Day 4: Bekonscot Model Village and Oxford, UK

We took the car we hired to Beaconsfield on day four of trip in search of the world's oldest model village (The Bekonscot Model Village). Our visit would have been much nicer had it not been pouring rain, but nevertheless, it was quite enchanting. The museum itself is located near the centre of town, but on an otherwise residential street. If the signs were not there, you would think it was just another house. We parked, as instructed, at the Catholic church across from the model village and made our way through the driveway of what appeared to be just another house around to the back. What looked like an ordinary driveway now turned into an amazing display of multiple villages all interconnected by trains.

Erich enjoyed looking at each display and proudly shouted out the names of each thing that he saw. At one point in our walk through the village we heard a choir singing. The sound was so realistic that I was actually fooled into thinking that it came from the Catholic church we had parked at. It was only upon further inspection, I realized that the sound was actualy coming from the model Anglican church in one of the villages. (We got a kick out of name of the 'rector').

[It was raining so hard that day I didn't dare take out my camera. Here is a photo of the church taken by Andy P. Be sure to visit his other Bekonscot pictures.]

Some of the other displays were pretty incredible too. Along with the model train system that runs across the entire display (outdoors no less!), there was a house on fire with model firemen putting the fire out. The display came complete with "fire", and smoke. It was quite incredible.

After lunch, we headed for Oxford on the M40. We had never been to Oxford in any of our previous visits so I was glad we got the chance to do so this time. Although the interest was mostly academic (haha), we enjoyed being in the same places where many famous scholars had once been. Here's a photo of a future scholar (though I think his Mom seems more enthused than he does about the prospect...)