A Day in Oxford

Hello, and welcome to our small corner. 

 

The sun has been shining much more this week, although the night temperatures are still dropping below zero. It has been good to get outside more, and Spring is very nearly here.

Hubby has had another couple of annual leave days to use up, and we took advantage of that and the dry weather to visit Oxford on Friday. We drove down in the morning and then used the park-and-ride into the city. We wanted to see as much as possible in the short time we had available and used the hop-on-hop-off bus. It was very cold on the open-top bus, but the audio guide and the views made it worthwhile. We will be back when the weather warms up, and we can visit more specific places. 

Oxford is known for its prime university status, but it comprises nearly 40 colleges, all with proud heritages. There are beautiful grounds hidden behind heavy oak doors with neat lawns and large paved areas for the students and staff to enjoy. As we drove past, we saw the occasional teasing glimpses of these hidden places of utopia. 

Alice's shop is somewhere I would love to visit. It was supposedly where the real-life Alice of "Alice in Wonderland" bought her sweet treats. Many well-known writers have connections with Oxford. It is interesting to think that C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien may have shared a drink in the ' rabbit room ' of a public house called 'The Eagle and Child '!

Another prominent landmark is The Martyrs' Memorial, which commemorates three Protestant churchmen, Archbishop Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer,  who were burnt at the stake in the 1500s. 

There are many other wonderful landmarks to see around Oxford, perhaps the most famous being the circular, domed Radcliffe Camera. The word" camera" here means chamber or room. It stands in front of the Bodleian Library, whose book collection is world-famous. (There are no images this time, but you can find plenty on Google.)

However, I did manage some pictures of the Sheldonian, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The stone head carvings are based on Roman designs.

A more modern structure is the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1913 and linking two parts of Hertford College. It is similar to other famous bridges in Venice.

We visited the Museum of the History of Science, which had a fascinating display of instruments used to study the stars, a story about how penicillin was developed, Marconi's radio work, and Einstein's blackboard from one of his lectures. 

We enjoyed our first visit to Oxford very much and while nobody was punting on the river, we will look forward to that entertainment on a warmer day. 

Meanwhile, back home, after several weeks of working on the kitchen flooring, hubby has done an excellent job, and it is now finished. This has prompted reorganising the space and finally giving the dresser that belonged to my mum a new lease of life and pride of place in our kitchen. We all agree that it is now a good place to eat and enjoy being together. Here are a few pictures taken from both ends of the room.

Finally, you might like to see this picture after last week's post on Coventry Cathedral. The cathedral reopened in 1962; this is the guidebook's cover from that year. I found it amongst some of my dad's books that I kept. The cover has an additional jacket in acetate with the angels etched onto it. It is a beautiful and very unusual cover.

The weather forecast is good for the next few days here, and I hope that wherever you live, you enjoy some Spring sunshine too. 

Have a lovely week x