Oxford Day 2: More Photos

Scenes from another day of knocking around lovely Oxford, England (although the pics from tonight's dinner at the Eagle and Child pub, aka the ones not yet taken, will have to come in a separate post):

The Dead Man's Walk and the Merton College library (the impressive gothicky bit on the left). The Dead Man's Walk is the medieval funeral walk winding around Christ Church Meadow behind Merton Street, and strangely enough, we did have a little incident with the map that made us wonder if a) both of us had severe temporary amnesia, b) we are a pair of ignoramuses, or c) there was a ghost having a bit of fun with us.

The gate into the Dead Man's Walk, with the paved road beyond being Rose Lane, and the dirt bit being the start of the walk. The gate looks like it's closed, but on the left there is a narrow winding way through the spires.

Gillian at one of the library gates along the Walk.

The Merton College library.

The Dead Man's Walk. While we were going down it, the wind was blowing and we heard all kinds of bells ringing in the distance. It was great. Now imagine that at night, lit only by candles, in a solemn procession. Spooky, huh?

A very atmospheric shot -- gnarled trees and the spire of Merton College Chapel in the background.

A shot into the Merton College gardens.

Looking back toward Merton from the far end of the Walk.

A view through a gate toward Christ Church.

Gillian in front of said gate.

Me in front of said gate.

You might think this would be a mighty impressive front quad to some college. Well, there you would be mistaken. This is not a front quad. It is instead the BACK entrance to Christ Church, which is probably the biggest (in terms of size) and one of the most beautiful colleges in Oxford. Coincidentally, also one of the snobbiest. But Gillian went up to investigate, saw that it was two pound ninety to get in, and wondered if we could look around anyway. I solved this problem by flashing my Bod (Oxford ID, short for Bodleian) card at the porters, who waved us through right away. This is what happened in Balliol, so lesson learned: Bod card=useful.

The back quad of Christ Church, from the other side.

Me at Christ Church. I swear I was smiling, but somehow the photo did not get taken while this was occurring. Maybe it was the ghost-induced amnesia again.

The Christ Church cloisters.

Yes, this is the BACK courtyard of Christ Church.

Gillian in the front quad of Christ Church, in front of the iconic tower. I have taken some pictures of Christ Church before, but this lot turned out a bit clearer.

Christ Church Cathedral. This place blows everywhere else, even Exeter, completely out of the water. It is amazing.

The altar at Christ Church, again a picture I took before, but this one turned out better.


The plaque for the First World War memorial, , which is a lovely illuminated, hand-calligraphed book. Pretty cool.

The pages of the World War I book.

The WWI plaque.

The heading for the Second World War memorial, which is also a book.

Here is the front page.

The walk outside Christ Church. Please ignore the dumpsters to the left.

The view out of the window of the little street cafe where we had lunch. That's Christ Church in the background.

Slightly further up Rose Place.

Brewer Street. I love the ivy wall and the Narnia-esque streetlamp.

Gillian among the ivy. Appropriate, seeing as she goes to an Ivy league school! Yar yar yar yar.

Me on Brewer Street. Hey look, I'm smiling.

Gillian checking out the gravestones at the St. Aldates Church. We were heading up to the Ashmolean and stopped to watch a street performer dancing at the corner of Cornmarket. He was beatboxing, and was quite good. Gillian gave him a little something for his efforts.

The entrance to the Ashmolean Museum.

The statue of Athena in the Ashmolean, dates from the 2nd century.


Model boats from Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian pottery.

A Stradivarius violin. One of the many single items in the Ashmolean that are worth more than my entire house.

17th-century porcelain.

A display of pocket watches.

One of the coolest items in the Ashmolean - the mantle of Powhatan, Pocahontas's father, taken from Jamestown in the early 1600s.

Possibly my favorite -- this is the Alfred Jewel, dating from the 9th-century rule of the Saxon king Alfred the Great, and found in 1693 as part of the excavation of a burial mound. The Old English inscription around the edges reads, "Alfred ordered me made."

