Friday’s trek to Oxfordshire started badly; you didn’t have to worry about Cath cycling to Woodstock. I cycled on Cath’s tri-bike from Islington to Paddington Station down the Marylebone Road. Nerve-racking doesn’t come into it. The gears are set up differently to a normal bike, so I did most of the ride in the same gear, and it was only when I wasn’t far from Paddington that I worked out how to do them.

Cath on the other hand was having her own problems. She had to let seven underground trains to go by before she could squeeze onto one. She ended up getting to Paddington Station so late that we missed the train to Oxford we had booked the bike onto. So it was a fraught 20 minutes before we could find another one that would be prepared to take the bike. By then we decided that we would get a mini-van taxi from Oxford Station to Woodstock as we were likely to be late for our meal booking in the local pub. A bit stressy eh?

We left the stress behind in London, and the (slow) journey to Oxford and taxi transfer were very easy. Woodstock is a quaint old Cotswold type village that is still in the 19th Century, as is the Bear Hotel where we stayed. The only way you know you’re in the 21st Century is the number of cars parked up. A quick meal (in an almost dead pub, so no worries about the reservation) was followed by sleep.