"(Oxford) inculcated a reverence for what is ancient and free and great.”
We had a 5:15 pm flight out of Heathrow back to the U.S.A., so I figured we had time to squeeze in a couple of hours in Oxford. I was right, and while it wasn't enough time to adequately cover Oxford, it was worth the time to see a chunk of the city again, as it had been 40 years for Carol and 39 years for me.
Shortly before the trip, I had the inspiration to check "Tours by Locals" to see if there were any relatively short duration walking tours.
As it turns out, Sophie D. was available to give us a 90 minute walking tour hitting some of the highlights of Oxford.
While it was easy to drive to the parking lot Sophie suggested, I guess I didn't realize it would be a hassle to get from the parking lot to the meeting point. Until we parked, I didn't realize we were over three miles from the meeting point, and walking was not an option. The only option was a bus. So we had to wait for that to pick us up.
It was a bit stressful figuring out where to get off that was closest to the meeting, and we ended up being about ten minutes late (mostly because of the bus not departing the parking lot for a while).
Once we met up with Sophie, everything was good. She's an enthusiastic guide. As typical on these walking tours with guides, they liked Carol more.
(Editor: Doesn't everyone? Writer: I can't speak for everyone, but I do!)
Part of it is that I get caught up taking photos, and another part is that Carol asks a lot of great questions. The third part is she's better with people than I am.
My favorite part was the early part of the tour, where we went into New College (most colleges charge a fee to enter in the morning, and are closed to tourists in the afternoon).
"New" College was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham (THAT William of Wykeham, not the other William of Wykeham).
(Editor: So by New they don't mean new, eh. Writer: You pick things up quickly!)
Oxford's colleges are independent and self-governing. There are 44 of them, and I'm to understand that they relate to the University in a federal system. Oldest daughter Julia did a summer program at Oxford sponsored by University of Virginia. She attended the University College of Oxford University. It's most famous for being a college that calls itself a university at a university of colleges.
(Editor: You really do a great job of clarifying nothing, don't you. Writer: Clarity is over-rated.)
Anyhow, we got to go inside the beautiful Chapel. No photos are allowed in the buildings, I suppose because each college doesn't want the other 43 to see what the college looks like, except that professors probably can go where they want.
Next was the dining hall, which having been built in 1379, is modeled after the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies, including the idea of a head table. For a long time, Latin was the required language in the hall and lodgings, back before it became a dead language.
One of the longest-serving Archbishop of Canterbury also served concurrently as the bursar in the early 1500s. No word on whether the bursar was punched by Alexander Hamilton (confused British readers, it's a reference to the musical Hamilton).
(Editor: You wrote that first sentence just to set up the second sentence? Writer: Yup.)
After finishing at New College we walked the streets, lanes, and paths of Oxford, with Sophie pointing out many areas of interest, including past the city wall, past another college, past where Edmond Halley lived. Halley of course is famous for figuring out that the three comets that approached Earth in 1531, 1607, and 1682 were all the same comet, which a grateful populace immediately named Halley's Comet.
It last came through in 1986, and is due again in 2061, which, coincidentally, is the same year the next pandemic starts (kidding, kidding!)
Other sites included the Rose garden dedicated to the Jewish community that was banished in 1290, Deadman's walk across Christchurch's Meadows to Merton College, a site that was a huge inspiration to CS Lewis, and finished up at the famed Bodleian Library.
Carol learned a lot of interesting things, and I learned some, when I wasn't taking photos.
Sophie took us to and dropped us off at the Parsonage Hotel for lunch. It was a pretty setting. We ate kind of quickly, because we needed to get back on the bus to our car, and then off to Heathrow.
We would highly recommend Sophie's tour if you want a quick overview of Oxford.
.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment