Overseas Adventures...: Oxford

Yesterday we took a day trip to Oxford. It is only about an hour and forty minutes away and the skies were clear and blue. We woke up early and hopped on the train to make the journey. When we arrived we scouted around a bit to see what activities we wanted to fill our day with and we started with walking around the city just to see the different shops and colleges. It is a fun and vibrant place full of university students. We heard more American accents in Oxford than we have anywhere thus far.

We went to the Covered Market and shopped around before eating lunch at a famous pub called The Eagle and Child. It is the same pub where "The Inklings," a group of writers from the 1950s and 1960s used to meet to discuss life, literature, and writing. "The Inklings" included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and a few other literary figures of the time. There is a memorial plaque and photos in the Rabbit Room where they used to meet. It was a great pub for lunch!

After lunch we visited Oxford Castle, built in 1071 and used as a prison until 1996. We went on a guided tour of the castle including the Saxon St. George's tower, the underground crypt, the castle mound, prison wing, and more. We had a nice view of Oxford from the top of tower and enjoyed the tour.

We also went to Christ Church which is one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford as well as the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Oxford. It was really cool to visit a piece of history that is still fully used. Christ Church is well known for being the setting of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the dining hall was used for filming scenes from the Harry Potter series. If you ever visit London, Christ Church is a must-see.

One last highlight of the day was finding a restaurant called The Mission. It is very much like Moe's or Chipotle in the States. There are only three in the UK, two of which are in Oxford. So we chowed down on burritos, chips, and salsa and it was so delicious! A fun treat to end our day!