A Wonderful Day in Oxford

Last night Jan and Tim Cooper (the "chef and chauffeur,"  with Jan being Mrs McLeay's sister) and Andrew (Mrs McLeay's brother) and Janice Yeoman all arrived here in Oxford and the 6 of us will be together for the next two weeks as we start our canal trip tomorrow.

We spent today exploring the city of Oxford - the home of the oldest English speaking university in the wold.  We traveled around on top of a double-decker bus with no roof on, listened to a great commentary about the city and university, then walked for hours seeing so much that I cannot even begin to share it all with you.  Tonight we went to an "Evensong" service in one of the many campus chapels which was led by two 6 part male groups of singers which was absolutely amazing.

In a nutshell I would summarise the city centre as being characterised by amazing architecture, a long long history, crowded streets, many buses, and thousands of bicycles.

Here are a few photos that might be of interest to you:

This is one of the 38 Colleges that make up Oxford University.  Each college has it's own living accommodation for students, food hall, chapel, etc,  Most of the buildings are very old, some dating back over 800 years.  This is Christ Church College, one of the most famous, and its' huge dining hall was actually used for the dining hall for the Harry Potter movies.  Unfortunately the dining hall was closed for repairs so we could not go in.

This is a little "pub" in Oxford, one of many dozens.  You can buy a good meal and spend time meeting people in these pubs.  This one has an interesting history.  It is called "The Eagle and the Child" but people refer to it as the "Bird and the Baby."  The reason it has become famous is that two now famous authors were both professors at Oxford and would meet together regularly in this pub to discuss what each was writing.  They were good friends.  Do you know some books each of these two men wrote?  Their names were J.R.R.Tolkein and C.S.Lewis.  I wonder what each of then had to say about the other person's writing!

Another famous author was based here in Oxford.  He used to visit this Candy store regularly and it helped him become inspired to write "Alice In Wonder Land."  Do you know the name of this author, and what his real name is?

There have been many other famous people who have gone through Oxford University and it is regarded by many as the finest in the world.