Oxford Castle

This evening after work I drove to Oxford to visit my Mum, recovering in hospital after her second knee replacement operation.

Afterwards I drove into the city centre looking for a night blip. It was an incredibly frustrating experience ! I am well aware of Oxford's traffic restrictions, but it seems to have got an order of magnitude worse, plenty of pointless no through roads and a convoluted ring road. Parking was just as bad, with charges in the evening, whole roads void of cars as they are for permit holders in areas without residents. Worst of all, none of the best buildings in the city were illuminated. It felt a very dreary place.

But finally, after nearly an hour, Oxford Castle was my salvation. It's a Norman medieval castle which housed the prison until 1996, when it was redeveloped as an upmarket hotel.