in this situation (no matter what the woman from Mary Poppins says). They begin to expect and rely upon humans to feed them, which isn't good. Especially since they can get vicious whenever you don't feed them.

After wasting time at the lock we headed back to the Isis to have drinks before it officially became lunch time. We were sitting outside on a picnic table to enjoy the shine sun for a while when we noticed a huge group approaching  This seemed to be our cue to hurry up before they invaded so we headed inside and up to the bar to order. It turned out that that large group had ordered in advance so we couldn't order yet anyway. This should give you an idea of how small this place is. With what I imagine is a very small kitchen they can only take so many orders at a time.

This gave us time to think about what we wanted. Because it's so small they only had two things on the menu for the day. Ploughman's lunch (cheese, sandwiches, salad etc...) and broccoli soup, both kind of pricy (for me at least). Because I'm a picky eater, I was considering just getting some apple cake that looked really good but determined that I should eat some real food because we had to walk back. So I ordered the soup, which disappointed me. For a pretty pathetic, yet typically Amy reason: it tasted too healthy. It literally tasted like pureed broccoli. And I like broccoli, just not pureed  Usually if you are going to make a cream of broccoli soup (at least in America), you add a fair amount of cheese making it broccoli cheese soup. This soup had some cheese on it, but really just sprinkled on top and not that much. So, not what I wanted at all. The bread was delicious though.

So, the food definitely wouldn't prompt me to return to the Isis Farmhouse, but the atmosphere would. There's something about a pub that you cannot access by car. There's a nice yard out front, and the building is white and beautiful. In the back I could see the autumn colors dancing together: green grass, red and orange leaves, brown tree. The inside is decorating in an eccentric yet homey way. It's a pub at which you want to curl up with a book. It's definitely a place I would visit often if I lived on the river.

I don't know if I'll ever get back to the Isis Farmhouse, but I was happy to go on a little adventure, exploring parts of Oxford I hadn't yet been able to. And isn't that what traveling is all about.