Oxford University
Trip Start
May 04, 2007
1
13
16
Trip End
May 21, 2007
Oxford, United Kingdom
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Overview: Oxford University
Today we went to the town of Oxford, tagging along with Claire Richards who was kind enough to take us with her as she traveled there for a conference. We made our first trip on public transport into the city center and found it to be very easy. We went into shops, I bought some Oxford University clothing.
Oxford University is not actually one university as we think about in the U.S., but rather a group of many small colleges within the town (so there is no one school named Oxford). So...if someone says that they went to Oxford University, it would still be proper to ask what college they attended:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_Oxford_University.
We then climbed tower of Saint Mary the virgin church for an incredible view of the entire city. After getting oriented to the city, we decided to explore a college. Many of them were closed to the public (exams are coming soon). The most famed school is Christ Church College, which has a very dramatic front gate and huge dining room that was featured in the Harry Potter movies (I've never seen one, so I'll have to rent when I get home!). This college was open (for a fee), so we decided to go in and learned a number of interesting things, such as how Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame) found his inspiration and saw characters from this work in the stained glass in the huge dining hall.
We also visited the covered market (on High street) for a bite to eat.
