January 26 Saturday
We were up early to catch the 9:30 AM train to Oxford. We caught a cab on the main road north of Fitzroy Square to Paddington Station. The train was very modern and nice, and there were just two stops before Oxford, which was only a one hour train ride. The train would have been nice except for the hen party behind us —they talked so much!
In Oxford we proceeded east from the train station to the center of town to try to find the tourist information center. This turned out to be just a place to book a walking tour, but we did get a map. We decided to tour on our own. We were prepared with our travel guide from the Fodor’s book. The weather threatened to be drizzly, and we stopped at a bookstore cafe for a cup of coffee to fortify ourselves.
We began our tour by going up St. Giles Street, passing the Ashmolean Museum, then we passed a statue for the three people who had been burned for religious reasons by Queen Mary (Tudor), including Archbishop Cranmer. After that we paused to look at the pub where authors C. S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien formerly gathered called The Eagle and Child. We also walked past Trinity College, which was not open to the public at this time. Behind scaffolding we could see the Randolph Hotel, which was featured in many episodes of Inspector Morse (the hotel's bar is now known as the Morse Bar). We then walked through the passage by pub, The Lamb and the Flag, for a pleasant walk, which terminated at the Museum of Natural History.
Proceeding down Park Road, we arrived at the heart of the university: the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre. The library was open for guided tours (long or short), so we booked a short tour for 12:30 PM. Then we walked over to the Sheldonian, which was open for a fee. This is where the graduation ceremonies take place among other events. It is not too big and has a nice ceiling. Christopher Wren designed it (his first finished commission). In the auditorium a piano tuner was hard at work. We were also able to climb up the tower to admire the views and take a few pictures. We then walked across the street to the modern library (paid for by the Rockefellers we later learned), where this is a nice cafe — no time for lunch, but we got a snack, then we returned to the library for our tour.
The tour was very information, and our guide was quite charming. She shared stories of Robert Redford — his granddaughter went to Oxford — and Sir Ian McKellan — with whom she shared a smoke! The highlight of the tour was the old library room upstairs with all of the old books, including Samuel Johnson’s dictionary. We couldn’t touch anything obviously, but it was impressive. The Harry Potter crew was allowed to film here! The Bodleian is like our Library of Congress — all books published in Great Britain must be given this library — 5,000 books per week! However, not all are kept!
After this we walked back to the modern library cafe for lunch (Cuban sandwiches with chickpea salad), and then we wandered down another charming lane under the "bridge of sighs" -- just like Venice! From here we proceeded to Magdalen college, where we paid to enter and walk around, going into the chapel and dining hall. It was very nice and had nice grounds: a deer park and Addison’s Walk in a water meadow.
After a drizzly start to the day, the weather has improved to party cloudy and cool, but no more rain. We then headed west toward Christ Church college along the Broad Walk through playing fields. Here is where we found the crowds!
Christ Church college contains the Hall (for eating) which was NOT used in Harry Potter, but an exact replica of the hall was built on the movie set, so needless to say, everyone wants to see it! This tour was more structured than Magdalen and had a set path. The first stop was the Hall, which was quite crowded. It has portratits, including Henry VIII, Cromwell, and 13 prime ministers who graduated from here. There is also Oxford’s largest quad, the Tom Quad, named after the bell in the Christopher Wren designed bell tower. It was very nice. We exited and then strolled through the commercial district of Oxford for a while.
Then, since it was free, we went to the Ashmolean Museum for a quick visit. We saw a highlight of the museum, the lantern used by Guy Fawkes, but the Alfred Jewel was on loan to the British Museum in London. From here, the weather was looking like it wanted to threaten rain, and we decided to return to the train station. The return train to London runs every half hour. So if we walked quickly, we could make the 4:30 PM train, so we did, even as it started to rain on us. Two minutes after we got to the platform, the train arrived. A lady conductor asked if anyone needed a ticket; otherwise there was no ticket check (and the turnstiles at station were wide open).
For dinner we returned to Sergio’s where Roy had pizza and Rob had spaghetti bolognese. We both started with the rocket salad. But first we stopped at the Fitzroy Tavern (two entrances, two rooms, why?) for a glass of wine.
We began our tour by going up St. Giles Street, passing the Ashmolean Museum, then we passed a statue for the three people who had been burned for religious reasons by Queen Mary (Tudor), including Archbishop Cranmer. After that we paused to look at the pub where authors C. S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien formerly gathered called The Eagle and Child. We also walked past Trinity College, which was not open to the public at this time. Behind scaffolding we could see the Randolph Hotel, which was featured in many episodes of Inspector Morse (the hotel's bar is now known as the Morse Bar). We then walked through the passage by pub, The Lamb and the Flag, for a pleasant walk, which terminated at the Museum of Natural History.
Proceeding down Park Road, we arrived at the heart of the university: the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre. The library was open for guided tours (long or short), so we booked a short tour for 12:30 PM. Then we walked over to the Sheldonian, which was open for a fee. This is where the graduation ceremonies take place among other events. It is not too big and has a nice ceiling. Christopher Wren designed it (his first finished commission). In the auditorium a piano tuner was hard at work. We were also able to climb up the tower to admire the views and take a few pictures. We then walked across the street to the modern library (paid for by the Rockefellers we later learned), where this is a nice cafe — no time for lunch, but we got a snack, then we returned to the library for our tour.
The tour was very information, and our guide was quite charming. She shared stories of Robert Redford — his granddaughter went to Oxford — and Sir Ian McKellan — with whom she shared a smoke! The highlight of the tour was the old library room upstairs with all of the old books, including Samuel Johnson’s dictionary. We couldn’t touch anything obviously, but it was impressive. The Harry Potter crew was allowed to film here! The Bodleian is like our Library of Congress — all books published in Great Britain must be given this library — 5,000 books per week! However, not all are kept!
After this we walked back to the modern library cafe for lunch (Cuban sandwiches with chickpea salad), and then we wandered down another charming lane under the "bridge of sighs" -- just like Venice! From here we proceeded to Magdalen college, where we paid to enter and walk around, going into the chapel and dining hall. It was very nice and had nice grounds: a deer park and Addison’s Walk in a water meadow.
After a drizzly start to the day, the weather has improved to party cloudy and cool, but no more rain. We then headed west toward Christ Church college along the Broad Walk through playing fields. Here is where we found the crowds!
Christ Church college contains the Hall (for eating) which was NOT used in Harry Potter, but an exact replica of the hall was built on the movie set, so needless to say, everyone wants to see it! This tour was more structured than Magdalen and had a set path. The first stop was the Hall, which was quite crowded. It has portratits, including Henry VIII, Cromwell, and 13 prime ministers who graduated from here. There is also Oxford’s largest quad, the Tom Quad, named after the bell in the Christopher Wren designed bell tower. It was very nice. We exited and then strolled through the commercial district of Oxford for a while.
Then, since it was free, we went to the Ashmolean Museum for a quick visit. We saw a highlight of the museum, the lantern used by Guy Fawkes, but the Alfred Jewel was on loan to the British Museum in London. From here, the weather was looking like it wanted to threaten rain, and we decided to return to the train station. The return train to London runs every half hour. So if we walked quickly, we could make the 4:30 PM train, so we did, even as it started to rain on us. Two minutes after we got to the platform, the train arrived. A lady conductor asked if anyone needed a ticket; otherwise there was no ticket check (and the turnstiles at station were wide open).
For dinner we returned to Sergio’s where Roy had pizza and Rob had spaghetti bolognese. We both started with the rocket salad. But first we stopped at the Fitzroy Tavern (two entrances, two rooms, why?) for a glass of wine.
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