In the land of Harry Potter November 7, 2008

Tuesday morning–election day–dawned unfavorably grey and foggy as I awoke at 8 a.m., sliced open the tip of my finger while cutting open a bagel, and ran outside by 9 to meet the girls for our daytrip. We climbed onto a miraculously not crowded train at Mile End, and took that all the way to Victoria tube station, which opens up into Victoria National Rail, but is somehow very disconnected from Victoria Coach Station, which was our first destination. I was fairly giddy considering the fact that we had no idea where we were going, but eventually, thanks to many signs and a nice national express man’s directions, we found the coach station, hopped on the right bus (which was also delightfully empty), and headed off on the speedy trip to Oxford. As in the place where Oxford University is. As in, Harry Potter World.

When we arrived, earlier than expected, we wandered for a bit down the High Street, then went into the Covered Market (lovely place! wish we would have had more time to explore!) to sit down at a cafe for lunch. There, I had a really wonderful mug of hot chocolate and polished off my bagel. We were surrounded by students talking about vaguely intellectual things. It was refreshing.

After quick lunch, we wandered down to Christ Church College, where the kind old gentleman who takes your money told us to come back in two hours so we could see the Hall and the Dining Room, as they were both closed for lunch. Alright, fine. So off we went, back down the road, and visited the Museum of Oxford, which was interesting, I suppose. I bought two fun postcards that tell the entire story of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I’m rather amused by them. After that, we wandered up to the Bodleian Library, which as a copyright library is sent a copy of every book published, were told that their next tour had been cancelled. After that, we wandered past the Radcliffe Camera, which is the circular, domed main reading room of the Bodleian Library, and peaked through the open door at All Soul’s College, and then, I saw people walking around one of the church spires across the street, and so, jumping up and down it typical five-year-old Brittany fashion, I amused them all enough that we stopped for a half hour to explore the church (St. Mary the Virgin Church), and then I climbed up hundreds of steps to the viewing level and took panoramic photos of Oxford.

Then, we wandered past all the shops on High Street, meandered our way down to Christ Church College once again, and entered the land of Harry Potter. They shot the scene in the first film, where Harry is talking to Ron and Draco in the entrance hall, and then McGonnagal comes in and takes them into the Great Hall, in the Hall at Christ Church. It was exquisite. I’m really hoping my pictures came out, because the hall, as you see in the film, is very simple and clean, but imposing and grand at the same time. And the ceiling is exquisite. I need to show you pictures. Anyway, a climb up the stairs in the Dining Hall, where Oxford Students and faculty still eat lunch. This is the model of the Great Hall in the earlier films. It’s not as grand in size as I had expected it to be, but the room is wood paneled with paintings of people connected to the college hanging on all the walls. Lewis Carroll studied and taught at Christ Church, and so one of the stained glass windows on the left hand side of the hall depicts characters from his Alice stories. There’s also a door in the panelling behind the head table that is supposed to be where he got the idea for the rabbit hole.

From the Great Hall, we gazed at Tom’s Tower, in which lies Big Tom, a bell, and then went into the Cathedral, which is exquisite. They have a stained glass window showing Jonah, but only the figure of Jonah is actually stained glass. The rest is just painted glass. You could see the slight difference in the way that the light came through; Jonas sort of glowed, while the rest of the scene was just illuminated. The ceiling is, I think, the most incredible thing about the cathedral. It’s made up of interweaving star shapes, symbolizing the universe and the entirety of God’s creation. I’ve never seen anything like it.

That was pretty much the end of the tour of Christ Church College. It really is a beautiful school. The courtyards are very Hogwarts-y. I can just envision the students sitting outside talking, or Hermione running past right when Ron insults her during the first book. /sigh.

After that, Liz took us in a great circle before heading back to the Library for a tour. I opted to go with Jill and Elizabeth to the Oxford Castle. Because my companions are..um..cheap…we didn’t actually go in the castle, and from the outside, it didn’t really look as impressive as the smaller but still castle-like county hall did. The hall is actually really cute.

We finished up our tour of Oxford with dinner at The Eagle and Child, the pub where Tolkein and CS Lewis met and discussed highly intellectual things. There’s a plaque over their old table, now, but it was already occupied when we arrived. Dinner was a slow, comfortable affair in the cozy pub, and after that, we meandered back to the coach station, hopped aboard our bus, and snoozed all the way back to London.

I bet you’re thinking, what does the crazy girl actually think of Oxford?

Well, I liked it. I would have liked it a lot more, I think, if it would have been sunny out, if I would have planned out an itinerary or my fellow explorers would have done some research instead of leaving it on me, as per usual, or if I would have come alone. I know it sounds sad, but sometimes I just like doing what I want to do when I want to do it, and I don’t like dealing with walking all over the place because a certain individual can’t read a map, or walking for 20 minutes to some place and then not going in because you don’t want to pay the admission fee. It’s kind of disheartening. But it was a lot of fun, really, particularly Christ College and supper at the Eagle and Child. I would have liked to go to the Ashmolean Museum, perhaps see another college, but we did a fair amount, and I was certainly exhausted by the time I got home.

Oxford itself is just the way it looks in the pictures: very cute, very old, full of history and fabulous architecture and brainy students that ride bikes everywhere. There were bikes, everywhere, I kid you not. Everywhere. It’s very picturesque, even on dull November days in England when the weather is on this side of crap. It’s got a very walkable town center, although on our bus ride back to London, we went through quite a bit that we hadn’t explored, farther down High Street, I think, towards the outskirts. It’s a small place, though, which makes me exceedingly glad to be living in London. I love having so much to explore. The thing about Oxford, I think, is that it’s all so beautiful and the architecture is so similar that one beautiful building fades into the other, and by the end of the day, you lose your appreciation for the splendor around you.