Friday, Oct. 23rd was our first day in Oxford. It is pretty impressive! The university is comprised of a number of different colleges. We took the bus, which gave me a nice break from driving. :) It was about an hour to get there on the bus.
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| Waiting for the bus. |
Funny story. When we got into York we set off walking to get to the boat tour that we had booked the day before. But the problem was, I looked at the wrong directions - the ones to the walking tour that we were going to go to later! So then we had to run back to where the bus had let us off, 15 minutes away, to try to get on the boat in time! Sheesh! Haha. We made it, just a little winded. :) The boat tour was okay. It was nice to relax, and see the river, but it wasn't what I had expected at all.
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| Some of the college boat houses. Each college has it's own boat house and rowing team. The very best rowers from the colleges form the Oxford team who competes against Cambridge each year. |
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| Calmly cruising :) |
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| One of the college party boats. The tour guide said that they don't use these any more, and most of them have sunk! |
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| These boats doc for free, so some people buy a boat, and live here, in order to live in Oxford! |
After the boat cruise we got some lunch at a bagel/ice cream shop that was yummy, and then we did a little shopping, and then did the walking tour.
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| A fancy men's suit shop |
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| Sporting a British hat :) |
They don't know exactly how long teaching has taken place in the city of Oxford, but school records go back to 1096, and the official charter was given in 1231.
EVERYBODY rides a bicycle! They are everywhere! One reason for that, of course, is that as the town grew over the last millenium nobody ever thought about parking until it was too late!
Every college has a library and a church.
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| The courtyard of one of the colleges. Only the head of the college and the queen can walk on the grass. And the guys who mow the grass! |
The shops pay rent to the college nearest them, because the colleges actually own the land. The student housing is above the shops and pubs.
Written by Dave:
A few interesting factoids I picked up:
-The only college sport they seem to know or do here is rowing. And it's taken VERY seriously.
-In 1355 a dispute between the townspeople and the students left 63 students dead. Some professors left, and Voila! Cambridge was born.
-Oxford has always used the acronym D-Phil for Doctor of Philosophy. Cambridge wanted something different, so they used PhD. Guess which one won? But in Oxford, it's still common to say "I got my D-Phil at Oxford."
-Oxford grants the Rhodes Scholarship to the best and brightest students from around the world. I just thought a "Rhodes Scholar" was a really smart person who got a great scholarship. No. It's exclusive to Oxford. 89 of these scholarships are awarded each year. Famous Rhodes scholars include:
Bill Clinton, Edwin Hubble, George Stephanopoulos, and Kris Kristofferson.
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| Anything look familiar about this dining hall? It's what gave J.K. Rowling the inspiration for how the Hogwarts dining hall should look. |
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| In these dining halls, the Headmaster sits in the middle of the head table, facing out towards the students. The Fellows sit around the head table, and the students sit at the lower tables. They are served a nice multi-course meal, the Fellows and Headmaster getting the best of the best. The students can dine here as often as they like throughout the year, and then at the end of the year they are given a bill. |
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| The New College Chapel. We came back here for the Evensong, a service featuring their world famous boys choir. It was really amazing! So beautiful. |
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| This is the tree in the scene from "Harry Potter" when Draco is taunting Harry Potter, and then he gets turned into a ferret. |
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| A few "Harry Potter" scenes are filmed in these cloisters. |
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| On the left, Brasenose college. On the right, Exeter. J.R.R. Tolkien attended Exeter, William Golding went to Brasenose. Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings. Golding? Lord of the Flies. |
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| The courtyard in Lincoln College |
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Lincoln College. One of my ancestors, Thomas Rotherham, helped establish it's library.
Tyler, Joshua, Michelle, Janae |
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| In the Divinity School. A few scenes from "Harry Potter" were filmed here - the choosing of names in Goblet of Fire, and it's where professor McGonigal taught Ron how to dance, and it was the infirmiry when Ron is recovering. |
We went up the tower of St. Mary's church. It has the highest lookout point in Oxford.
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| Haha. Josh trying to get his phone to work or something. :) |
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| View from St. Mary's church |
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| View from St. Mary's church |
One of our very favorite things of the day was the Evensong service that we attended. It's a Catholic service. A boys/college choir sang it. It was so beautiful, and the acoustics in the cathedral were amazing! We were so glad that we went to it. We kind of had to drag the kids there, but they loved it, too. :)
