Thursday 6th August - Oxford

We had to get up a bit earlier to have breakfast as we had decided to go to Oxford for the day. Our bus from outside the Woollen Shop left at 8.33am so off early and a bit of overcast sky. Luckily we were at the bus stop early as he left at 8.30am after selling us an all day bus and train ticket foe £20. We got to the station at Morton in Marsh and had a wait of about 20 minutes before the train arrived. The train ride into Oxford took about half an hour and was pleasant.

We got off the train and had decided to get the hop on hop off bus but as one had just left we had 15 minutes to kill so had a cup of coffee. We paid our £20 for the bus tickets and headed off to get on the red bus. The ticket lady said we could get either the red bus or the green bus so when we boarded the red bus we asked the driver what was the difference and he told us colour!! Although the green bus had a live commentary up on the top deck.

We hopped off and walked down the High Street towards the Magdalen Bridge. Jim had been in touch and he recommended that we go through the Magdalen College as it was his favourite. But when we got there the open season for tourists was not until 12.00 noon. Off we went and watched groups who had hired punts having a royal time trying to push these around the basin and down under the bridge into the River Cherwell. Lots of fun and now I appreciate how skilful the guys on the River Avon back home are.

Walked into the Botanic Gardens and had a look at the rose gardens as you had to pay to go into the gardens proper and we didn't have the time to do that. Got back onto the Green bus this time and went past Christ Church College, Balliol College, Pembroke College and more. There are 28 colleges and some 22,000 students of which more than half are post grads. Oxford and Cambridge Universities are somewhat different to all other universities in the world in that every student is taught on a one to one basis with tutors or professors. There are 3 x 8 week terms at the end of which you sit your exams.

We had walked far enough and decide to find a place for lunch and ended up in The Covered Market which was rather cute as all the shops were odd sizes due to the alleyways. One shop was about 20 metres long and a metre and a half wide. Had our lunch and beer and walked out onto the main pedestrian way and looked at the buskers, the shops and St Michael's Church.