Oxford

Christ Church Oxford

Today was a travel day – needed to get to York from Salisbury, over 4 hours drive away without traffic, stops, etc. That said, it also leaves some time to see a bit of something as well. Oxford was kind of on the way, so we popped into Oxford for a few hours to see some of the buildings of one of the best known universities in the world – Oxford University.

With a need to get some lunch as well, we didn’t have a lot of time to see things. What we did see, we loved though. Would love to come back to ths city again and do some walking tours and enter some if these incredible buildings and see the insides. Some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed and/or inspired by some of these buildings.

After a stop at the tourist office, which we had a spot of trouble finding, we headed down to Christ Church, perhaps one of the most well known of the Oxford Univeristy buildings. We walked around the building snapping photos and through a walking path that took us past Corpus Christi College and Oriel College. On part of the walk there was a gate that only allowed one or two people through at a time in each direction. There was a large group trying to get through from the other direction, but we still managed to make it through.

Radcliffe Camera

We also saw Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library and Balliol College. Then it was back through a market for some quick purchases of snacks and supplies before the time was up on our parking space. Our timing wasn’t right coming out. Got stuck in traffic trying to head out of the city. Once past the construction though, things weren’t quite so bad, though there were still boughts of traffic trying to get to the M1 as well as on the M1. At one point it seemed a bit rediculous how many roundabouts there were. Must have been at least half-a-dozen, if not more, in a 6 mile stretch. There seemed to be a near continuous stream of “at the roundabout take the Xth exit” coming from the GPS directing the way to go. No sooner had we come out of one roundabout when the GPS would be instructing the exit for the next one. Eventually we got out of all of them though and found ourselves on a nice stretch of freeway.

We got into York around 8:30. At first there were a number of complaints from the kids about the hotel. Then they saw the room. They love it. So do we.

The family then watched the start of the Holland vs. Argentina World Cup game while Darrell took a quick stroll around to see what was around for food etc. He loves the location as well. In addition to some local restaurants and bakeries, there are some buildings and roads that remind him of areas around his grandparents house that he spent time at a kid. Plus the old city wall is about a ¼ mile away, with the city centre being ½ mile away. Looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Bridge of Sighs

Christ Church Cathedral

Balliol College