Day 8: Skiing in England!?

Left to right: Les, Nick, Garith, Little Ant

I decided to join the guys for indoor skiing today at Hemel Hempstead outside of London. It was a lot of fun, but two hours was enough. There are only so many times one can go down the same bunny hill dodging the slow, winding, endless queues of people learning how to ski.

At the top of the "mountain"

After skiing, Nick decided he wanted to take the scenic route through the countryside on the way back instead of blasting through on the M4 which is a bit boring. We stopped at the King William IV pub in Saint Albans on the way back for a late lunch. I took the opportunity to have a nice traditional British meal consisting of meat, potatoes and gravy with some assorted "vegs".

It turned out that Oxford was also on the way back so we stopped in to wander around and grab a pint. The town was wonderfully decorated for the holiday season and we stuck around to watching an outdoor Christmas cartoon projected on a building which was about the magical machine that produces snow being broken down which the elves go fix. The movie climaxed with a fake snowfall made of foamy bubbles getting shot out of a machine to some holiday music. The local kids went crazy over it.

Waiting around for the show to start

It was worth the wait just to see the kids going nuts

Despite the streets being all lit up and looking lively for the holidays, the pubs and streets were quite quiet even though they were filled with people. Apparently its a much older and civilized crowd that makes up the Saturday night life in Oxford.