These days when you hear about Oxford you might think about the first COVID Vaccine.
One year ago it was just a city full of history that I couldn't wait to explore. After
three and a half days in London, Mom and I were on a train headed out to Oxford. We had no set plans for the rest of the day we arrived so we were going to put our bags down and walk around. I had my eyes set on Oxford mainly because of the history and prestige. It’s been used in the Harry Potter movies and the setting of some of my favorite books. I was excited to see the different Colleges and famous Libraries in person and Mom was along for the ride (since I took care of the planning). Coronavirus news was focused around the cancellation and postponement of the Six Nations Championship (rugby) and there had been comments about age being a factor in the worst cases. After the day we arrived, we only had one full day in Oxford before we would head home.
OXFORD DAY 1 (Half day)
After getting off the train, we dragged our bags straight through the main streets of Oxford to a little hidden hotel called
The Bath Place Hotel. It was built in the early 1600s, and was tucked away down a little alley next to the Turf Tavern, a brew house built in the 1300s. The Pub has been visited by some famous faces like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, CS Lewis, Margaret Thatcher, Steven Hawking, and Bill Clinton. A little bit of the original wall surrounding Oxford still exists inside the dining area of the hotel.
We dropped off our bags and walked through the narrow alley behind the hotel to see the Bridge of Sighs. It is an enclosed bridge that connects two sections of Hertford College and is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy. We walked down the street to see the Radcliffe Camera (not a real camera, it’s a science library) and the pedestrian friendly shopping area of Cornmarket Street with buildings built between the years 1000 and 1300s.
We walked around a little more looking for a place to eat and went down an alleyway called Friars Entry to find the White Rabbit pub. We took a table in the corner and had some wine and pizza and spent the evening people watching. When we walked back to the hotel, we got to see Oxford architecture under a moody moon. The news was reporting over 400 cases of Coronavirus in the US, the cruise industry was reporting a lot sick passengers, and Italy had had over 1,200 cases in one day with almost all deaths being elderly people over 80 years old.
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| the original wall that protected Oxford inside the hotel |
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| Turf Tavern |
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| We only got this one photo but moms eyes were closed - sorry mom! |
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| Cornmarket Street |
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| You can see inside the Duke Humphries reading Room |
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| The Divinity School lit up at night for an event |
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| Sheldonian Theater |
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the dark narrow strip behind the bridge is the back entrance to the hotel/turf tavern
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OXFORD DAY 2
Sunday we had two tours planned. The Bodleian Library in the morning and Christ Church College in the afternoon. We could wander and explore more of Oxford in between. The Bodleian Library is the main library at the University of Oxford, the largest collection in the UK, and the oldest in Europe. It was originally founded in the 1300s and has been collecting first editions of every book ever published since the early 1600s. The famous Duke Humphries reading room can be seen as the Hogwarts library in Harry Potter and the Medieval Selden End appears as itself in the TV series A Discovery of Witches. It is considered a reference library so you’re not allowed to check out books. Some of the books are physically chained to the shelves and they take care not to let the sun shine directly through the windows and hit any of books which are 400+ years old. We were only allowed to take pictures inside the Divinity School - built in the 1400s. It was used for lectures and oral exams but now it’s part of the tour and used for special events. It was used in Harry Potter as the Hospital Wing and I really loved the detailing you can see on the ceiling.
After the tour, we walked over to the University Church of Mary the Virgin where for about 5 Pounds you can go up the spire and see 360 degree views of the city. Mom is afraid of heights so I went by myself. Going down was so much more fun than going up. Then we popped over to the Oxford Covered Market and had a steak and ale pie at Pieminster, which was SO good. The rest of the shops in the market were closed on a Sunday but normally you can shop for clothes, flowers, and there's even an old school butchers shop. We walked just a couple more blocks south to Christ Church College for our second tour that afternoon. It was founded in 1546 by Henry VIII and it is one of the most popular tours in Oxford. This was the first place we saw posted signs about Coronavirus stating to stay home if you felt sick. The news while we were out that day announced that northern Italy was completely shutting down to restrict people from spreading the virus. We saw hand sanitizer and disinfectant stations where we picked up our audio tour handsets. They time your entry for the tours so there weren't too many people around in the same place.
