Monday 25th
August 2008
Oxford
We'd kept putting
off an intended trip to
Oxford,
but this weekend we just decided to go for it and see what happened. Gill's packed
itinerary included: looking around all of the ancient college buildings, going
up the tower of St Mary the Virgin to take in the view of the "city of dreaming
spires", walking along
the Isis and through the Christ Church meadow, seeing the
Ashmolean
Museum and the
Bodleian
library, and finally a trip to the nearby village of Iffley to see the
church and the lock on the Thames.
We managed to do all of this and more as Oxford is so easy to get round on foot.
The centre covers only a small area and the Thames is only a ten minute walk
away. We found it all clean, tidy, cheap and also unencumbered by street sellers
and souvenir shops. You can go in and look at all of the colleges, although some
charge a couple of quid to get in. Just looking at all of the gargoyles and
grotesques on the outside of the buildings could keep you occupied for days. The
colleges are covered in things that seem to be trying to scare you away, but
when you walk inside they are very welcoming, friendly places. It cost us £3 to
go up in the tower, which already seemed overcrowded when we got up there, but
the view was well worth the careful navigation past the many people on the
spiral staircase and narrow viewpoints.
We found a really good place (clean, cheap and delicious) to snack called La
Croissanterie in St Aldates Street just opposite the Museum of Oxford. We had
HUGE ciabbatas full of egg mayonnaise and crispy bacon.
The only sour note in the whole day was getting a parking ticket. I'm still not
sure what I did wrong!
The bridge of sighs. A copy of the one in Venice.
Gargoyles and grotesques
The snuff taker
The tower of St Mary the Virgin
One of the views from up on the (very crowded) tower
Fellows punting on the Isis
Oxford seen from Christ Church meadow
Iffley church
Window details on Iffley church
Green man
Iffley lock