Day Trip to Oxford

This last Saturday, Matt and I decided to go on a day trip to Oxford! Most people know Oxford because it is where the infamous University of Oxford is located- the oldest university in the English speaking world!!

We took the "Oxford tube" to get there, which is a coach that runs continuously from London to Oxford. It took about an hour and a half to get there and when we did, my first views of the city were stunning. The buildings were beautiful!




First view after getting off the coach...
So then after getting a bite to eat, we walked around the town and discovered how pedestrian friendly the city is- very walkable! The streets were full of people going shopping and there were popular stores everywhere- most definitely a shopper's paradise. It was pretty crowded and people were performing Christmas music in the streets, even though it is still November!


We explored a few of Oxford's colleges- the university is split up into many colleges that have their own structure and activities. Every member of the university, including faculty, is a part of a college. Think of it like the houses in Harry Potter! :-)







This is the Bodleian Library, which is the second largest library in the United Kingdom following the British Library. It houses over 8 million volumes!! Visitors could not go inside.




Most of the colleges are shut to visitors, which is understandable as there are so many tourists and that could easily disturb the students who are actually studying in the colleges. Well, Christ Church College, one of the most famous, is open to the public- for a fee of course! We toured the college and it was actually quite worth it. We saw where certain scenes from Harry Potter were filmed- such as the Great Hall and many of the corridors I took pictures of!!















A man playing the bagpipes in the street!!! We don't get that at home!







We found Oxford Castle, but were both disappointed with it. There wasn't much to it and we decided just to see it and then leave. I quickly came to the conclusion that Oxford doesn't have very much to see in it and the best part about it is that you can see everything in the city by just exploring it on foot.

One of the coolest areas of Oxford, besides Christ Church College, was the protected market that we found off a side street. There were all sorts of shops and Matt and I both got the most amazing cookie at "Ben's Cookies"!! Earlier in the day, though, we had a bad experience with the market, as the butcher decided to leave a freshly slit open animal hanging in the middle of the small walkway, which was NOT a very pleasant sight.



And then we took the Oxford tube back to the streets of London!!

So all in all, I was happy that I went to Oxford, but just didn't find it to be one of my favorite cities. It was definitely a must-see place to go though! And who knows, maybe my opinion is affected by the fact that I wasn't feeling very well that day!