Last year we finished up the trip with two days in another university town, Cambridge, and we enjoyed it. However, Oxford is a smaller city and we enjoyed it even more. It’s a very walkable city, and Pierre has been resting at the B&B since we arrived.
The University of Oxford self describes itself as follows: “Oxford is a collegiate university, consisting of the central University and colleges. The central University is composed of academic departments and research centres, administrative departments, libraries and museums. The 38 colleges are self-governing and financially independent institutions, which are related to the central University in a federal system. There are also six permanent private halls, which were founded by different Christian denominations and which still retain their Christian character.”
So you don’t see a lot of U of Oxford buildings, but there are two of note, and we visited both: the Bodleian Library and the Church of Saint Mary. You can only see the inside of the library on a guided tour, so we did one. The tour guide was an older gentleman who was delightful – knowledgeable with a wry sense of humor and excellent style. He made what could have been a boring hour both interesting and enjoyable. No pictures allowed inside the library proper as it is a working library. While the Bodleian has all the modern technologies of a world class library, we toured the “Old” Bodleian which is a fantastic collection of antiquarian texts.
Gallery of the Bodleian Library and the Church of St Mary
(Click Any Picture to Open Gallery Window)
Oxford consists of 38 colleges. We viewed a few and visited one: Christ Church College. We had a short walk around the campus and visited Christ Church College Cathedral. Final tests of the academic year are going on now and graduation is under way. We saw a bit of the celebrations going on.
We had lunch at the historic Chequers Pub in a hidden cul-de-sac on Oxford’s High Street.
We stopped in Oxford’s Covered Market. Then we ventured down the road for a stop at Oxford’s Botanical Gardens. Lots of flowers. More flower pictures.
Finally we stopped at the Angel and Greyhound Pub for a pint before heading back to the B&B for a rest before dinner.
Dinner was a return trip to Moya Slovak Restaurant. Again, the food was brilliant, and the service was excellent.
It’s Saturday morning now. We head out a bit later for Windsor for our last night in the UK. A final report will follow from there.
