I made a last minute trip to Oxford on the Sunday and took the official Oxford walking tour before striking it out on my own. So, before bidding farewell to Oxford, I made the climb up to the top of the Carfax Tower, explored the huge Christ Church College and finally made the long round-trip walk of the Thames before heading back to the station.

Background

With the hottest weather to date, I felt the best option was to catch a train to Oxford from Ealing Broadway. That journey would take an hour and a half, allowing me to take a guided tour of Oxford. In the 2 hour tour our group were shown most of the sites that were significant to Oxford, such as the national history museum, the Broad Street and the first colleges such as St John's College and Keble college.

Unfortunately, the length of the tour had severely restricted my options to just visiting Christ Church and the Carfax Tower. The Carfax Tower has one of the best views of Oxford's colleges and cathedrals, especially the spires and belltowers of the cathedrals/churches within each college. And Christ Church also was magnificent, but felt quite touristy with the amount of visitors wandering around the huge cathedral and dining hall.

The Broad walk and New Walk perhaps provided the best escape from the crowds of tourists around Oxford. The New walk leads down to the River Thames and is the place to relax and unwind and take humour in the people who hired punts struggled for control of their oars.

Magdalen college would be my final stop, via Merton Field and Rose Lane. The college was closed, but a group of either italian/french or spanish kids were still lining up for punts around the bridge. Although their day doesn't end till the late evening hours, I had to get back to get the train back to london.

Technical

Canon EOS 300V with Fuji ISO 100 film. Canon A20 Powershot Digital Camera.

Links

Oxford - official site