Saturday August 29

A Day in Oxford

Nothing seems to open until 10am in Oxford, so we rose fairly late without realising - nice having a lie-in! We had a very nice Breakfast at 8:30, and headed out to the Park and Ride, getting a bus into Oxford which took just 15 minutes. We started out by looking at Carfax Tower, hoping the little men on the Tower would do more than hit their bells just ONCE on the hour, leaving the clock to chime the rest....nevermind! They were cute so I took a photo anyway. We thought we would leave the Tower until Monday.

The first thing we did, was walk along one of the main streets admiring the architecture, which - not having ever been to Oxford before - I thought was very nice indeed, despite there being quite a lot in the way of road works going on. I have been to Cambridge in the UK before, and Oxford in comparison seems much more compact, all these buildings are closer together, much grander and noticable. All the buildings here are very beautiful, and I can see why people would want to live or study here.

We went into the Botanic Gardens, it was a very nice, warm and sunny day and it was a nice gentle start to the day, especially with me having a stomach ache earlier, walking around the garden seemed to make it disappear. Lots of flowers were out in the Botanic Garden, and one of the best things here were the Glass Houses - it was just like a mini - Eden Project in Oxford, only in Glass Houses, not domes. There were seperate rooms for cacti, carniverous plants, ferns, tropical and alpine plants. VERY warm but definately worth looking at! Next to the Botanic Gardens the River Cherwell flowed by, with peoplein boats, punting and enjoying the day.

After the Gardens, we went to investigate the Pitt Rivers Museum. It turns out that its behind the Natural History Museum - which you have to go through in order to get at it. Quite neat really, the Natural History Museum was like a mini version of the one in London, and at the back - here was the Pitt RIvers Museum. Despite the top floor being closed, we still went in and I had no idea what to expect. It was very old-fashioned, lots and lots of cases very close together FILLED with SO many things, most with their original labels which tiny TINY writing! The entire room was dimly lit, I presume to preserve the artefacts which had come from all over the World. But, when I asked, it turned out that photography was allowed, even with flash. Plus, you could borrow a hand-powered torch to look at things more closely, which was REALLY fun, and although at first I didn't think it was necessary until we discovered that there were SO many more things UNDERNEATH the main cases, around the sides - it was far too dark to see these bits and we HAD to use the torch. It was like we were roaming around a Museum after hours, it was VERY fun to go round, and if anybody is thinking of visiting Oxford I strongly recommend the Pitt Rivers Museum!

We made our way to the second floor, which was just a balcony around the edges really, but AGAIN there were SO many things, and I found this part VERY useful indeed - SO many beads, beaded jewellery from around the World - I had never seen SO much jewellery in one collection. Of course, I took as many photos as I could, especially with hoping to enrol on a Design course early next year, and my idea involves ancient jewellery and beads....this was perfect for me. Although I felt a little conspicuous taking a photo of EVERY cabinet, but nobody seemed to mind, or notice. It will all be very useful, I hope!


Coming out of the Pitt Rivers, and after buying a VERY nice bag which seems very tardis-like (SO much room in there!), we looked around the Natural History Museum, and the second floor of that was PACKED with bugs of all sorts, and even tanks with live cockroaches, beetles and a tarantula! Eughh!! Nope, I'm not the biggest fan of spiders.......!


My feet aching, we sat outside the Museum for a short while before.....yes, you guessed it - checking out the shops!! Actually, we didn't go into that many shops, there didn't seem to be much in the way of quirky unique shops or boutiques, although the covered Market was quite nice to walk through. We did, however, go into Blackwells and Waterstones - where I ended up buying a couple of Christmas or Birthday gifts (I can't decide yet!) for Mathew. I loved the Art Blackwells, but I resisted the temptation to buy a book on papercraft......!


We also walked around the city and admired the Radcliffe Camera buit in 1737-1749, which used to house several general and scientific books before being moved to different locations around the University colleges in the city, although it is the main Reading Room of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, sadly not open to the public - just the students, who would also have access to the Library's collection of 600,000 books stored underneath Radcliffe Square in underground rooms. We admired the Hertford Covered Bridge (completed in 1914), which is often known as the Bridge of Sighs as many people think it look just like the same bridge in Venice, although it does look more like the Rialto Bridge from that same city! Although we didn't go into the Bodleian Library itself, we went into the shop after admiring the courtyard and the "Tower of the Five Orders" - I didn't know they had a gift shop! But it was quite handy actually because Mathew pointed out a book he wanted for his Birthday, and I ended up buying a couple of Christmas presents while I was there. My Christmas shopping was getting off to a great start!

We went back to the hotel where we dined there again, I enjoyed the beef steak while Mathew chose the pork dish.