On Friday, before we set off to stay with our next lot of friends in Cambridge, we headed into Oxford again with the aim of seeing a bit more and doing a walking tour. It was a chilly — and occasionally rainy — day, but we still managed to achieve both of those goals!
Sitting in the front row on the top deck of the Park 'n' Ride bus.Entering the Covered Market in Oxford.The White Rabbit. Look out for other Alice in Wonderland references!"Off with her head!"We ALMOST bought this cap for F!
After more £4 Tesco lunches, we joined a walking tour of Oxford with a guy who studied there 14 years ago. We saw a few interesting things, but I think my expectations had been set a bit too high when the ad said the tour would include "Harry Potter filming locations" and we in fact just saw, from a distance, the top of the tree under which Mad-Eye Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret...
Ferret tree (on the far side of the roof).A cool door.A flower seller! I'm not sure if this was just because there was a graduation happening (pics below), or whether he's always there.Inside the Weston Library (one of the Bodleian Library's 26 facilities).They had an interesting exhibition about the non-text marks found in books... imprints from paperclips and bookmarks, food stains, etc!J the cockroach — something to do with a Kafka exhibition.This fascinating exhibition was about authors editing/cutting/rewriting their work. I only had a few minutes there as the tour then moved on.We saw a film crew getting ready to film something.My favourite part of the tour was seeing these graduating students. Wait for it...Up they go!In the quadrangle at one of the colleges.More hat-throwing!The Radcliffe Camera (another of the Bodleian's 26 libraries/ reading rooms).Another college (the final stop on the walking tour). Apparently the number one rule is that you're not allowed on the grass!We went into the chapel at the final college.Pipe organ!
A final few Oxford photos...
View from the double decker bus.The same spot on the Thames as the previous day's rain-blurred photo. The water level was quite high from all the rain!
Then we set off for Cambridge, a couple hours' drive away... another famous old university town!
Yummy dinner in a freezing cold pub garden along the way.
