An Intimate Tour of Oxford

Magdalen Tower. Those round clumps in the trees are mistletoe.


Alice and the Oxford Dodo appear on the stained glass windows of Christ Church College Chapel


The View from Bethany's Window

This morning we caught the train to Oxford. It's about an hour outside of London Paddington. That is, of course, if you don't catch the local, as we did, which took about an hour and a half. We were still on time to meet our friends Heather and Graham who live about a half hour west of Oxford in Compton. We were neighbors with H&G when we lived in Tokyo, so it was great to see them and two of their daughters.

First stop was The Grand Cafe, site of the oldest coffee house in England. They served up some delicious coffee and sweets in elegant surroundings. After this tasty interlude we went to meet H&G's daughter, Bethany, at the Porter's Lodge of Magdalen College. She is in her second year at Magdalen and she gave us a tour of the grounds and some of the buildings. A real treat as we were allowed to go to places that are not open to the general public. The grounds were really lovely with a stream for punting and a deer park. The buildings were charmingly gothic, including Bethany's room which had a window with a great view of Magdalen Tower. After our tour of Magdalen, Heather gave us a walking tour of Oxford, pointing some of the prominent architecture. (Graham had to leave to pick up their other daughter Rosie from school and drop her off at home.) We stopped in for a self-guided tour of Christ Church College. This was an impressive campus, but we all agreed we preferred the warmth and intimacy of Magadalen College over Christ Church's somewhat stuffy classical setting. Christ Church has strong connections with Alice in Wonderland. Alice's father Henry Liddell was the dean of Christ Church College while Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was a student there. In Christ Church Chapel we viewed some stained glass windows with illustrations from Alice in Wonderland.

After our tour of Christ Church College Graham rejoined us and we had lunch at the dubiously named Nose Bag, a rustic tavern that appears to be a student favorite.

The highlight of the day came after lunch when we went to the Oxford Museum of Natural History. The museum building itself was as much an attraction as any of the exhibits on display. Built in the 1850s, the museum is a glorious example of Victorian architecture with cast iron pillars, a cast iron roof and roof shingles made of glass and with every detail dedicated to the theme of natural history. A wonderful fltered light gave a warm glow to the main hall which was dominated by dinosaur skeletons and filled with all manner of displays on natural history. It was a true delight to wander through this grand old building and it ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite museums.

We popped into Queen's Cafe, Bethany's favorite cafe in Oxford, another student haunt, before attending the Evensong service at Magdalen Chapel. I was deeply moved when the boys' choir began to sing. Their voices were hauntingly beautiful and the acoustics were superb. I had thought they would only sing hymns interspersed throughout the service, but they actually sang the words of the service. It was quaint and lovely.

After Evensong we retired to H&G's house in Compton and a very nice cozy house it was. We had a chance to chat with Rosie as Heather served up soup and an amazing array of cheeses and bread and crackers. It was just what we needed after having snacked our way through Oxford all day.