A Day in Oxford

I went to visit the city of Oxford (about an hour bus ride northwest of London) with some of my teacher friends. One of our friends lives in Oxford and she wanted us to come for a visit. She was an excellent tour guide and showed us some great spots, along with letting us in on all the trivia she has acquired living there for over the last year.

Oxford, England is home to the University of Oxford, which is the oldest surviving university in the English speaking world and is known as one of the world's leading academic institutions. This collegiate university is structured differently than most colleges and universities and is kind of confusing to understand. The university is a federation and is made up of self-governing colleges, along with a central administration that has no affiliation with any particular college. There are 38 colleges in the University of Oxford, each having its own internal structure and activities. All students must be members of both the college and of the university.

The university campus is absolutely beautiful and has so much history behind the architecture of the buildings, some of the buildings gave me the feeling that I was back at Indiana University!

The girls in Radcliffe Square in front of the Radcliffe Camera
(popular location in the Harry Potter films)

Radcliffe Square is a square in central Oxford and is surrounded by Oxford University and the college buildings. The square is named after John Radcliffe, who was a student of the university who became a doctor to the King. He left a significant legacy to the University and to his college (University College). The centerpiece of the square is Radcliffe Camera, originally a science library, paid for by John Radcliffe's legacy and was built between 1737-1748.

Here's some other views from Radcliffe Square and as we were leaving the center.

These were the over-head walkways between buildings that were only allowed to be used by academic staff, as the commoners had to walk below.



There were these really neat passageways all over the campus.















The reason for this picture is to show that the road is divided between cobblestone and paved road. The significance of the road being split is to keep the cobblestone on part of the road to keep traffic off, as cars wouldn't want to drive over the cobblestone part and would drive on the paved road, keeping that part of the street very quiet.



















This picture reminds me of the old Beta house on 10th Street at IU!









Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), who wrote Alice in Wonderland, went to school at Oxford attending Christ Church college. Lewis became close with the Dean of the college, and it is believed that his relationship with the Dean's family is where he got his inspiration to write the outline of Alice's Adventures Underground which was one of the possible titles for what originally published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. Lewis Carroll's legacy still lives on in Oxford with Alice's Shop.

Another secret passageway...this one led us to a cute, little pub!

My teacher friends...Katherine (from Australia) and Allison (from Canada)

How funny is this?? Only in England!!

The girls

This pub served an Oxford's writers group, that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, from late 1933 to 1949. In June 1950 this is where C.S. Lewis distributed his preliminary work for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

We ended our day at this favorite pub of Katherine's and it was my first time having fish and chips (yummy)!!