{Saturday}

Oxford

Oxford University

Christ's Church University

The official Alice in Wonderland store

The Eagle and Child pub 

bits and pieces of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis 

living the posh life at Oxford 

 This lovely building was one of many used in the filming of Harry Potter. (specifically during the Goblet of Fire scene when Harry is in the infirmary)

 Radcliffe Camera (the beautiful library)

 Our tour guide brought us into this alley and had us all gather round for a good story telling. She went on to tell us about how it is said that this alley way was one of the ways that C.S. Lewis walked fairly often. It is suspected that this is the lamp that he used as his inspiration for the lamp that Lucy first sees when she walked through the wardrobe into Narnia. Down that same ally is a door with golden fawn statues on either side and the face of a lion carved into the middle. Dad and Lorn, you both would have appreciated this.

 We also got to go on a tour of Christ's Church College. Aside from being a beautifully crafted building, this college is famous for it's dining hall (which is used as a model for the dining hall at Hogwarts) There are also other various parts of the college the were used in the filming of the movies.

 Our view while waiting in line to see the dining hall

 Familiar with the "grand staircase" in Hogwarts? This is it. We took a nice little casual stroll up the stairs. No big deal or anything. 

The dining hall that the Hogwart's dining hall was designed after.

 The Eagle and Child pub holds claims to a number of literary connections. J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other writers met here. We have absolutely claimed the title as "cheesy tourists"

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was not exactly excited for this trip. We had a huge drop in temperature recently and Saturday was supposed to be freezing and snowy (and it ended up being just that.) Rachel convinced me that it was worth going, lend me her parka and sent me on my way. 
Oxford is quite different from any other European city I have ever been to. It's a surreal feeling, walking the ancient streets, being surrounded by such prestigious schools and memories of literary geniuses. I will never forget this feeling.
Also, it's worthy to make mention of the lovely little Alice and Wonderland store that we bought some wonderful post cards at. The original Alice's  Adventures in Wonderland was written by Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. His original telling of the story was for the daughter of Henry Liddell (Dean of Christ's Church). Liddell's daughter Alice later asked Dodgeson to write the story down. Ah, history, the stories never cease to amaze me.
One thing that we ran out of time to do while in Oxford was seeing the most intact skeleton of the Dodo bird (at the Oxford Museum of Natural history)....so instead I have added a lovely googled photo of a Dodo bird. you are so welcome.