Together at last, we boarded a large coach bus, collected headsets, and found seats. Evan Evans Tours was a well-organized company and our tour guide, Daniel, quickly got us all straightened out for the day ahead. Daniel was good-natured and easygoing, excellent traits for a tour guide. The bus was not completely full, but a comfortable party of perhaps twenty-five, Americans and Australians for the most part. The guide pointed out some London landmarks on our way out of the city, then we relaxed for the drive to Oxford.
Oxford is a lovely old town with the university as its center. The university is, in fact, made up of several different colleges. Not in the sense you might be familiar with, like a college of medicine or college of liberal arts. But each individual college is an entity in its own right, with multiple disciplines at each. From the website:
Oxford is a collegiate university, consisting of the central University and colleges. The central University is composed of academic departments and research centres, administrative departments, libraries and museums. The 38 colleges are self-governing and financially independent institutions, which are related to the central University in a federal system. There are also six permanent private halls, which were founded by different Christian denominations and which still retain their Christian character.
The different roles of the colleges and the University have evolved over time.
The colleges
The tour disembarked at the Martyr's Memorial in the center of town, a monument to those who were burned for their beliefs during the Reformation. The tour guide spoke to us as we walked using a wireless speaker system, for which we all received headsets upon arrival. Kind of a nifty way to make sure everyone can hear without trying to crowd around the speaker. It was funny, though, when another tour group near us was using the same channel, and we were hearing their guide as well.
- Select and admit undergraduate students, and select graduate students after they are admitted by the University.
- Provide accommodation, meals, common rooms, libraries, sports and social facilities, and pastoral care for their students.
- Are responsible for tutorial teaching for undergraduates.
The University
- Determines the content of the courses within which college teaching takes place.
- Organises lectures, seminars and lab work.
- Provides a wide range of resources for teaching and learning in the form of libraries, laboratories, museums, computing facilities, and so on.
- Provides administrative services and centrally managed student services such as counselling and careers.
- Admits and supervises graduate students, and examines theses.
- Sets and marks examinations, and awards degrees.
The collegiate system is at the heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics the benefits of belonging both to a large, internationally renowned institution and to a small, interdisciplinary academic community.
The rich history of Oxford University is inspiring, with so many notable graduates, from Sir Walter Raleigh and William Penn to Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, JRR Tolkien, Edwin Hubbell, Tony Abbott and Bill Clinton, numerous authors, philosophers, prime ministers, Nobel prizewinners, the list goes on.
We saw only a fragment of the colleges. The architecture is stately and ornate, surely adding to the inspiration of the students in attendance. We peeked into the courtyards of a few colleges, including Balliol, Trinity, All Souls and Brasenose. We also saw parts of the Bodleian Library, including the iconic Radcliffe Camera, a gorgeous, round, domed reading room where patrons can read items that may not be removed from the property.
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| They call this their "Bridge of Sighs" |
Our guide wisely advised us to grab sandwiches and drinks from the shops in town before we boarded the bus for the next leg of the tour. He'd mentioned a pub down the road where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to hang out, called the Eagle and Child. Many of the pubs have unique, unusual names, often with a pictorial image of the pub's name on the shingle hanging out front - this one had an eagle clutching a baby in it's talons. Ted ran down to get a few quick pictures, and just made it back to the bus in time to head out.
We traveled through the beautiful area known as the Cotswolds, home to many charming, traditional thatched-roof dwellings of yellow Cotswold stone. No stopping here, but the bus slowed for us to get a picture or two. Also, if one was very quick with the camera, you could catch a peek at Blenheim Palace. This one was not so quick.
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| Blenheim Palace entrance |
Driving through the beautiful countryside, we arrived in the lovely village of Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of the bard himself, William Shakespeare. Stratford is a charming place, very pedestrian-friendly, with a lovely canal dotted with colorful long boats. We first stopped at the Shakespeare museum where we watched a short film, then continued on to the modest Shakespeare estate. Beautiful English gardens greet visitors with paths leading up to the house. Actors perform in the courtyard, taking requests from the audience and performing those passages from memory.
The home of William Shakespeare is reminiscent of many early homesteads, with low, wood-beamed ceilings, thick glass windows, and dark wooden furniture and narrow staircases. At the end of the tour, the mandatory gift shop offered many entertaining items, including a poster of common sayings that all have their origins in Shakespeare's works, and my favorite, a coffee mug with the best Shakespearean insults.
Once outside we enjoyed strolling through the town to the canal, where we bought ice cream from the boat named the Elizabeth. We watched a busker perform an odd little act - sitting in a folding chair with a boombox at his side, his feet were the feet of a metal robot-like puppet that danced to the music. He wasn't all that talented in my opinion, but it was one of those "can't look away" moments.
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| We didn't eat here - I just liked the logo |
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| Shakespeare above Lady Macbeth |
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| People living on their boats |
Warwick Castle was originally built by William the Conqueror on the Avon in 1068, and rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. It is a classic, fairy tale castle with turrets, a drawbridge, and a proper dungeon. The trebuchet out front, at 59-feet tall, is purportedly the largest in the world.
We divided and conquered, as the boys tackled the 530 stairs to go up the tower, across the rampart, and back down again - they got some great pictures of the view from above. Tim and I went to watch the "Flight of the Eagles" demonstration, another birds of prey program. They even had a monstrous Andean condor that swooped overhead - breathtaking!
Next we toured the museum inside, with its amazing collection of armor and period decor. It was easy to imagine the lords and ladies spending their days here. In fact, in one area of the castle they had wax figures with recorded conversations going on between them, so you didn't have to imagine at all. I especially enjoyed the beautiful chapel and, of course, the library.
A BBC children's program, Blue Peter, was filming some sort of competition in the courtyard, so it was a bit tricky to get around, but we all made our way back to the bus. We were back in London by 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., and the tour company kindly dropped people near where they were staying, rather than carting us all back to Victoria Station. We were dropped near a tube station that got us home in short order.
We were all ready for a great dinner to finish a great day, and we managed to find the restaurant we'd looked for earlier, Crocker's Folly. This beautifully-ornate restaurant and bar is a recently restored Victorian gin palace,
...complete with 50 kinds of marble, Romanesque columns, cut glass chandeliers and carved mahogany.It was pricey, but the opulent setting was a pleasure in itself. After dinner, the men enjoyed cigars together, which Tim picked up earlier in the day. Male bonding.
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