It's mid Fall, we're seniors, we don't know what we're doing next year. So, it's time for college tours.
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| Oxford |
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| Cambridge |
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| Cambridge |
There are a lot of similarities between the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. Both are actually a collection of multiple colleges, up to 30+ in each place (Cambridge has 31, Oxford 38) with many same named colleges in both-e.g. Trinity College, Christ's College, Clare College, Magdalene College, King's College and Jesus College. Both cities are filled with historically beautiful old campus buildings dating back to 1200's, Most of the colleges with photogenic/film recognizable central courtyards. We respected that most of the college courtyards are closed to non students or cost to enter and tour (The cost of higher education). Both towns have lots of bicyclists, but the bigger risk were tourists. Brought in by the busloads, the streets filled with tourists-all constantly stopping to take pictures/selfies. We were endlessly photo bombing, dodging and bumping into people who would suddenly stop mid sidewalk. (Dodging bikes was easier than the hordes of tourists)
So, these definitely weren't our safety schools.
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| Cambridge |
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| Cambridge |
Despite all the overlaps, both college towns felt completely different. Both had incredibly stunning old buildings, both had small river canals with flat boats for punting (standing with long poles to push the boat along A la Venice), but in Cambridge, the colleges felt slightly separated from most of the town and had more distinct boundaries along the River Cam. So, the beauty of the buildings stood out more against greener surrounding parks and quads.
In Oxford the campuses were more incorporated into the town center, muting the striking visuals of the buildings.
As far as next year-the reality is we are not ready for college. It will probably end up being (another) gap year as we are still trying to find ourselves and figure out what we really want to do.
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| Oxford |
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| Oxford |
As with the majority of English towns, you just feel the history as you walk around, in Cambridge the town was captioned to help out.
There were also a bunch of very idiosyncratic museums to choose from, each with it's own very unique claim to fame. A lot of choices but we settled in Cambridge on the Fitzwilliam.
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| FitzWilliam |
In Oxford, we had more time so more museums; Bodleian Libraries -Tolkein exhibit and a display covering the (unhealthy) medical history of the Royal family, Ashmolean (the first modern public museum) and Natural History/Pitts River. With each museum, we again found new favorites, saw variations of pictures/sketches we saw in other museums/countries and appreciated the differences between each museum and each country's individual take on what belongs in a museum. And as we walked through, periodically, you would just be hit with awe; pages from Mary Shelley's first draft of Frankenstein, mummified Dodo bird face and Venus de Willendorf (figured prominently in our daughters' 8th grade education). While we were very happy to spend a few days meandering through all of these, the Natural History/Pitts River was pretty high on the astonishing list. Wandering through the collection of old bones and taxidermy coupled with huge sculptures of scientific giants with the sounds of laughing and screaming kids was very enjoyable. As you walk past the skeletons of giraffes and elephants, you enter the Pitts River museum, which essentially looks like rows of antique store cabinets combined with your grandmother's junk drawer. (or a garage sale under glass)
After all of the mental stimulation, we decided to take a day-trip to Bath at the southern tip of the Cotswolds for health/spa day. Famous for it's Roman baths/mineral springs, but our first stop was to a travel clinic (in an sporting goods store) to get flu shots, however the clinic was closed. Bath had some very pretty areas, but it seemed to predominately be shops. The town center felt like an outdoor shopping mall with big box stores and specialty shops. Once out of the center we were able to see the landmark sites such as the Royal Crescent, The Circus, the River Avon, before stopping at the thermal baths. There the line went out into the street, and we didn't want to be in hot water with anyone we saw in line. So instead we got ice cream and walked around the shops some more but sadly, there wasn't any Bath House of Pies, or Bed, Bath Bath and Beyond.
Update: We were able to get our flu shots two days later in Oxford. Here they are called flu jabs, it was done by a pharmacist at a Boots Pharmacy (we were walk-ins and it cost 13 pounds each), she didn't wear gloves or use an alcohol wipe, and called the cotton ball applied after the jab a cotton wool which immediately fell on the floor, but she said that was ok because it wasn't needed because there was no bleeding.
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| Site of the Labrador in the "Venice of the Cotswolds" |
Cotswolds-we took the train to Moreton-in-Marsh, bus to Stow-on-the-Wold, hiked 4 miles to Bourton-on-the-Water. Lots of silly names, we by-passed Chipping Norton, Hook Norton, Icomb, Great Rollright and we did see a Labrador in the Water (not a town name, an actual labrador in the water in Bourton-on-the-water) which was kind of a highlight of the trip.
England is full of walking paths and we were excited to venture out, this time aided by an official copy of instructions purchased for 10 p from the Stow-on-Wold librarian. As with the Yorkshire walk, these instructions, while highly detailed ( "turn half-left through a farm gate then follow the hedge line across three fields") lacked any mention of distance or how to tell which hedge line with there are many or how to tell when one field began and another ended. Luckily, there were random fence posts along the way with tiny arrows indicating that you were on the Monarch Way or the Heart of England or the MacMillian path. Regardless of our befuddlement, we enjoyed a beautiful day with less aggressive animals then our past walks.
After our day-trip to the Cotswold, we returned to our last day in Oxford to find:
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| Topless old man? Yes, home from a day at the beach, Antony Gormley piece, Another Time II. |
This week's photo of topless old man looking out window contemplating his life: Halloween edition "I'm Batman!"
As with the majority of English towns, you just feel the history as you walk around, in Cambridge the town was captioned to help out.
In Oxford, we had more time so more museums; Bodleian Libraries -Tolkein exhibit and a display covering the (unhealthy) medical history of the Royal family, Ashmolean (the first modern public museum) and Natural History/Pitts River. With each museum, we again found new favorites, saw variations of pictures/sketches we saw in other museums/countries and appreciated the differences between each museum and each country's individual take on what belongs in a museum. And as we walked through, periodically, you would just be hit with awe; pages from Mary Shelley's first draft of Frankenstein, mummified Dodo bird face and Venus de Willendorf (figured prominently in our daughters' 8th grade education). While we were very happy to spend a few days meandering through all of these, the Natural History/Pitts River was pretty high on the astonishing list. Wandering through the collection of old bones and taxidermy coupled with huge sculptures of scientific giants with the sounds of laughing and screaming kids was very enjoyable. As you walk past the skeletons of giraffes and elephants, you enter the Pitts River museum, which essentially looks like rows of antique store cabinets combined with your grandmother's junk drawer. (or a garage sale under glass)
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