Day 33 - August 13, 2022 - Oxford

 After breakfast this morning, we met with a local guide for one and one-half walking tour of Oxford.  Oxford is not a huge city and would probably just be a small town if it weren't for the universities.

Oxford, a city in central southern England, revolves around its prestigious university, established in the 12th century. The architecture of its 38 colleges in the city’s medieval center led poet Matthew Arnold to nickname it the 'City of Dreaming Spires'.

Aerial panorama of the university.

By Chensiyuan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52257860

Just outside the entrance to our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott at City Center, stands St. George's Tower.  

The Castle was built into the western side of the town defenses for William the Conqueror in 1071. Only St George’s Tower, the mound, and the base of the Round Tower survive.

As we walked around Oxford, I again felt like I had been transported onto the set of a Harry Potter movie.  I won't be able to name all the buildings, but will show you a few.

The Meadow Building

St. Michaels at North Gate Spire

Radcliffe Camera (library)

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Christ Church

After our walking tour ended, we decided to visit the Oxford Museum of Natural History and the Pitts River Museum of Anthropology and World Archeology.

I am not posting many photos because there is not much fun in looking at photos of museum exhibits, but this skeleton of a tuna has a story which I found interesting.

The photos below are to just illustrate both the breath and depth of the Pitt Museum's exhibits.

Just a few of the dozens and dozens of categories of exhibits include: Magic - Ritual and Belief, Skates and Snowshoes, Body Art and Jewelry, Medicine and Surgery, Blowpipes and Darts and Boomerangs,  Again, this is only a sample and the depth of each exhibit was extensive.

Since we were having our farewell dinner at the hotel tonight, we didn't want a lot for lunch but thought we might share a sandwich and have a beer.  We planned to stop at a Wetherspoons on the way to the hotel, but our route took us by the O'Neill's we ate at yesterday.  To my surprise the owner recognized me and welcomed us back.  After delivering our Guinness, he stayed and asked about our travels and made some suggestions for the Cork area, which is where he is from.  Kay and I shared a burger as did Janet and Carl.  You get a double beef burger (huge) with fries and a pint of Guiness for 11 pounds, about $13.25.  It was a deal.

After our farewell dinner this evening, we took a stroll down the Oxford Heritage Canal Trail which begins just down from our hotel door.

It was a nice cool and pleasant walk.  There are a lot of canal longboats docked alongside the canal.  In the city, the signs say 2 day free then 25 pounds per day with a maximum stay of 15 days each month.  I suppose this is to prevent people from parking and living in the city limits.  It appeared this is not enforced, some of the boats looked like they had been docker there for months.

After we returned, we went up to the 5th floor terrace of the hotel to watch the sunset.  It was beautiful.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to meet our new guide for the next two days in the UK.  We have a trip scheduled to Windsor Castle for the morning.