Thursday 2 August 2012

July 16 - Oxford University

We spent Sunday night just south of Oxford. I have to confess, that I was feeling done and ready to go home. I was not remotely excited to visit Oxford University.
But, we were there, so might as well.


We drove to a park and ride location, caught a bus, wandered around for a little bit, and met up for our tour.


Dynamite. We had the best day!


This hall is where Professor McGonigal taught Ron how to dance.


Oxford University is a confederation of 38 colleges. Each student is assigned a tutor, and essays are read aloud by the student rather than handed in on paper. Class sizes average around 20 students per class. The whole system is so interesting.


It was a beautiful campus.


Here's where they hold convocation.


From the street the whole thing seems a little brown, but each college has a park hidden behind its walls.


The history and the prestigious graduates are staggering.


Rhodes House


The only brick college in Oxford. The patterns of the brick replace the decorative carving in the stone of the other colleges. Visiting Oxford did make me think I'd like some gargoyles on my house. One representing every member of our family, maybe?


We did a little shoe shopping before we left to drive back to London for the airport hotel. 
(We didn't buy these ones.)

2 comments:

Jill said...

Oh it looks so beautiful! Randy and I have been watching Masterpiece Mystery's Inspector Lewis so we've been seeing a lot of Oxford lately and it's stunning.

Neighbor Jane Payne said...

Oh my goodness. Oxford was a brilliant stop. ;)

I've never even seen pictures of it, nor knew about the tutors and reading essays aloud.

What? You didn't want to wear disco balls home?