Meandering Abroad: Oxford- A City Of Colleges And More

On Saturday, Bob and I took off for another adventure outside of London. We hopped on a train at Paddington Station and headed an hour outside London to the city of Oxford. Oxford is known the world over for its 39 colleges but it is also a city with wonderful gargoyles and grotesques, cobbled streets, old pubs and lovely river walks. Bob and I tried to see a sampling of all of those.

We started the day with a walking tour that took us through the oldest part of town and into one of the oldest colleges named New College. (I guess it was new at some point) The picture above is of the hall where all the college graduates have their graduation ceremonies.

Large busts top the pillars that surround the hall.

A lovely bridge, connecting two buildings. Considered new because it is only 100 years old.

Lovely gardens on New College. The old city wall runs along the back of the gardens. All of the old colleges in Oxford were built around a quad, or courtyard area, and all their college buildings were surrounded by high walls with heavy gate doors. This was to protect the students from the townspeople who occasionally did away with a student or two.

Does this tree look familiar to any Harry Potter fans? I was told that it was used in filming the 4th movie where Malfoy is sitting up in the tree before being turned into a ferret.

Many of the buildings in town have gargoyles and grotesques decorating their buildings. Gargoyles have pipes coming out of their mouths to drain the water off and grotesques are distorted human like faces placed near gargoyles, plant, and animal figures for decoration. You can see a line of gargoyles and grotesques above.

Bob and I also toured Magdalen College which is considered to be one of the most beautiful colleges in Oxford. It is the college that C.S. Lewis attended. This is the Great Tower. It is a bell tower and was used as a lookout tower during the English Civil War.

The lovely quad, called The Cloister, at Magdalen College.

The dining hall.

Imagine eating all your meals in a room like this during your college years.

While we were touring Magdalen College, a wedding was being held in the chapel. If you watched the Royal Wedding of William & Kate you might remember the stirring song called Jerusalem sung at their wedding. (It is also sung in the movie Chariots of Fire) We were standing outside the chapel when the church was filled with hundreds of voices singing the song Jerusalem. Indescribable!

The wedding filing into The Cloister after the ceremony. Can you see the gentleman in the top hat and the ladies wearing their "fascinators"?

Not wanting to get in the way of the wedding party, we strolled out into the gardens and parks of Magdalen College. Here are some friends "punting" on the river Cherwell.

When we returned from our walk in the gardens, the wedding party had moved on to the reception and we were able to look inside the Chapel at Magdalen College.

We wanted to end our day in Oxford with a pub meal at The Eagle and Child. It was the pub that C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and other members of "The Inklings" would regularly gather at to discuss their writings and other matters of the day.