OK, finally catching up on Oxford! First up is a few more photos from Saturday night, when we slept on the nice farm outside Abingdon and drove into Oxford for dinner.


Our room - really comfy.

Dinner at Wagamama in Oxford:




My amai udon, which is a lot like pad thai but with Japanese noodles.

We had lovely weather in Oxford during our short visit and it was really fun to see all the old familiar places again. Our hotel in the former prison was pretty fun, too!



Hotel hallway - the architecture and railings are all original from the prison.


Our small but very comfortable room.

Immediately after arriving in town early Sunday afternoon, we set out to find a good Sunday roast. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go to one of our old favorites outside of Oxford, such as the Trout Inn, Victoria Arms, or Lamb Inn. We had never eaten at many pubs in town so we asked our hotel for advice, and they recommended the Head of the River near Christ Church Meadow. We've been there once or twice before but couldn't remember how the food was, so we took a gamble. It turned out to be very enjoyable - the food was only about average, but I did get my traditional Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding and we sat at a great table overlooking the water.


The Head of the River pub


The Thames River right next to our table


Sunday roast. We've never had it in a giant Yorkshire pudding before (normally it's a smaller one on the side), but the more Yorkshire pudding, the better.

Then we went our separate ways for the afternoon - David to move the car to the hotel and then wander at his leisure, and me to run around my favorite colleges and churches at a fast clip, trying to get some good new photos during the lovely sunshine and the short opening hours.

The place I was most looking forward to visiting was the newly remodeled and expanded Ashmolean Museum, which was still under construction when we left. It was magnificent! I was so impressed with it and had a long and enjoyable visit.


The Ashmolean Museum on the right, and the fanciest hotel in Oxford on the left (the Randolph Hotel), with wedding-decorated Rolls Royce.








The biggest highlight of Oxford for me, though, was my visit to Christ Church College and cathedral Monday morning. I arrived at 9am, and started by taking photos of the east end of the cathedral in the gorgeous morning light. It's hard to get a good view of the cathedral from this angle, but there is a great spot through a gate that I knew about.


View of Christ Church Cathedral through the gate, with professor on bench at lower left.


Closer view in the lovely light

I took lots of photos through the gate and was quite happy, but then a professor who was sitting in the garden walked up to the gate and asked if I'd like to come inside the garden to take pictures. I've stood in this spot many times before, and have never had such good fortune! I was thrilled - it's a lovely garden I'd never been able to set foot in before, even when I had lectures in the college. The professor said it's called the Master's Garden, and that he retired two years ago to the Yorkshire Dales but still comes back to Oxford to enjoy it regularly. I mentioned I had recently attended Oxford and we chatted about that for a bit, then he returned to his spot on the garden bench, smoking his pipe. He wasn't wearing any tweed that I can recall, but I'll let that slide.


View from inside the garden


A nice view of the cathedral I've never seen before

I happily took pictures from all over the garden, and then he approached me again, mentioning that I could go into the cathedral garden too, if I wanted. If I wanted! He opened another gate, which gave me access right up to the back of the cathedral, and said that if anyone questioned me, I should tell them that "Professor Sir Richard Gardner said you could be here." He also pointed out a huge tree that dated from 1675 and another one that was associated with the Cheshire Cat.



Views from inner garden


Ancient tree

Needless to say, I was in heaven. When I was ready, the Professor Sir walked me back out to the main gate, saying that he had recently taken up watercolors and was trying to capture on canvas the light I was enjoying so much. I asked him what his area of academic specialty was and he said it was fertility medicine, adding that his doctoral supervisor at Cambridge had just won the Nobel Prize for his development of IVF. He said he was sorry they'd waited so long to award it, as the recipient was now too ill to really know what was happening, but at least his family got to receive his £940,000 prize. Whoa.

Then I went around to the main entrance to the cathedral and got to skip the £12 admission fee with my Oxford alumni card (the only thing it turned out to be useful for during our visit).



Cathedral interiors


Main quad of Christ Church College


Detail

A few other Oxford highlights from both days:


Sunset on the Radcliffe Camera and University Church of St Mary


All Souls College and a medieval church from St Mary's Church tower


Radcliffe Camera from the tower


Evening shadows in St Mary's Passage


Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library


Martyrdom site of Thomas Cranmer in Broad Street


Balliol College on Broad Street


Brasenose College


Merton College


Flowers at Merton

On our way out of town, we stopped at Wolfson College for old times' sake - it was so friendly and familiar. The same fun old guy was driving the Wolfson minibus who did when we were there (but the bus was a new silver version) and the same nice, soft-spoken fellow was manning the reception, which was comforting. And everything else looked exactly the same, except that they've made major improvements to the area behind our first apartment - a nice tennis/basketball court and a whole new building!


Mailboxes ("pigeon holes") in the lodge


New sport court and building

Highlights of London coming soon!

Labels: england, oxford