After yesterday's epic engagement with life the universe and everything it was great to have a day that was 'mostly harmless'. We made a late start, eventually wandering down the path though the fields to Thame, arriving a little before noon.
That gave us a bit of time to explore the town before Matthew arrived bearing sausages. We were planning a barbecue for lunch. Thame proved to be an attractive old market town, with ancient thatched pubs and a rather grand Georgian high street.
However the town held one surprise. We made our way towards the oldest part of the settlement near the church. I noticed a blue plaque on a big gatehouse built in a style more typical of the Cotswolds than the Thames valley. The blue plaque commemorates the fact that Robin Gibb of the Beegees owned the mansion. Prebendal House, secreted, one presumes somewhere in the wooded grounds behind the gatehouse, is where the singer, and writer of such pop classics as Jive Talking, Stayin' Alive, and Tragedy, met an untimely end at the age of 61 back in 2012.
Having had our fix of pop history we skirted back to the town centre via Waitrose, met Matthew (bringer of the artisan sausages) off the Oxford bus and headed back for a BBQ late lunch. He had a works leaving do in the evening so headed back home around fiveish.
And here endeth our impromptu Oxfordshire trip, proving it is possible to have an interesting short break in England in August without breaking the bank.
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