An Unexpected journey to Oxford

Hallooooooo !!!!!

This weeks blog will be all about my last minute trip to Oxford, so you can catagorize it under 'travel' I guess. Places to visit. Because I am definitely recommending this beautiful city!

This blog post is a long one again, so my apologies in advance! But it is mostly pictures and videos, so it is not too bad, I think.

Let me take you through the weekend by showing you this video and hope that this might ease the agony of reading a long blog post. Enjoy :)

An unexpected text message.
My bank holiday weekend began very low-key. Friday had ended with the screening of the Maze Runner so I was in a "I have no idea what to do with my life after seeing that movie" fase.

I hadn't planned a thing for the extra day of weekend, so when it finally came upon me, I just accepted the fact that I was going to spent the weekend watching films (the original last minute plan was to see What If) and read books. You can imagine I didn't repel the idea of chilling, reading, watching movies and eating for 3 days straight.

I did my grocery shopping like I always do in the weekend. Bought myself a lovely Costa coffee in the Tesco at the gas station next to the Lidl and I was watching extras from... 3 guesses... When I received a text message.

The moment I realized what the text message said, I was almost jumping on my bed! My aunt, uncle and niece were travelling through the UK. That weekend they were to go to Oxford! They had a spare bed in their hostel room and so asked me if I was up for a weekend in Oxford.

With the train tickets being reasonably priced, I did not hesitate and said 'yes'. Within the next 2 hours and a half I had packed my bag, checked the time table for my train, had eaten lunch, cleaned my room and was on my way.

J.R.R Tolkien, C.S Lewis, J.K Rowling, ...
Sunday started with a guided tour through Oxford. The guide was a very sweet lady called Elizabeth who could speak and tell stories in an animated and interesting way. The tour lasted two hours, but by then we had seen most of old Oxford city centre and had past most of the colleges.

We actually went to visit Balliol College. It looked pretty cool. An old beautiful school full of history and memories. I know I know, I am picturing everything more romantic than it actually is. It is still school after all. I think the process you have to go through to get in, is more like reality. You have to be recommended, your school grades are important and you have to go in for an interview! Terrifying!

Balliol College

After the tour we went to the Sheldonian Theatre. Every year, that is the place where they hold the ceremony to hand out the diplomas to the ones that graduate. This building has been described as one of the architectual jewels of Oxford. And I have to admit my standards are pretty high now. I think I am going to be very disappointed when I see the ceremony of my graduation. Also, very lovely was the view on the city once you reached the highest chamber. It wasn't exactly panoramic, but you had a beautiful idea on the location of colleges in the city.

Sheldonian Theatre

 

What a view

Of course the Divinity school had to be visited as well. Just £1 entrance per person! That room was the set for the hospital wing in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone and the Chamber of Secrets. It was the room where McGonagall taught the students to dance for the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Divinity school

Lunch was not to be forgotten of course and shortly after that, my niece discovered a music shop. She plays piano beautifully and is always on the look for new, beautiful modern day songs to learn on the piano :)

But not to rush things, I really wanted to go to New College. 3 guesses: there stood the tree that was used in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Malfoy was turned into a ferret by Mad-eye Moody when he tried to jinx Harry behind his back. Here is the clip ^^

A panoramic shot of the court yard

We passed Merton college where J.R.R Tolkien had taught after WW I and where most likely the first words of The Lord of the Rings were written. We also passed the door where you can find the inspiration for C.S Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Unfortunately I didn't see the Eagle & Child, the pub where Lewis and Tolkien would get together with the other members of The Inkling. And even though J.K Rowling wasn't excepted as a student at the time, she is now an honorary fellowship of Exeter college .

This might have been for C.S Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I mean, this city has known so many great people. Actors, writers (poetry, books or movies), politicians,... . It was and still is the set for countless movies, series, etc.

As a perfect closure for a perfect afternoon, we had an afternoon tea at a cafe of the University Church of St Mary The Virgin with a view on Radcliffe's camera, All Souls College and Brasenose College.

Nomnomnom

Beautiful view on Radcliffe Camera

Now, if you are a little bit familiar with the Harry Potter film locations, you will probably know that they filmed in the dining hall in Christ Church College and that the Great Hall is based on that same dining hall. Now why didn't we go see it for ourselves? Well, the entrance fee for the dining hall alone was around £10 per person. If you know that all the colleges look very very very much alike, you'll notice that I have visited a very similar one in Balliol College. Also, the queue to visit Christ Church College was ridiculously long and I mean really long.

Dining room in Balliol College looks EXACTLY like the one in Christ Church College!

Christ Church College... Look at the queue!

Avebury's henge
Monday was Avebury day. It is about an hour drive outside Oxford.

On our way there we stopped to see a White Horse. Not like an actually living white horse, but one graved out of stone, on the flank of a hill. We didn't see that much of the horse, but at least I can tell I stood on Dragon Hill. The place to be where the kings used to slay dragons. The movie DragonHeart popped into my head whilst we were walking to the hill. Happens often, when I see or hear something and then all of the sudden a movie title pops into my mind.

That litle bump on the left is Dragon Hill

Too bad it was raining all day, but I enjoyed the little walk in the fresh air nevertheless.

What a view

Next stop was the actual visit of Avebury. It's like the Stonehenge, but completely different. The circle is much much bigger and there is an actual village within the circle.

The stones lined up in a circle

Some are realy big. How on earth did they move them? And why?

We walked the entire circle next to the giant stones, then visited the Manor House. It was the location for the BBC series The Manor Reborn. I haven't seen the series myself, but it was sure fun to visit the house. Unlike other musea, we were actually allowed the touch things! Pick a book from the shelf, sit on the sofa, lay in the bed, play a game of snooker, etc. We had 2 rules to follow: do not touch the wall in the dining room and please take off your shoes when you lay in the bed upstairs. Very interactive, so definitely visit it if you are in the neighborhood :)

the Manor House

the Manor House

Besides the Manor House there is a museum as well that kind of explains how the henge came to be. Of course a lot of it is guess work, because 6000 years ago nobody thought about writing things down! But is was impressive anyway.

Oh, if  you are scared of spiders, I strongly advice you NOT to go to the toilets. And also, be prepared to see a few (read: a lot of) cobwebs in the museum. I know it is set in a barn and stables, but you can still see the cobwebs on the info boards! 

By 4:30 pm we returned to Oxford so I could catch my train back into London. The train ride is about an hour and it takes another hour for me to get from the centre to where I live and then I still have a 20 min walk. So it takes in total 3 hours (waiting included). Not too bad ^^

So that was my unexpected trip to Oxford. I hope I was convincing enough that you might consider visiting the place yourself at one point in your life :)

New words: ditch= canal; excavating= exhume

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara