And finally... Oxford!

Alright, we're on to Oxford! Welcome to Oxford. We spent the afternoon here, and it was a lovely city. Now there are so many different college buildings in Oxford, and I can't keep them all straight, so no promises on the names, but here's some photos!

Here's a nice tower in the middle of the court. This is where we got dropped off. While the guide was talking about the tower I was snapping photos of the buildings around us, and therefore not listening. Yes, I know, bad.
I love all the vines all over the buildings.

Yep... nothing like a cross in the road to celebrate a burning....
This is the buildings in the centre shopping are of Oxford. There's a famous bookstore here, along with tons of other shops.
This is the centre court of one of the colleges. Just like in Cambridge, you're not allowed to walk on the grass unless you are important. We are not important. They even have grass police that told one of the girls in our group to stay off the grass! Tee hee.
More detail on the wall. No idea what that coat of arms is.
Here is the chapel inside Exeter College (I think). It was lovely and quite large, given the original size of the college.
This is the coat of arms of Oxford. Yes, its a book.

These roman-looking guys are actually made of fiberglass, not stone. Aparently this is the third time they tried to get heads up there. The first set, made of stone, wouldn't stay on, while the second set, made of fiberglass, had a mishap while getting to their columns.

We're inside Exeter College now.
As you can tell it was a lovely day. This has been the warmest month in over a century. Yeah yeah global warming. Whatever. It's quite nice.
Rowing is quite a huge sport here (as I'm sure you know), and the rowing team likes to boat about their victory on the walls of the college.
This is the only courtyard in the college where you're allowed to walk on the grass - and the grass isn't as neatly mowed as it is elsewhere. Heh.
This building is called the Radcliffe Camera. It was built in the 1930s and houses the science library - a place you're not allowed unless you're a science student.

Here's a fun fact: J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, remarked that the building resembled Sauron's temple to Morgoth on Númenor. That doesn't mean much to me, but I know it will to some of you!

I also walked by the Eagle and Child pub, a place that J. R. R. Tolkien did spent a lot of his time (apparently), but I didn't take any photos - nor did I go in.
"Bumped" is a team that they have beaten. It's quite artistic.
Here's the only photo of gargoyles that I took.
This is a sundial designed by Christopher Wren. He attended the college back in the day, and there is a portrait of him inside, where we did not go.
This is known as the Bridge of Sighs. It is named so because of its supposed similarity to the famous Bridge of Sighs in Venice. However, Hertford Bridge was never intended to be a replica of the Venetian bridge, and indeed it bears a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge in the same city.

There is a false legend saying that many decades ago, a survey of the health of students was taken, and as Hertford College's students were the heaviest, the college closed off the bridge to force them to take the stairs, giving them extra exercise. However, if the bridge is not used, the students actually climb fewer stairs than if they do use the bridge.

After parting with the group, I spent some time walking up and down Oxford's shopping district, then buying a wicked vanilla milkshake at the historic covered market and catching the train home. Oxford was a lot of fun, but again, because most of the collages are student-only, visiting is limited, which can be frustrating.

I'd pick the country over the city, but the closeness can't be beat!

Burford

Yes, okay. I know I didn't post these photos "tomorrow" as I had promised. Yes I'm a slacker. What are you gonna do about it!?

Aaanyawys, now we're on to Burford, our second stop in our Oxford/Cotswold day.

It's a tiny little town, quite close to Minster Lovell, and about the same size, as you can see:

This is the church of St. John the Baptist. It was built (parts of it) in 1175 and it's pretty cool.

It's even got a graveyard, although most of the tombstones that could be read were dated around the 18oo's.
Here's a brief history of the chuch, thanks to their website:

• The building of the church is believed to have started around 1175, possibly on a site already used for worship
  
• The church was altered and enlarged over three hundred years, funded by rich fleece merchants. North and south transepts were added, along with a south aisle and the separate Guild Chapel
  
• In 1495, wool merchants built the soaring tower and wealthy tradesmen added the grand porch and chapels either side of the chancel, with the Chapel of St Thomas above a bone crypt
  
• The Guild Chapel was finally incorporated into the church and re-named The Lady Chapel
  
• In 1649, the church became a temporary prison for 340 rebel Cromwell soldiers, known as the Levellers, three of whom were executed in the churchyard.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Levellers:
"The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They were one of the largest factions on the Parliamentarian side during the English Civil Wars."

"It was May 1649, the end of the English Civil War. A mass of troops were being disbanded in Salisbury without pay and with little prospect of getting what they had been fighting for. Eight hundred troops sacked their officers, elected new ones and marched north, over several days, to Burford, with Cromwell on their heels. Despite his promise of peaceful negotiations the following day, Cromwell charged into the town at midnight with 2,000 horsemen.

340 of the Levellers were rounded up and imprisoned in Burford church, where carvings from the incarcerated soldiers can still be seen to this day.

Next morning three of the leading Leveller soldiers were summarily executed against the church wall, where you can still see the bullet holes.

The folloing night Cromwell was treated to a slap-up banquet and awarded an honorary degree at Magdalen College Oxford. The last thing Cromwell wanted was democracy."

And that's what eventually led to this plaque:

And this is how you enter the church. I went in, and it was quite lovely inside, although I didn't take any pictures - I'm not sure what the little old man guarding the church would've said.
After the cathedral I spent most of the free time wandering down main street, where they keep everything exciting. I spent some time in a local bakery where I had a lovely little pasty for lunch and contemplated buying a little wooden doorstop with a plump carved chicken on it. I didn't. But I sure thought about it.
See? Awfully pretty view.
There's even random little signs everywhere to remind you where you are. Isn't that nice? They are so considerate there.

All in all Burford was a lovely little town. Hope you enjoyed these photos.

I won't promise and say that I'll put the Oxford photos up tomorrow, because I might not. I'm a hooligan like that - you'll just have to deal with it. They'll be up eventually!

Minster Lovell!

Okay, let's get started! The first stop on our whirlwind tour was the teeny tiny town of Minster Lovell. The town gets its name from the Lovell family, who owned most of the land here back in the day.

It's a very tiny town situation west of Oxford in the lovely English area known as the Cotswolds. You can see on the map just how small it is:

Yep. That's it. And it's perfect. And very English.

This is the Old Swan Inn. It's made up of two parts, a 19th Century mill and a 14th Century Inn. We didn't go inside, but the outside sure is lovely. And at 80 quid a night, its not too bad of a deal.
The main road leading from the Old Swan is lined with lovely thatched-roof houses. Our tour guide said that thatch will last quite a long time, and when it wears out you can just plop more thatch on top of it - that's why the roof is so thick.
See?
People also seem to be in the habit of naming their houses - usually this is because the house served this kind of purpose on the days of yore... but not always.
Everything is made in Cotswold stone - a type of limestone. Depending on the iron content of the earth in the area, the color varies from honey colored to brown. Here in this area it tends to be honey-colored.
This house is on the edge of the old town. It's very pretty and has a name!
It's called the Old Post House. And it was the post house! There was a post out front (sadly no longer there) where they would hang the mail to be picked up, and as the carrage came by with mail, they would drop off the new mail to be picked up.
This is St. Kelelm Church. According to ancient legend or myth or... whatever, Kenelm was a boy king, who managed to piss off this sister because he was so religious. She then seduced his tutor and convinced the tutor to kill Kenelm. Upon killing him, a dove apparently flew from his body, and headed straight for the Pope where it told him about the situation (yeah.... ). The Pope apparently got angry and came back to the body of the boy where it was perfectly preserved and they made him a saint. They may have killed the sister, too, but I can't remember.
Directly behind the church was hidden these awesome ruins! They are huge and awe-inspiring.
They are the ruins of a 15th Century manor house owned by Lord Lovell (hence the name). The guide said something about, once the manor had fallen into disrepair that the roof was taken off to avoid paying taxes and left just like this to decay. (Apparently in the U.K. you don't have to pay taxes if you don't have a roof...).
See? Told you that they are huge. We only had about 20 minutes to walk around here, although I could've spent an entire day here.
Even the floors are pretty!
There's a rumor about these ruins, too! In 1708 a skeleton was found hidden in the manorhouse. It is suspected that they belong to Lord Lovell, who, after fighting at the battle of stoke in 1487, had hidden himself in a closet/cupboard in the manor, with only one servent aware of his location. This servent would bring him food and keep him alive. The servent then died suddently and poor Lovell had no food and starved to death. I'm assuming he couldn't get out of his little closet.


There's even a medieval dovecot on the grounds, too! This was located on the other side of the grounds, on the other side of the church. We didn't get close to the church since there was a funeral going on. Usually we would've. It would be nice to see the inside.


This manorhouse would've been huge - the floorplans cover quite a bit of ground. Lots of fun to poke around an explore.
While the BBC said that it was supposed to be sunny, they lied. While the sun was there, it was covered up by a huge amount of fog. At least it was warm, though.
Stone stone everywhere...
I snapped this picture right before hopping back on the coach that would take us to our next Cotswold destination - Burford! This was on the ground of the Old Swan - I guess its too cold for their patio guests.

That's all for now, It's past midnight and I'm tired of editing photos. Hope you've enjoyed this bunch and I will post the rest of the journal tomorrow!