The most familiar sight of the tour is Christ Church Hall, the main dining room that inspired the Great Hall in Harry Potter. Professors and students still eat there every day. The Tom Quad is the largest in Oxford and has the Tom Tower designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren. The Christ Church Cathedral was built in the 1200s and I loved seeing the details inside (I'm a sucker for their architecture and history). After our tour was finished, we got to see a quieter side of the city on the walk back to the hotel.
We had dinner at a pub called the King’s Arms where I tried my first hand raised pork pie - something mom and I saw on the Great British Bake Off. It wasn’t what I expected (I didn’t realize it is normally served cold and I didn’t particularly like the jellied pork stock) but it didn’t have a soggy bottom so Paul Hollywood would be proud! It was a relaxed atmosphere inside the pub but it was a Sunday evening so there weren't many people out. That night was the first time hearing the word Lockdown on the news. Seeing the video of Milan and Venice closed with empty streets was surreal. Cases across the world hit over 100,000 and they again said elderly people should cancel travel plans. Italy was even saying doctors might have to decide who lived and died. In America, this random guy named Dr. Fauci said to “distance yourselves” from crowds. Mom and I had just a travel day left so we'd do our best to keep to ourselves.
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| The Tower of the Five Orders - Entrance to the Bodleian |
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| The Door to the Divinity School |
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| View North looking at the Radcliffe Camera |
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| View East - the spires of All Souls College and High Street |
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| View South - you can see the Christ Church Cathedral Spire and Toms Tower (towards the right) |
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| View West towards Oxford Covered Market and the city center. |
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| So cheesed to go into the great hall |
OXFORD DAY 3
Our last day in England was a dedicated travel day. We had a late afternoon flight to Boston but needed to take two trains to get to the airport. We had time in the morning to get a coffee and see students going about their Monday morning routines around the university. Made me miss going to school a little bit.
We packed up and rolled our bags back to the train station. We ended up missing our first train because we couldn’t hear the announcement for it while we were sitting inside the station. We had flexible tickets and were able to get the next one headed to Reading about 20minutes later. However, that time was supposed to be spent getting to our 2nd train. When we got to Reading we had to rush to get to the next track which wasn't easy with rolling bags. I didn’t want to stress Mom out any more than needed but everything worked out.
Once we got to the airport we felt the impact of the Coronavirus crackdown. They were turning away anyone who had visited Italy, China, or Iran. They also said if you weren’t feeling well to postpone travel. We had to get a sticker at security and when we got to the gate, they confirmed we had the sticker and asked again if we had gone to Italy. The plane wasn’t too full and we had a row to ourselves but we were nervous about the air circulating in the plane. I sat with my scarf around my face for most of the flight. Getting through customs in Boston was fine and they weren't doing anything more than the big bottles of hand sanitizer. The news that night reported that Trump was going to restrict travel from Europe. Two days later, the airline we flew (Norwegian) had cancelled over 3,000 flights and laid off half their staff.
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| Carfax Tower - The original tower from the official City Church of Oxford from 1122 |
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| Goodbye Oxford |
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| ducks at the River Thames |
BACK TO LOS ANGELES
My flight back to LA was in the afternoon of Tuesday March 10th so I spent the morning relaxing and saying my goodbyes. When I got to the airport, the Delta gate agent called my name. They told me they were moving my seat into a row with only one other person. They didn’t want anyone flying three to a row at this point. It actually worked out because they put me in a Comfort+ row so I got free drinks for the flight. That was the last flight I will have for a while. When I got back to LA I saw a couple friends before the news was saying that anyone that had been abroad needed to quarantine, not just people who had been to the hardest hit countries. Mom and I both got lucky because neither of us got sick in the weeks after returning home. Looking back I can’t believe how close we came to having travel restrictions and cancellations impact our trip. If we had stayed any longer we could have been stuck in England. (not that I would have complained)
I can’t wait to be able to travel again. I’m so glad Mom enjoyed herself and I got to geek out over all the old buildings and the history in Oxford. If we had one more day I would have loved to see the museums.
