Yesterday our train trip from Lyon to London went very smoothly. We caught our booked TVG to Lille and as we walked up onto the concorse of the station the queue to board the Eurostar was just forming. We arrived in St Pancras station just after 5pm and walked down to the underground for the Picardilly line tube out to Heathrow. We were surprised to find that it was dark in England by five o'clock. Winter is definately on it's way.
Our hotel close to Heathrow is accessed by a shuttle called the Hotel Hopper. It's timetable is a bit erratic and Bob says it should be called the Crawler.
We caught the crawler ( it was 30 mins late) back to Heathrow this morning to catch the Oxford coach from the Central Bus Station there. This took us the 40 miles in just on an hour and delivered us to the centre of Oxford.
We oriented ourselves a bit and then booked a 2 hour walking tour for 1 pm. There are some interesting shops all up and down the main street selling clothing promoting the various colleges of the University. There are thirty something different colleges that make up the "federation" that is Oxford. We shopped a little and had lunch before setting of with 7 others on our introduction to the town and "gown" as the saying goes. The only other Aussie was a young woman from Sydney. We chatted as we walked between sites and eventually discovered that she is applying for a Post Doctural (PhD) research position and had flown in for about 10 days for a mutual inspection process. Her research area is in medical science specialising in viruses. If successful she will have a two year funding contract. I explained my noseiness by telling her abour Ingrid's role.
Now to the walk. This is a beautiful old town and we walked around places I had heard of including the Sheldonian Theatre, the Bodlian Library, the Radcliffe Camera and the St Mary the Virgin Church. The latter is 700 years old. The others were a bit younger. The Theatre was designed by Christopher Wren but named for Mr Sheldon because he supplied the capital. This also applied to to Mr Bodlian and Mr Radcliffe. The Camera was just another name for a library. We went into the library building which predated the Bodlian. Christopher Wren was involved here as well because the building had been stripped of all it's books during the time when Henry the 8th was having his tantrum with the Catholic Church. Before this time all the colleges had been Catholic and students had to be fluent in Latin to earn their degrees or Fellowships ie Professor status. Christopher restored the original library and donated many of his books.
From there we had a look at All Souls College from outside the walls. This was endowed by a Bishop who was worried by the loss of lawyers and priests during the civil war between the Catholcs and Protestants. It is magnificent even from only having a view of the bits showing above the walls. There were no students as such because it was/ is only for those who already had Fellowship status. Entry was rigorous but once "in" they were able to work on research of their choosing for as long as they liked. The bishop's architect liked towers and the building has about four that I could see. This led to the label "living in an ivory tower" for those divorced from the real world.
The main event of the tour was then to go into "New College". This was new in 1379 but the name stuck. It was endowed by a wealthy somebody who was granted the land just within the city wall of Oxford on condition that funds be allocated for the upkeep of the wall. The college is one of the largest in Oxford and now sprawls both sides of the wall but the Mayor still conducts an inspection of the wall's condition every three years. As a result it has the most significant remnant of the mediaeval wall remaining. We went into the chapel foyer to look into the chapel where they were rehersing for a Bach concert later in the afternoon. The foyer is interesting for having the only known painted windows as well as some stained glass. The painting is very effective but wasn't particularly well received so wasn't repeated. We then went into the dining room where students and fellows have their meals. There are 700 students in this college so meals are usually informal and flowing to accommodate all who want to dine. Tonight there is a formal dinner being held catering to those who obtain tickets since there is limited seating. We had a look at the menu and I didn't fancy a few things there but no doubt I would have found enough to eat. We also had a look at the courtyard and the 200 year old oak/holly tree which appears in the Harry Potter movies. Yes the tree is grafted so is both.
We caught our bus back by 4pm and it was very different to the outward trip. The bus filled as we progressed through the Oxford bus stops and some peple had to wait for the next bus. Then there was an accident ahead of us on the M40 and we just sat for about 20minutes. Even when the problem was resolved the traffic was heavy by then and the total time was two hours instead of 1- 1 1/2. Then we went to a different terminal to catch the Hopper and had trouble finding it. Fortunately our room has tea and coffee facilities so a cuppa sorted us out before we went down to dinner.
8-30 am departure for the airport tomorrow so Goodnight. End of this diary.
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