Oxford: Dreaming Spires

I've spent the last 12 years of my life in Oxford, Pennsylvania. Saturday, I finally got to experience my hometown's namesake! And it was all I had hoped it would be.

Charlotte was good enough to drive me to Oxford, which was a new city for us both. After an hour's drive through hilly and fertile countryside of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, we left the car at the Park and Ride lot and got on the bus into town. We alighted at the first stop and set off, without any real plan. Another beautiful day greeted us: generous sunshine, a light breeze, warm sun. It was perfect weather for several hours' stroll around Oxford's wide avenues and tiny alleyways, as well as acres of parkland. We actually ended up sunburned by the end of the day! Everyone else seemed to be taking advantage of the weather as well: hordes of sunbathers, picnickers, and families out on walks crowded the streets and lawns. Along the river, I even saw a solitary, scholarly-looking man napping, head on bag and jacket over head.

A drink at the Eagle and Child, watering hole of literary geniuses!

Rather unexpectedly, after just a few minutes, we found ourselves under the familiar sign of the Eagle and Child pub. I had heard it was hard to find! Although, if we had gotten off at the city center instead of the first stop, I guess we really wouldn't have found it. But lucky me, there it was! We stopped in later for half pints, and I tried to soak up some inspiration.

The thing I discovered very quickly about Oxford is that if you want to see the scholarly quadrangles, the halls of the colleges, birds-eye views of the dreaming spires, etc, you'll have to pay admission; we saw it listed anywhere from 2-5 pounds. We did sneak peeks around corners and through barred fences, but we didn't get to see any interiors. I was most tempted by the Bodleian Library, for obvious reasons. Here's some trivia: founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1602, it's one of the world's greatest libraries and contains over 5 million books. The collections are housed on three separate sites linked by tunnels. Impressive! (Thanks to Tourist Net UK for the info)

Most of the buildings are historical, though we did discover a few modern ones. This area of the country is famous for its honey-colored stone, which comprised most of the older buildings and walls. As you'd expect, the colleges are the reason that most visitors come.  Some info about the colleges:

"The university is not a campus but a collection of 36 colleges and 5 halls scattered around the city centre alongside the shops and offices of commercial Oxford..today the university accounts for almost 15,000 of Oxford's 115,000 population...the streets, houses, colleges, churches and chapels of Oxford represent a carefully documented catalogue of English history. The centre of the city has 900 buildings of architectural or historic interest. The Carfax Tower is all that remains of the 14th century church of St. Martin: it offers a splendid view of the dreaming spires of Oxford."


The High Street offered shopping and dining galore. We ended up eating small plates in All Bar One, which I later found out was a nation-wide chain, but which was reasonably priced and stylish, and whose food proved quite tasty! I had a small plate of sesame chicken tempura with cucumber salad, and Charlotte's tiger prawns with chorizo smelled delicious. I washed down my meal with the most refreshing drink I've ever had: guava, pineapple and lime juice.

After luncheon we followed signs to the rowing boats and found ourselves riverside. The Thames, the same river that runs through London, is known in Oxford as the Isis, and flows along the western side of the city. The River Cherwell, on the eastern side, allows multiple types of boats to hire for small fares. Along the river were trees hundreds of years old, and veritable seas of daffodils on the banks.

We also managed to accidentally wander through the tents where the Oxford Literary Festival was taking place, (who knew?) where we snooped in on book signings (no authors I recognized, sadly) and were given free samples of gin and tonics...with cucumber instead of lime. Apparently this gin, Hendricks, is cucumber-infused. Who knew?

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful way to spend a day. I saw so much I'd always wanted ot see, and soaked in some knowledge, some history, some culture, and an abundance of sunshine: when we found our way back to the bus stop, we'd seen ourselves in bathroom mirrors and realized just how red our faces and chests were! We each had necklace marks burned into our chests.

When we'd had our fill, at least for one day, hopped a bus back to the Park and Ride, hopped into the Lupo, and drove back to Cheltenham...

...And then we went to the pub.