Tour of Oxford

Today, we went to Oxford.  We had been invited out for a tour by Ed, who was gracious enough to guide us around and show us the sights.  We had a great time!  After a long train ride from London, we met up with Ed at the station.

He decided to take us on a tour of Oxford from the newer parts of town to some of the oldest and made the tour even more interesting by including a mini pub crawl.

First we went through an area of town that had some interesting history to it.  There was a mound where the Normans had built a wooden castle when they first came to England, to help fortify the country.  Sadly the castle is no longer there, but it's still very obvious where it was by the size and shape of the mound.  Directly behind the mound is an old prison.  Apparently it had been moved brick by brick from it's current location.  Even though the prison was several hundred years old, it was still in use until only a few years ago.  Today, they've added a new section onto it and it's being used as a luxury hotel!  Ed told us they've knocked out a wall between adjacent cells and that's what has been made into rooms, complete with bars still on the windows.

After seeing the prison, we continued to the newest section of town, which is the main shopping district.  It's mostly made up of construction from the 1960s, with very little left of real age.

One interesting part of the shopping district was that right in the middle of the street, there's a tile that marks the spot where many prominent religious and political figures were burned at the stake.

On the way toward the rest of our tour, we stopped at the famous Eagle and Child pub.  This is where J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, his brother W.H. Lewis, and Charles Williams, who were collectively know as the "Inklings," used to meet every Thursday to discuss the novels they were writing.

Moving on, we began to explore some of the older parts of town, which included many of the colleges of the famous Oxford University.  There was quite a bit to see, as Oxford consists of 36 individual colleges, started by various import religious figures throughout history.

As we wandered through Oxford's campus we passed through a courtyard where the famous Oxford Library stands.

A quick squeeze through a very tiny alley and we found a hidden gem of a pub, The Turf Tavern, where we had pints of "The Village Idiot" and "Harry Porter."

 

As it was beginning to get dark, we took a stroll along a large rugby field and Ed pointed us to a cathedral they used to film part of the Harry Potter movies.  All the scenes with the large dining hall in Hogwarts was shot here.  Apparently Hogwarts is actually made up of pieces of a lot of castles, churches, and palaces all over the UK. 

 

Our final stop for the evening was a pub called The Bear, which for obvious reasons was my favorite.  This pub had a tradition, sadly stopped in 1992, of cutting off the ends of the ties of the patrons who came in. All the ties had little cards that said the school they came from, who the person was, and when the tie was cut.  It was incredible to see them in their cases, all over the walls and even on the ceiling!

All in all, it was a great day.  Ed was such a great guide - he really loves his city.  He walked us back to the station where we wished him well and got back on the train for our long ride home.

~Mr. Bear