Day 31 - Monday 27 September - Oxford

So was awake for two and a half hours in the middle of the night cause it hurt *sigh*

Got up around 7:20 and convinced the sweetie to get up too.

Had a repeat of Maccas breakfast and then headed for Paddington. Discovered the different ticket machines give different priced tickets - go figure. Found one that did a return for the same price as a single (again, go figure) and booked it. 9:21 to Oxford.

Had a pretty good day in Oxford.

It rained nearly all day.

First headed for the Bodleian Library to get on a tour of the Divinity School and the Duke Humfrey's Library. Had twenty minutes to spare so wandered around and got the sweetie a coffee.

Sheldonian Theatre

Bridge of Sighs

The Bodleian Library tour went for an hour and was quite interesting. I would have enjoyed it even if it wasn't a Harry Potter location ;)

Divinity School

Convocation House, next to the Divinity School

The Tower of the Five Orders

Silence Please!

Went and climbed the University Church tower for some nice views

Radcliffe Camera from the University Church

Looking into All Souls College

Looking into Brasenose College

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Next went to find some lunch. As we were both low on energy levels it took us a little while to find something suitable.

The Saxon tower of St Michael at the North Gate

After lunch wandered back up to where we'd seen a walking tour advertised.

The walking tour turned out to be really good. The dude took us into four colleges (Jesus, Exeter, Lincoln and New), and we saw quadrangles and dining halls and chapels for most of them. It was just nice cause he took us behind doors and down paths we probably would not have thought to have gone down if we were doing things by ourselves. Even came across a couple of Australian Rhodes Scholars (a girl from Brisbane doing law, and a guy (who looked about 16) from Adelaide doing inorganic chemistry). They'd only been in the country a few days. The tour finished in the cloisters of New College, where Goblet of Fire was filmed :)

Entrance to Jesus College

Jesus College dining hall

Jesus College quadrangle

Jesus College chapel

Exeter College quadrangle

Exeter College chapel

I love the detail on the organ of Exeter College chapel

Exeter College chapel

Exeter College quadrangle

South side of the Divinity School

Radcliffe Camera

Lincoln College quadrangle

Lincoln College dining hall

New College quadrangle

New College grounds including the old Oxford city wall

New College chapel

Beautiful stained glass in New College chapel

Crook of the crozier of William of Wykeham

New College chapel

Cloister of New College featured in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

New College quadrangle

New College quadrangle featured in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Draco gets turned into a ferret under this tree

After talking to Cedric, Harry walks through this gate

So next headed down to Christ Church to go in and see the hall and cathedral. The hall being the inspiration for the great hall in Harry Potter, and they used the entrance staircase in Philosopher's Stone. So that was pretty squee.