The foyer of the Ashmolean at the top of the stairs.

All right, that covers today. A smaller edition will cover the pub, and then there will be plenty of pictures from London on Monday.

Photo Diary: Downtown Oxford

After a few days mainly characterized by vast amounts of walking and attempting to stop spending money, I now have another photo diary to post (and looking through my album, I see that I took a crapload of pictures, so this may have to go in two parts). This covers downtown Oxford (Broad, High, and Cornmarket Streets) along with some (read: one, more will come later) shots of the Bodleian, and Balliol, Merton and Christ Church colleges. After I was done meeting my psych tutors today, I just, uh, took the very long way home. And get to truck all the way out to North Oxford tomorrow to meet my writing tutor, so I'll take more pictures then, and I also need to get started on my first official Oxford assignment (YAY). It's for psych, about social cognition in infants. But that's the boring stuff. The pictures are more interesting.

The entrance into the Bodleian quad. As you can see on the left, a great deal of Oxford is being renovated right now.

The Sheldonian Theatre, where 'freshers' get to go for Matriculation. Which is, they put on silly gowns and do a lot of prancing about. Since I am not a fresher, nor enrolled at the University for the full duration of my undergraduate work, I sadly get to miss dressing up and prancing.

Looking from the Bodleian down Broad Street. Balliol is just a bit further and on the right.

A peek into Balliol, which depending on who you ask is the oldest or second-oldest college in Oxford. Amusingly, the board just to the bottom of the shot claims that it's the oldest with a founding date of 1263, but they might want to take that up with University College, which claims a 1249 founding date.

Almost at the corner of Broad and Cornmarket Streets. Just to the right there is a small church and a graveyard.

And this is the graveyard. Probably haunted, like most of Oxford is supposed to be.

My camera has a bewildering habit of deciding to flash or not to flash (it must be the electronic Hamlet) whenever it wants (or does not want) to, so this picture is a little dark. In any case, this is one of the oldest buildings on Cornmarket Street, at the corner of Cornmarket and Ship.

Looking back down Cornmarket.

A part of the Examination Schools, which are apparently hiding all the lectures in Oxford.

Cobbled Merton Street, which leads off High Street.

A corner of Merton College.

A better look at the tower.

And the front of the Merton tower. As you can see, it was actually a lovely day, which evidently is something of a rarity for England, but I'm getting a bit spoiled, since both today and yesterday were so nice. And as I was leaving, they actually rang the bells, which was both unexpected and quite nice.

One side of the front quad of Christ Church College, which is one of the largest, most beautiful, and most tourist-centric colleges in Oxford.

The other side of the front quad.

The distinctive bell tower of Christ Church. Again, my camera playing shenanigans with the lighting, also partly due to the shadows.

I just realized I forgot to get a picture of the staircase into Hall, which I could swear was the one where they filmed Harry and Co.'s arrival at Hogwarts in the first movie (it looked awfully familiar...) That is bothering me. In any case, since bits of Christ Church were used for Potter, it's probably shown up somewhere.

Christ Church Hall. I am now realizing that several of these photos are a little blurry for some reason, which is annoying. I didn't think I was waving the camera around.

Looking the other way in Christ Church Hall.

The interior of Christ Church Cathedral, but this picture is also rather blurry for some strange reason. Clearly, supernatural activity.

The altar in Christ Church Cathedral.

Looking back to the bell tower from the entrance to the cathedral.

This is I believe the entrance to Queen's College, with the spires of Magdalen (pronounced, bewilderingly, Maudlin) in the background.

Somewhere on High Street. No, I can't remember where.

In any case, there will be more pictures tomorrow, since I'll take a detour through the Bodleian on my way back from North Oxford. I ran a test route on Wednesday and am halfway certain I know where I am going, and I have proved to be remarkably adept at navigating, but even then, this could end in humiliating failure.