Oxford Again

When Beth and I were in Europe three summers ago we spent 3 days in Oxford.  It was one of the many highlights of that trip.  This time we are going back to Oxford, for 6 days!  I discovered that Wycliffe Hall, one of the Oxford Colleges, has a summer conference designed for clergy.  This year the week long conference is titled "Heroes of Oxford, City of Saints and Scholars".  The Wycliffe Hall website describes the conference this way:

Our next annual conference will focus on Christians in Oxford over the last 1,000 years, from the young girl Frideswide through to the present day.  Learn from these ‘heroes’ in the faith - from what they did and how they prayed - to discover afresh what it means to be followers of Jesus today and to be his faithful witnesses in his world.

While I am taking in the conference the rest of the family will be free to walk about Oxford, soaking up the atmosphere of this unique and historic centre of learning in the English world.  I can't say that this experience will make me any smarter, but it will sound impressive to say "I did some studying in Oxford."  To be in the same place as so many incredible people have studied and taught over the centuries one would hope that some widsom would simply be aquired through osmosis or breathing in the air in those ancient halls of learning.

For fun here is a link to a list of many famous and significant Oxians.  The picture below is one I took of the Sheldonian Theatre the first time Beth and I were in Oxford.  Last time we took in two concerts in this building, hopefully there will be similar opportunities this time.

An Overview

For me, the choice to visit Europe was a simple one and I'm so happy that I will be able to take this trip with my family, since I haven't had the opportunity to take a vacation with them for the last five years. While it was indeed tempting to take a trip down to New York, there is nothing quite like visiting a land overseas.

The thing that excites me most about this trip though is the opportunity to become immersed in another culture.

Ever since taking a choir trip to Cuba in my grade 12 year at Luther College High School I have been fascinated by the way in which individuals define themselves by their culture, and the amazing way in which the many diverse cultures of the world value things differently. Since returning to university last Fall, I have again fallen in love with the fields of Anthropology and Sociology, so this trip provides an exceptional chance for me to take in cultures of countries which have heavily influenced our own Canadian culture but which also have cultures which are very much their own. I feel like this trip will help me to better understand what it's like to be a global citizen, while also possibly teaching me a little bit more about what it means to be Canadian.

What I love using to discover another culture is the arts; I believe that nothing describes a culture quite as vibrantly as what they create within their own definitions of beauty. So obviously one of my intentions is to take in as many concerts as I can, while also taking time to take in various theatre productions or even just taking time to wander around the different locales we will be visiting.

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the course of this trip, but you can bet that whatever I do post will likely be a combination of touristy stuff and cultural observations, however quaint they may be. (I'll try to post at least once a week, but I'm not making any promises).

Picking Places

Since this trip is mostly for our children we thought we would let them each pick a place where they would like to visit.  Unlike Beth and my previous trip, where we barely stayed in any one place more than a day or two, this time we wanted to pick some central locations to stay for a chunk of time - with the possibility of day trips, but always the same place to come "home" to at the end of the day.  Beth wanted to avoid hotels and instead book us into apartments that could be rented for blocks of time - this would mean we could settle into a place for a few days, and make our own meals rather than rely on restaurant meals all the time.

Once again the determining factor was that each child got to pick one place, but the other two had to agree to it.  In the end Joshua picked London, Anna picked Paris and Thomas picked Prague - all great locations with lots to see.  So we will be spending 5 or 6 days in each city during this trip.  An addition to the itinerary came about when I discovered a week long course I could take at Oxford.  Every summer Wycliffe Hall, one of the Oxford colleges, offers a summer conference for clergy.  This year the conference is called "Heroes of Oxford, City of Saints and Scholars" - I liked the look of the program and decided to use some of my clergy continuing education funds to allow me to take in this conference.

So that is essentially our itinerary this trip - we start in London, then go to Oxford, then on to Paris and conclude in Prague.  We intentionally started in London to avoid the congestion around the Olympics when will begin the end of July.  There are a few other locations we will get to on day trips, for example Juno Beach in France, and Erfurt in Germany - but primarily it will be L.O.P.P.

The picture below is from Paris when Beth and I were there two years ago.  We barely had 24 hours in the City of Lights, so it will be nice to have more time there this time... and this time Anna can visit the Eiffel Tower herself, rather than us bring home a bunch of souvenirs from that famous landmark.

Once Again

Three years ago Beth and I traveled to Europe as part of our 25th Wedding Anniversary celebrations.  It was a great experience, and one that is recounted on a previous blog called "Being There - a Pilgrimage".  Last year we began talking with our three grown children about taking one final big family vacation before they start going their separate ways in the world.  In the past our big family vacations were two long road trips, the first down the west coast to California and back through the interior of the U.S.A.  The second was a trip to Yellowstone Park and other locations in the American mid-west.  For this third big trip we gave our children a number of choices - somewhere with sun and sand like Florida or the Carribean, or somewhere in the eastern United States like New York and Boston, or we even suggested somewhere like Europe.  The only stipulation was that they would all have to agree, and we (the parents) would need to think it was feasible.

Well, they chose Europe.  Other than the higher cost than perhaps some of the other choices Beth and I were happy with this choice, we got that taste of Europe three years ago and would love to go back to explore some more.  This blog will share our adventures with friends and family who might be interested in our trip.  It is our intention to have everyone in the family contribute, so hopefully there will be lots of entries in the coming days.

In future entries I will share how we established our itinerary, and what we are doing to prepare.  For now I simply wanted to start the blogging process. We hope you enjoy our reflections on this family journey of ours.