Overnight Stay May 19th/20th

This meet-up is for people who plan to stay overnight on the 19th/20th May in Oxford. You may have opted to do the full weekend of walking on Saturday (Segment 11) and Sunday (Segment 12) or want to come and spend a day/evening in Oxford before doing the Sunday walk or just want to come and spend an evening in Oxford.

Accommodation

Accommodation is now arranged in three places.

1. 253 Cowley Road , OX4 1XQ

2. 341 Cowley Road, OX4 2BP.

3. 353 Cowley Road

253 Cowley Road is an “old style house”, (whatever that means) , it is a house attached to the Athena Guest House , which is on 255 Cowley Road www.athenaguesthouse.com (http://www.athenaguesthouse.com/). This house has 4 en-suite rooms and 2 standard rooms booked for us, the standard rooms don’t have an en-suite but share a bathroom between them.

341 Cowley Road , is down the road from 253 Cowley road, It is a “new style house” . There are six standard rooms reserved for us. This house has eight rooms , the other two rooms have long stayer in them they may or may not be there during this weekend. In other words the whole house may not be exclusively for us, and we may have to put up with some alien guests. Standard rooms don’t have en-suites.

Rooms with en-suite are £65 double occupancy, £60 single occupancy. Standard rooms are £40. The price for the en-suite rooms includes breakfast. The others can book break at £3 per person, this needs to be done at the time of check-in. Breakfast is at the Athena Guest House (255 Cowley Road) for everyone.

Allocation of rooms

The allocation of rooms is as follows:

253 Cowley Road

1. Montse & Estelle – Twin beds with en-suite = £65.

2. Helen W & Julia – Twin beds with en-suite = £65

3. Sue B – Double bed with en-suite = £60

4. Fiona – Double bed with en-suite = £60

5. Lily – Standard room , single = £40

6. Garry – Standard room , single = £40

341 Cowley Road

1. Ruth – Standard room = £40

2. Nic – Standard room = £40

3. Alison & Cher – Twin beds = £40

4. Helen D – Standard room = £40

5. Martin – Standard room = £40

6. Steve – Standard room = £40

353 Cowley Road

1. Malcolm - Single Room with Ensuite £60

Check-in

People can check-in any time after 4:30 pm. To collect the keys to your rooms you need to go to the Athena Guest House reception at 255 Cowley Road OX4 1XQ . You will meet Jack there who said he will sort things out, That does not necessarily mean things will be sorted out completely, Jack’s favourite phrase is “people need to be flexible” , not sure what he means , but more than once he has emphasised to me that finding affordable accommodation in Oxford on a weekend is impossible. He still can’t understand why every person should want their own room when he can put three beds in each room. He has assured me that each room is very clean and as long as people are flexible , they will all have a great time.

He has the list of who is going to stay where so should be able put everyone in their right place.

Getting to Cowley Road

Athena Guest House is about a mile and a bit from the city centre , at the end of the High Street. It is on a regular bus route from the city , Stage Coach buses 1, 5 , 10 , 12 and 12 C and Oxford bus companies City 5 bus also goes to Cowley Street , so you have plenty of choice. The starting point for all these buses in St Aldate’s Street , this is at the other end of high street with loads of bus stops , Just find the one where one of these buses stop.

The bus stop for Athena Guest house is Magdalen Road – Bingo Hall. The major landmark before you come to the stop is a big Church – St John’s and Mary.

The bus fare is £1.50 for a single, and £4 for a day pass which take any number of trips that day . The taxi from the city to Cowley road will also only cost £6-£8 .

Evening get together

There is plenty to do in Oxford and as people will be arriving at different times I expect people to roam around the city as they wish. I propose a meal get together at 8:00pm for people who want to join for a meal.

The leader in the poll for the evening get together was the Kazbah . closely followed by the Moya , while the Atomic burger , the most popular place in town got no votes.

So Kazbah it is, I will have a place reserved for us there from 7:30pm. Since it is a Tapas bar you can choose to come and go as you please.

3. Kazbah Restaurant

25-27 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HP

“Should you fancy a little detachment whilst at, or in, Oxford hurry down the Cowley Road until you come to Kazbah to this lively tapas bar where you can happily graze amongst the Spanish-Moroccan atmosphere. The choice of food is good, the prices will not prevent you from saving up for the real thing next summer and the chances are you will have had a thoroughly relaxing evening. A wonderful place to go with a group of friends and browse over a selection of the appetizing dishes, not to mention some very passable wine of the country”.

All three places are walking distance from the Guest House.

The morning after

The walk on Sunday starts promptly at 10:00am from the Oxford Station. Buses 1 and 5 go Station from Cowley road. People need to return the keys and settle the accounts at the Athena guest house (you can pay when you check-in as well) . You can meet at the Athena Guest house for breakfast or choose to have breakfast elsewhere on Cowley road (there are plenty of places) . You would need to make your own way to the station (meeting point outside the station, next to the big cycle park) and the group will start from there.