Oxford, Quickly

High StreetSaturday, we are picked up by Lushi in the long BMW for the hour-plus drive to Oxford, where we have booked in for three days at the Old Bank Hotel in the High Street. It's a little tricky the last few blocks, as the High Street is forbidden to vehicles save deliveries and local taxis during the day. We find a six-mile detour that cuts into the back of the hotel just before the other end of the street closing, and check into a lovely room overlooking High Street, Oxford Colleges, and the medeival edifice of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. We set out in the drizzle to wander a few blocks of back alleys to arrive at the Bear Inn, the oldest pub in Oxford, dating to the 1200's. Low dark beamed ceilings, a smokey stone fireplace and taps featuring Fuller's London Pride and ESB, a pint of which goes down well. We wander Oxford for a bit, and then head back in the rain for a cocktail at the Quod bar, followed by a nap in our luxurious room.

At five, we break out our Elume-brand Covid home tests, for which we've set up monitored online appointments (someone in I'm guessing the Phillipines watches by phone camera to see that you swab properly) and them the test fluid goes into a small device connected to phone by bluetooth. The monitor hangs up, and the results will be ready in 15 minutes. We are absolutely gob-smacked when the results come back POSITIVE!! After a few minutes of shock, we call for the manager, who tells us on the phone that by current UK rules we must isolate in the hotel room for TEN DAYS. He says they'll do everything they can for us, include getting some additional tests first thing Monday.

Old Bank HotelWe send to the Whiskey Shop across the road for a delivery of scotch, rum and vodka to help keep the prices down a small bit, and order room service from dinner. We go to bed wondering what the heck will happen. Sunday brings the Sunday Times and FT - enough reading for hours. We read, order room service lunch, and try for hours to get Netflix to work somehow on the room TV. No luck. Not a bad day of relaxing, but nine more?

Monday morning Dove the manager sends up two covid home tests (not monitered, and no good for getting on a plane and re-entering the US. They turn out negative, however, so we begin searching for a clinic where we can go and get official tests complete with Fit to Fly certs. By four pm we've done the tests, and in 20 Radcliff Observatoryminutes have results by phone that confirm negative and contain link to get and print the FTF. Free, we wander around taking in the sights of Oxford for a couple of hours, and book our last dinner in Oxford and of the trip.

10 Ship Street is a cozy local-award winning restaurant tucked away in a small street between colleges. The provide a tasty martini while we browse the eclectic and interesting menu. Another favorite of Troy's is on the menu—devilled kidneys with mustard, which she follows up with dry-aged pork belly, for the rich dinner award. I go lighter with tempura courgette flower, and then a lovely grilled Brixham plaice accompanied by sea beans. We pair all with a delicious bottle of a different Langhe Nebbiolo.

We will head to the airport for our scheduled flight home first thing in the morning, so our three-day visit to Oxford has amounted to one pub beer, three hours of Oxford sightseeing, one lovely dinner, and an almost 2,000 pound hotel bill.

Afterword:

We arrived home to an email that good friends had also just returned from England, and had had the same results with Elume test kits. We both received an email from Elume a day later indicating that the kits we had had been declared defective. No offer of repayment or compensation, no note of apology. Avoid that brand.

Bodleian LibraryBridge of Sighs

ST. Mary the VirginSchool ties at the Bear Inn