After our morning of castle exploring and excellent pub lunching, Zoe and I journeyed on to Oxford to visit our cousin Kathy. I’d never visited this historic university city and was excited to have a quick taster of its beautiful academic and religious buildings. Kathy took us on a walking tour and I was blown away – it was even more stunning than I’d anticipated!
Trinity College
Salutation House
Oxford has been a seat of learning since the 12th century, making its university the oldest in the English-speaking world. It is made up of many different colleges and departments, and they are scattered all around the city centre. It’s one of the most prestigious universities (and one of the hardest in England to get into), and its beautiful buildings certainly make attendance look like the quintessential English university experience.
Sheldon Theatre
Hertford Bridge joins two parts of Hertford College near the centre of town, and appears to have been modelled after the Venetian Bridge of Sighs at the Doge’s Palace. Apparently it’s a popular spot for wedding photographs!
The beautiful Bodleian Library is one of the oldest research libraries in Europe and is one of the six libraries that hold a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom. It was established in the 16th century by Thomas Bodley and has grown exponentially since its inception.
The Tower of the Five Orders – the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite architectural Orders
Zoe and Kathy in front of the Radcliffe Camera
The University Church of St Mary the Virgin
I loved these beautiful twisted pillars on the south porch of the Church
As our cousin Kathy told us, everyone bikes in Oxford – it’s flat, and there are a million one-way streets, making bicycles a really easy way to get around. We saw piles of bikes chained to fences and loads of people taking advantage of the many bike lanes – if we’d been there for longer I would have liked to hire one to explore more of town.
The War Memorial Garden at Christ College
Next time I’d love to see inside Christ College – it’s home to the filming location of a number of Harry Potter scenes, as well as being a beautiful set of buildings.
Of course, knowing my affinity for a delicious afternoon tea, you won’t be surprised that we managed to squeeze one in during our short time. Kathy took us to her favourite, the Grand Café, which just happens to be the site of the oldest coffee-house in England. Given it was afternoon tea I couldn’t make myself stretch to coffee, but I did appreciate the delicious scones with my green tea!
Have you visited Oxford and its dreaming spires? What would you recommend I see on my return?
I’m in Greece at the moment but please do check out Bonnie, Amy and Camila‘s blogs for the link-up and all the fabulous posts this week!
