Long day today.

Ellie and I went to Oxford for the day. It was very lovely. The town ins very quaint yet bustling. The train only took an hour and only cost £13. We still can't figure out the discrepancies between the prices online and at the station because the website said it was £13 each way, not total. Good thing we decided not to buy them ahead of time. The train station was only about a 10 minute walk from the town center. It was a little chilly, but sunny, so it was nice for walking around.

Our first site was the Covered Market. It was so cute it had a variety of shops, stands and restaurants. We returned there a couple times throughout the day. I got a sausage roll for a late breakfast/early lunch from a pasty stand. It was basically a soft, mild sausage inside of a flaky pastry roll. It was pretty good and held me over until dinner.

Then we went to Christ Church College. This is one of the filming locations for the Harry Potter movies. Since it is still an active college some of the visitor attractions close periodically. So when we first got there we walked around the grounds for a bit, before going inside. The whole place is really gorgeous. It is all old classical and gothic architecture with a gorgeously kept quad. We were able to go inside the cathedral for a short bit, before gaining access to the staircase and the dining hall (a.k.a. The Great Hall). It was fabulous. The stairs look just the same as in the movie but the hall was a little different (mainly cosmetic differences). It is a functional dining hall so there are some counters and food cases along the side thus causing the room to be more narrow and then only have three long tables. Regardless of that the room felt a little bit smaller. I think this is due to the dark wood ceiling which doesn't exist in the movie. It is every bit as beautiful as the movie.

Once we finished there we made our way to the Bodleian Library (with a stop at a £2 bookstore). This library (a term used lightly because it is a large building with courtyards and a variety of different little libraries) was another place they filmed Harry Potter. The Divinity School was the site for the hospital and the Duke Humphrey Library was the site for the Hogwarts Library. Unfortunately you can only access the Duke Humphrey Library when on a tour and all the tours were sold out by the time we got there. I did get some really nice postcards of it which give the essence of the room.

Then we stopped for a snack at a little cafe and it started to rain on us a bit, stopping just in time for us to start walking around again. We went to a couple different shops so I could look for some gifts.

Then we looked at some menus for a bunch of different places before finally settling on a cute pub called the Chequers. The best part: the Oxford boys. They are so cute in their uniforms: suit with a white bowtie, a graduation cap and a vest thing with strips that hang off the back. They were all so attractive. Ellie and I had great seating in the restaurant.

Then we made our way back to the train station, catching a train that was leaving 5 minutes later.

The whole day was great but we were supposed to meet up with Meaghan for a while. We had some problems with our cell phones. I called and texted her a bunch of times but never got through and apparently she had the same problem. Oh well, nothing to do about it now. Hopefully I'll be able to see her again before we go back to Rochester.