Hubby and I talked where we should go in our day off last week and after we spent time looking online, I told him “Let’s go to Oxford”. Oxford is far from us, but as we were staying near Birmingham, it was only an hour away. We knew there are park&ride car parks in the area and we found one very easy. There are 5 in total, the one what we went to is only Ā£2 a day. The bus arrived fast and in 10-15 minutes we were in the centre.
Oxford is an old, beautiful city. The architecture is amazing, we walked for a few hours on the streets, looking at different buildings. We arrived too early to see the Universities, but we’ll be better prepared next time.
This is a Charter from 1191. It was written in Latin and it is the oldest surviving document issued by an early version of the council.
Christ Church is the largest college from Oxford University and it is the Cathedral seat of Oxford. The building was erected during Henry VIII reign with support from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as a college. Queen Elizabeth I came twice at Christ Church during her reign.
During the English Civil War in 17th century, King Charles I lived at Christ Church. He held his Parliament in the Great Hall and attended services in the Cathedral. Today over 550 students study here, men and women.
We didn’t visit it as the Great Hall (which was replicated in the Harry Potter movie’s studios to create Hogwart’s Hall) was closed for the day.
The botanical garden is not far from the city centre. I assume it takes a couple of hours to wonder around the park and we wanted to see more of the city, so we didn’t visit it this time.
We passed by Merton College. As we were there before 2pm we couldn’t visit it.
Radcliffe Camera, the library built with money left in his legacy by Radcliffe, a doctor who studied at Oxford and who became doctor to the King William III.
The Bodleian Library is one of the 7 entitled to receive a copy of every book published in the UK. The library stores 7 million volumes on 180km of shelving. Is not a lending library and not even King Charles I was allowed to borrow books.
We’ve been in the Covered Market and saw the cake shop. I saw their cakes on a blog before (can’t remember which one and when, so no link). Their cakes look fab and the amount of detail is really amazing. It was crowded and taking pictures wasn’t easy, so I don’t have a close up with the decorations. I loved it.
They have small cakes decorated for different occasions and these ones are just as pretty.
Our last stop was Oxford Castle.
Oxford Castle is a partly ruined medieval castle built a few years after the Norman conquest. It was a prison after the Civil War and until 1996. The buildings have since been redeveloped as a restaurant, hotel and heritage complex.
We went up the mound and we were able to see beautiful views of the castle.
We also were able to see the well that is housed in a vaulted chamber. The well is 54 feet deep and the chamber was built in the 13th century.
Last time I saw so many bikes in one place was in Netherlands.
Beautiful, the architecture and the atmosphere. Love the firey red Virginia Creeper climbing the Great Hall. I need to go to the Bodleian Library now! Never knew that fact about it.
I like the idea of all the books in one place too š
What a lovely adventure you and your hubby had! Iād love to visit Oxford one day. The Bodleian Library sounds cool, how awesome that it receives a copy of every book published in the UK, it must be enormous! Love the look of all those cakes š x
I like that too, is such an amazing collection.
Oxford looks seriously pretty! I’d love to visit one day x
Oxford is such a beautiful place. The architecture is stunning and you’ve captured the feel of the city perfectly. The cakes in the market look wonderful too, were you not tempted?
Of course I was tempted by them, all looked so yummy š
Haha! Yeah when I was in Amsterdam there were bikes everywhere but I’ve never seen that in the UK!
I’d love to visit Oxford š
Corinne x
Oxford is gorgeous, I can’t wait to visit some of the colleges.