A wet morning in Oxford and a drier afternoon!

 After our family left last evening, it rained from about 20 minutes after they had left until about 10.00am this morning.  Then it stopped for a while and then started again! We wanted some stationery, so we braved the drizzle and set off in search of a stationery shop, which we successfully found, and then decided to stop at one of the many little cafes in Jericho to have some lunch.  We found a lovely and very busy cafe called the Opera Cafe and as you can see Chris had almost enough hollandaise sauce on his Eggs Benedict! 

James and Belinda were joining us today after lunch, and so we needed to be back at the boat to make sure we were there in time for them, which we were, and magically the rain stopped allowing us to help them bring their stuff from their car to the boat in the dry - definitely a win.  They then drove off to take their car to a place called Kintbury where they have some friends and planned to leave their car there so that it will be close to us when we pass on the Kennet and Avon Canal.  They can then get a train back to us from Kintbury to Reading and then from Reading to Oxford. There's something very satisfying about logistics of this sort!  As the afternoon was dry and there was actually watery sun, I decided that we should have an explore of bits of the city that we haven't seen this time, and in some cases, for a very long time.

We set off to walk to Christ's Meadows and on the way we passed Castle Hill and the Castle and Prison Museum. I'd never been aware of this in my visits to Oxford in the past, but it's quite a lump!

The Motte is very steep and well preserved, especially as it has trees on the top! You can see the tower of Nuffield College behind it - that is a modern college founded by Lord Nuffield from the proceeds of setting up the William Morris Car Company, one of the largest employers and biggest manufacturers in the 1950s and 60s in Oxford.  William Morris was not a fan of academe, but still decided to invest in the College that bears his name.  Next door to the castle are the prison buildings which were still in use until 1996, and which are now apparently a quite exclusive hotel! 

From there we worked our way passed the Westgate Shopping Centre entrance and down some of the back streets until we passed the main entrance of Christ Church College.

This is Tom Quad named after the bell Big Tom which came from Osney Abbey after the Reformation. The tower over the main gate (not shown in this picture) was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and now houses the bell.

We entered the gates on the way to Christ's Meadows and walked passed lawn. I took this picture for the gardeners amongst you.  Now THIS is a lawn!!  Certainly no robotic cutting machines used here!

There was a pretty formal garden near the entrance too. and then we came to the really large open spaces.  The meadow was to our left, but in front was this amazing grass area forming 5 cricket pitches with Christ's Church in the background and I think Merton College on the right.

From there we walked along a little stretch of the Cherwell which passes to the east of Oxford and joins the Thames a little further south.  Next to that is the Botanical Gardens and then you come out onto High Street where Magdalen College was to our right, including the tower from which choristers sing in the dawn on May 1st. 

The High Street is full of university buildings - the Examinations Schools were built in the 1876-1881 and are designed to the venue for students to take their examinations. The building in front in the picture below is All Souls College with the University Church behind it. 

Then we walked up Catte Street which houses the Radcliffe Camera, the setting for at least one Inspector Morse episode, (though none today that I know of) but is in fact a library and is part of the Bodleian, next door.  Having looked at it's website, I think it is probably focused on the needs of History students.

The entrance to the main Bodleian library is through the quad next door with Latin inscriptions over the doorways to the entrances to the different departments.  There's an underground corridor linking this building to the Radcliffe Camera.  

Across the road you can see the Bridge of Sighs - actually it was properly called the Hertford Bridge as it links two different parts of Hertford College across New College Road.  To my amazement, I discovered that it was only completed in 1914, and actually is more like the Rialto bridge in Venice than the Bridge of Sighs, but there you are - facts rarely overcome good marketing! 

Chris is in this picture as there is one in a childhood photo album of someone that his father took standing in the same position! 

There were all sorts of noises, mostly musical, coming from the Sheridan Theatre.  This building was erected in the time of Charles II - 1660s or so.  It's where Oxford Graduations take place I believe.   Next door is the old Ashmolean Museum which grew out of the building in 1894.  Now it is the Museum of the History of Science which we spent about 20 minutes having a look around.  It had a large range of Astrolabes - I'm sure they were Philip Pullman's inspiration for the Alethiometer.

It's a very beautiful thing, and there was information about where they came from, but very little information about what they did or how they helped further science.  From that point of view I found the visit really frustrating.  One thing that really amused me was a big globe, that said on the top that it was from 1793, but then someone at the university discovered that it was actually acquired in 1743, 50 years earlier, so how could that be!  Then it was discovered that paper maps that covered it had been replaced in 1793, so that's how the maps were current then!!  A whole new example of a software upgrade, perhaps! 

Another piece of equipment I loved from the aesthetic point of view was this personal compass and sundial.  It was made in Germany in the 1600s and is made from African elephant ivory, a really specialised skill that was passed down from father to son apparently.  It was really beautiful, but who owned it?  Why?  Why did they need it?  What did it enable them to do that they hadn't been able to do before?  These were all questions that I felt the need to have answered, but the museum was rather disappointing about that. 

So after that, we came back to boat by our now usual route along George Street, and passed our friendly heron.  He didn't catch anything whilst I watched him.

Our friends successfully returned by train from dropping their car at Kintbury, and after the necessary boarding gin and tonic we went and had dinner at a Lebanese Restaurant called Al Shami which is in Jericho and very close to our boat.  We had a mixed mezze which was delicious and very satisfactory and attempted to put the world to rights.  I think there is more to be done in that direction, but we have some more days to try!! 

We shall be leaving this mooring tomorrow and off to the Thames - not the high seas we are led to believe...  I shall tell you more of that tomorrow!