Oxford on the train

Imagine living in Morton in Marsh. Despite its name, it is a very cute market town which is where we drove to catch a train to Oxford. Although expensive, it is a civilised and beautiful way to travel. We decided to do the bus tour of Oxford, as we had no maps or anything and thought it might be a good way to get our bearings. It is a bit like the Sydney Explorer, a bus comes by every ten minutes and you hop on and hop off when you want. We stayed on most of the way around and were amazed at the buildings and the age. We drove past a stone wall built in the 800s. No wonder they called New College in 1300 new.

After alighting, we decided to have an early pub lunch. We chose one in High Street with tables in the sun. Both boys had steak. It was delicious and reasonably inexpensive. We then got into the business of exploring. We started with climbing the Carfax Tower, which is one of the oldest buildings remaining in Oxford. We climbed up and up a spiral staircase until I thought that I was going to become quite giddy. Fortunately, it was sunny still and the views were awesome - well worth the climb.





We visited two of the Colleges and had a good explore of the grounds. Trinity College and Balliol College. Both are incredibly old and amazingly beautiful. Once inside, it is like you are in this inner world, that is quiet, reflective and a place of learning - although I am sure that there are students who avoid this. One thing that struck us both about Oxford is that it is a place of many small inner places that are totally separate from each other and almost shut out the rest of the city if not the world.







Keith visited the admissions office of the Bodleian Library and he has a card which allows him access for the next two weeks. It is such a vast library and I am keen to return to do the tour of the library. I remember doing an essay on this library back in my library school days. I know the Bodleian Law Librarian and hope to catch up with her next week.

We visited Blackwell's and it was difficult to tear any of us out again. All these new books, but in hardcover - a new Peter Temple, Dick Francis, Kate Atkinson, Niall Williams and this is just what comes to mind now - plus so many others that were just begging me to be bought. Keith discovered a couple of books second hand that he has been looking for.

We went past the Christ Church College and wandered through their war memorial garden, and will return another day.



Each of us have different images from our day from rooftops, spires, cushions to bicycles, they are all part of the fabric that make up Oxford. These two pictures capture the quirkiness of this place - Trinity College chapel has these beautiful cushions that were made by a group of women in the early 1960s to beautify the interior:



There are very few cars in Oxford, but heaps of buses and bicycles:



We didn't get home until nearly 7pm after nearly missing our train. We decided to end our time in Oxford aboard the bus, but hadn't factored in the going home traffic that suddenly hit the roads. We raced across the bridge to platform 3, only to discover that this was on the other side, in front of platform 2 - only England can have such a quirky platform system.