July 8, 2007
Well I’ve let my journal slip by the wayside since getting to Oxford, but I’ll catch up here. First, about Oxford:
Oxford is amazing. The city was founded in the 10th century as a trade route crossing at an oxen river ford on the Thames (hence the name Oxford). The city holds onto the historical charm that puts into the shoes of the ancestral folk that lived and worked here. Our group is staying in Worchester College (pronounced like Wooster). The college is magnificent. First off, I’m staying in a 13th century building originally built as a monastery. 13th century monks lived and studied here. The grounds of the campus are some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen. Ever day I see the gardeners our working on the lawns, floors gardens, and other fauna of the landscape. In the center of gardens is a large pond. The gardens are always full of ducks and other beautiful birds that appear to have no fear of men. They will let you almost pet them before moving away. The campus buildings are a mixture of old and new. Even now they are constructing new dormitories on the northern side of campus. The whole place just seems perfectly kept. The pride that the college takes in its appearance is inspiring.
The only downside so far to Oxford is the English weather. More than have the time we’ve been here its been raining and cold. Temperatures have averaged in the high sixties since we arrived, and today is the first day it could be called warm.
My first week was wonderful. I just couldn’t get over the fact that this beautiful place was where I would be living for six weeks. Classes began with the normal introductions, and our work has been fairly minimal since. Every day I could take my books out into the gardens to read and study (when it wasn’t raining). The main part of town is a center of shopping and restaurants. I spent some time looking through the old book shops and investigating the little cafes and pasty shops (pasty is a pastry with meat in it). Because of the weather I needed to buy a few long sleeve shirts, but it was easy to find a couple nice ones I liked. The city is also covered with little pubs scattered here and their. A particularly famous one is the Eagle & Child where the Inklings met to discuss their latest books and writings. The Inklings were a small group of authors based here in Oxford and their membership included C. S. Lewis and J. R. Tolkien. Many of the pubs have old style painted wooden signs above their door and they all carry some kinds of local brews.
London:
Our first weekend here we took day trips to London. In the morning we hopped on commuter busses out of Oxford to London. On Friday we arrived just in time in the morning to see the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It was a huge show with several big bands and parading horses. Really the actually changing of the guards gets lost in the show. I almost missed it from watching other things. Buckingham palace was beautiful. The gilded gates and Victoria’s Memorial outside just added to the splendor of the place. Running east out of the palace is The Mall. It is a long wide avenue bordered by large street lamps proudly displaying large Union Jacks all along the way. Next we went to the Churchill museum located in his underground bunker used during the War as a central hub for intelligence and government. It was very interesting to see the well preserved rooms that Churchill and his staff occupied during the darkest days of the Battle of Britain. After that we headed to the Parliament Building and Big Ben. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the Parliament because it was closed, but we did get some good pictures around it and with Big Ben. We crossed the street to check out Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was amazing. There are over 3000 statesmen, military personal, monarchs, poets, and musicians buried with in the church. Everywhere you turn is the tomb or memorial of someone famous from British history. This is also the official chapel for the Order of the Bath. It was really amazing. After that we headed north to Trafalgar Square and then farther north to the British Museum. This museum is a national gallery of the treasures of archeology discovered and preserved by the British nation. Artifacts from every era of history reside here. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time here and a lot of the galleries were closed for renovations, but it was still a very interesting museum, and I’m glad we went. After that we went back to the bus stop and after some confusion as to where they were supposed to pick us up we went home.
The next day we headed back to London by the same buses. We went first to Piccadilly square and then to Leicester square to check on seeing a show. We got tickets for a matinee showing of Les Miserables. We headed back to Trafalgar square and went into the National Gallery. This was a huge museum of art with some of the most famous pieces from around the world. After the national gallery we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the show of Les Miserables. The show was amazing. This was the best part of the day. The performers were great, and the show was so wonderful. I really enjoyed this. After the show we decided to head back home, but on our way back to the train station we passed the area of town where the night before the London police had foiled a car bomb plot. They had about three square blocks or so cordoned off. We got a few pictures of news casters reporting the story. We headed home and watched a movie that night. I didn’t feel like we got to see everything in London I wanted to, but we plan on going back before the summer is over.
Bath and Portsmouth:
The second weekend I took two day trips: one to Bath and one to Portsmouth. Bath is a city southwest of Oxford and is famous for its ancient hot springs and being the equivalent of Hollywood in the 18th century. In bath we visited ancient Roman Baths constructed around the springs. These structures were not only public baths, but a temple and other religious structures as well. The miracle of the springs was attributed to the Roman goddess Minerva, and was said to have special healing abilities. Even in the 18th century people would flock to the hot springs for their “rejuvenating” effects. We also visited a fashion museum that chronicled clothing styles from the past eras. It wasn’t very interesting. We visited the Circus and Crescent which are two architecturally important areas of town in which the city was planned around a circular park surrounded by houses in the case of the Circus and a crescent shaped hotel in the case of the Crescent. We took some time in these green spaces and rested. It was a very nice day, and we were able to enjoy the parks. We then visited the Bath Abbey which was a beautiful structure similar to Westminster Abbey, but on a smaller scale. We took a nice walk along the river bank and enjoyed the Pulteney Bridge which was a shopping center over a bridge across the river Avon. Bath was a lovely place, and I really enjoyed taking our time here and just enjoying the city.
Saturday we headed to Portsmouth on the Channel Coast of England. Portsmouth was the historical center for the British Navy, and famous port of trade. We spent most of the days in the historic dockyards district. We visited first the British Naval Historical museum. Here was a collection of displays, models, and exhibits about the British Navy past and present. There were some very interesting exhibits about the Sailing Ship Navy and the Age of Sail. Also there was a very interesting exhibit all about Lord Nelson and his great battles against the Napoleonic Navy. After the museum we got to visit HMS Victory on display in the dockyard. This was the famous historical flagship of Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar. It is a 104 gun first-rate battleship launched in 1765. The ship is simply huge, and all the insides are restored to “fighting form” from 1805, the year of the Battle of Trafalgar. Unfortunately, Nelson was killed during this battle, and so attained his immortal glory among the British. After the Victory we checked out a museum on the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was the flag ship of King Henry VIII that sank in Portsmouth Harbor in 1545. Today she has been raised from the sea floor and about half of her is left, and is being preserved in a huge enclosed building dedicated to her preservation. It was an interesting exhibit. After the Mary Rose we went to visit Queen Victoria’s HMS Warrior built in 1860. It revolutionized naval warfare by being made completely from steel. Also I carried both a steam engine and sails so it could use both for travel. The size of this ship really made the other two look small. It gave a good insight into the life of Victorian sailors and warfare. After the Warrior we took a harbor boat tour. From our small boat we could see a bunch of the modern day British Naval ships as well as the Victory and Warrior. It was a great cap to our tour of the Historic Dockyards. After our harbor tour we had dinner at an oriental buffet called Water Margin that was pretty good. Then we spent some time in the Gunwharf Quay, a large modern shopping and entertainment area. Finally we took a nice walk along the costal walls and enjoyed the dusk of the Channel. We headed back to the Train station to find that we would not be able to get back to Oxford by train. We had waited to late. So we decided to head to London and catch a bus back from there to Oxford. It took almost 6 hours, but we got back to Oxford at about 4:30 in the morning. It was a fun adventure that took us through a 40 minute walk through London in the middle of the night. Luckily none of us had any particular plans for Sunday so we all just relaxed and enjoyed the adventure.
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