June 14th- Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Given how bad the previous day was, Saturday started off wonderfully. Paige and I had a hot shower and a delicious breakfast. We had some trouble locating it, but eventually we found a bus that took us from Oxford to to the town of Wolvercote.

For those of you who don't know (which shouldn't be anyone), I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I mean big time. I've read the books 8 times and have watched the movies hundreds of times over. I've studied Tolkien and his writings, and I even wrote a 12 page research paper on him and CS Lewis when I was in high school. It's always been on my bucket list to see his grave. On Saturday, I was finally able to finally able to fulfill a lifelong dream and visit my hero at the place where he was buried in the Wolvercote Cemetery.

Words can't even begin to explain how much this moment meant to me.

Luthien and Beren are two characters in Tolkien's history of Middle Earth. Beren is a mortal man who falls in love with an immortal elf maiden named Luthien. Luthien gives up her immortality so that she can live and die with Beren. The love story between Aragorn and Arwen in LotR is supposed to be a retelling of Beren and Luthien's tale. Tolkien based these characters after him and his wife, so "Luthien" and "Beren"are engraved under Edith and John's names on the headstones.

Because of Tolkien's love for trees and all things green, I brought him a tiny bunch of tied together branches from several of our trees at home with a note simply saying "Thank You"

I also brought my LotR books just so I could get a picture with them on his grave.

Someone left a little wooden cross in the the tree =)

Their were signs all throughout the cemetery directing us to his spot. Respect!

After the cemetery, we took a bus back to Oxford. I don't have anymore pictures to share, we just walked through the shops and buildings in the university. I have to say, Oxford is probably my favorite town in the whole world. It's so beautiful, and it has the perfect mixture of old and new. Most of the buildings are ancient, but the all of the people and shops are modern. I've been in Oxford twice now, and I already want to go back! I don't know how to explain it except I think my souls belongs there (cheesy enough?).

Paige and I headed back to London that evening. We checked into our rooms at the Hilton and met our other hotel roommate Jenna Trizzino. The Hilton is super snazzy and very expensive (as can be expected at an airport hotel), thankfully we are splitting the bill. We got a nice hot shower and then curled up in a warm bed.