Finding a Way in Oxford

Oxford (the town of the famed University) is a fun little place to visit. If you’re over 30 and have some disposable cash. Or probably if you’re a college student attending the school. If you’re a kid, or a parent who likes your kids to have fun, well … good luck. We were turned away multiple times because the minimum age to visit something was 10 or 11.

And the city center is beautiful, of course, but much of the beauty is tucked behind tall buff walls guarded by stern admission guards. Outside those walls, the town is a bit gritty and widely littered, with few playgrounds for kids older than toddlers.

Christ Church’s beautiful green private playing fields

Divinity school where some Harry Potter scenes were filmed

We always find a way though! We discovered a fun (and free) natural history museum where you could touch a lot of stuff and with an adjoining building stuffed full of curiosities (think shrunken heads and a witch in a bottle and a rattle made out of puffin beaks).

Plus we joined a walking tour where we learned a lot about the university. Like that the 39 colleges are more like dorms or Hogwarts houses, and not necessarily indicative of your course of study. Also that each college has its own tortoise and they hold an exceptionally boring race once a year (one animal was victorious so many times that she was actually stolen by a rival college). We also got some wonderful literary information, as Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkein were residents when they authored their famous works.

Looking through the gate at The Two Towers

And we did manage to sneak in to a college one day. We figure they’re all similarly special on the inside of their walls: own church, own gardens, own living apartments, own dining hall, own aura of privacy and exclusivity.

Really, the highlight of our week was probably the bus ride into town every morning where we sat at the front top of the double-decker, white knuckled as the driver expertly maneuvered through tight and crowded streets. Not once did we ever hit a bicyclist or street lamp or neighboring bus, but it always looked inevitable!