Oxford for a spot of Sunday lunch and exercise

Nicholas Newman Sunday, 4 November 2007

Today we went for Sunday lunch at the Oxford Spires Four Pillars Hotel restaurant conveniently located by the River Thames in Oxford with two of our friends. During the recent summer floods, the hotel was almost totally surrounded by flood waters, but the hotel itself, remained luckily untouched.

Sunday Lunch at Oxford Spires Hotel

I had, for starters, Quenelle of Crab and Prawn on Dressed leaves a combined crab and prawn pate with salad. It was succulent and visually stunning! We were served by the inevitable excellent Polish waiter with whom we discussed the recent Polish National Election's results and what the new government under Prime Minister Tusk's leadership might mean for both Poland and Europe.

The Quenelle of Crab and Prawn was followed by Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding, Horseradish, sausages and courgettes served in white Alsace wine tomato sauce. The Beef in gravy was well cooked and delicious, and none of the nearly raw cooking nonsense that Gordon Ramsay seems to prefer.

To finish, I had a delightful apple and cinnamon crumble with vanilla cream. After eating such a lovely and delicious Sunday lunch, we had coffee. Then we decided then to saunter down to the river, to watch the first year university students rowing trials on the Thames.

The River Walk

The walk and the fresh air, together with seeing so many young people enjoying exercising on the cold dark waters of the River Thames in the bright afternoon sunshine was an exhilarating and uplifting experience.

This particular scene reminded me of my university days, when I used to row on this very same stretch of water; the early mornings, the morning alarm clock ringing, getting up before the crack of dawn, the cycling the three miles down to the Thames side boat house on an often cold dark morning. Locking my bike I used to change into just shorts and t-shirt before we carried the boat down to the river edge and boarded it and shivering in the cold damp air. Then we were off, first at a slow pace, to get into rhythm, our coach shouting at us from the bank. While our Cox kept us in line. The pace soon speeded up as we pulled at our oars, aided by the current as we made our way downstream. At the half way stage we had achieved our ideal speed. The dawn chorus could be heard, behind us we hear other crews shoving off, their trainers shouting orders, the splash of oars into the water.

In the distance Oxford was beginning to wake up; trains could be heard running on the tracks to London, together with the roar of traffic. As the sun reached tree height, we had reached Donnington Bridge. We had to reverse oars, in order to coast to a stop and begin the slow turn round, before we could return up river. As usual there was a jam of boats ahead of us, coming down the river, blocking our return path home to our base up river. We sat getting cold as we patiently waited for room to row up river. Eventually, we started again; though getting the same speed was harder as we now rowed against the current up the river to the boat house.

By eight we heard Big Thom the bells at Christ Church strike the hours as we arrived back at the boat house. Several of us were stiff and needed help to get out. Then we had to pack everything away and dash to college for breakfast back in town. Yes those were the days, getting up before the crack of dawn; our muscles ached. But for me I always found it hardest the struggle cycling home afterwards up the steep Headington Hill with my muscles aching.

Today, though, sightseers, we had to be careful of not being run over on the riverside track by rowing coaches on cycles speeding along shouting instructions to their crews on the boats. It was amazing how the coaches managed to dodge around people at speed without themselves going over the river banks edge into the water itself. For spectators, such as ourselves, the river bank, there was a sense of excitement in the atmosphere; we saw a boat just about to be boarded by a crew of first timers, mostly foreign students. They looked anxiously at the boat, some with nervous excitement, and others with that look of why they had agreed to this. As they loaded, it was amazing to see large plump lads squeeze themselves into these narrow boats.

The Oxford University Rowing Diary notes that in two weeks time on Saturday, the University is holding the first of its rowing competitions Nephthys Regatta 2007 17 Nov, 2007 from 10:50 to 20:50. We will be there?

For further information

· Oxford Spires Four Pillars Hotel http://www.four-pillars.co.uk/Spires/home.html

· Oxford Rowing Diary

o http://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/Boatclub/archive/events/nephthys-regatta-2007