With just a couple days left of our European adventure we decided to spend them close to London. For a long time we had both wanted to see Oxford and visit one of the oldest universities in the world.
Oxford began unofficially around the year 1100, making this university almost 1,000 years old. As you can guess, the city is dominated by gothic architecture and the skyline is punctuated by literally hundreds of spires, thus giving it its name. It is also ideally situated at the conjunction of two rivers, the Thames and the Cherwell.
We arrived in Oxford, eager to put down our bags and see this town that we had been wanting to see for so long. The first thing that we noticed was that it did, indeed, feel like a college town. Very similar, in fact, to San Luis Obispo where I went to college. The two towns could not be more opposite but the laid-back, fresh feeling was the same.
Apparently it was orientation weekend so we were often marveling at how young the college freshmen looked and how far beyond that point we felt. It also happened to be summer graduation so we had many sightings of newly graduated students looking very scholarly and accomplished in their stately, hooded black robes.
In addition to the robes and feel there was a sense of grandeur and history that I can only imagine is felt at some of the older ivy leagues in America.
The town is small and we were there for a couple of days so we really got a sense of what it is like to go to college at one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the world. The students looked like ordinary students, engaged in ordinary activities but the surroundings were not and I'm sure added a special touch that I would hope most students would not forget.
We, in turn, felt nostalgic about our own college experiences and felt that they had passed by much too quickly. Ahhh, to be a student where the biggest pressure is to do well on tests and papers and the sense of urgency that becomes so prevalent after you leave the safe confines of your college has yet to take hold of you. All this nostalgia made us think that maybe it would be nice to go back and further our studies sometime in a place such as Oxford.
So, we walked the town, went into the old cathedrals, admired the architecture, read and napped next to the Thames and just generally enjoyed our last couple of days in fresh and beautiful Oxford before it was time to begin the journey back to the states.
With just a couple days left of our European adventure we decided to spend them close to London. For a long time we had both wanted to see Oxford and visit one of the oldest universities in the world.
Oxford began unofficially around the year 1100, making this university almost 1,000 years old. As you can guess, the city is dominated by gothic architecture and the skyline is punctuated by literally hundreds of spires, thus giving it its name. It is also ideally situated at the conjunction of two rivers, the Thames and the Cherwell.
We arrived in Oxford, eager to put down our bags and see this town that we had been wanting to see for so long. The first thing that we noticed was that it did, indeed, feel like a college town. Very similar, in fact, to San Luis Obispo where I went to college. The two towns could not be more opposite but the laid-back, fresh feeling was the same.
Apparently it was orientation weekend so we were often marveling at how young the college freshmen looked and how far beyond that point we felt. It also happened to be summer graduation so we had many sightings of newly graduated students looking very scholarly and accomplished in their stately, hooded black robes.
In addition to the robes and feel there was a sense of grandeur and history that I can only imagine is felt at some of the older ivy leagues in America.
The town is small and we were there for a couple of days so we really got a sense of what it is like to go to college at one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the world. The students looked like ordinary students, engaged in ordinary activities but the surroundings were not and I'm sure added a special touch that I would hope most students would not forget.
We, in turn, felt nostalgic about our own college experiences and felt that they had passed by much too quickly. Ahhh, to be a student where the biggest pressure is to do well on tests and papers and the sense of urgency that becomes so prevalent after you leave the safe confines of your college has yet to take hold of you. All this nostalgia made us think that maybe it would be nice to go back and further our studies sometime in a place such as Oxford.
So, we walked the town, went into the old cathedrals, admired the architecture, read and napped next to the Thames and just generally enjoyed our last couple of days in fresh and beautiful Oxford before it was time to begin the journey back to the states.
