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In front of Trinity College and Oxford Tourist office
Tap dance by a group of women. (Trinity college not visible in the photo) Oxford- Dreams and money -Piprey, April 2024
A
nd that sweet City with her dreaming spires She needs not June for beauty’s heightening, Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night - Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-61), English poet
Visiting Oxford in April, with temperatures in single digits and a chilly wind, I did feel that it needed June 😊
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Public transport and city infrastructure It is about
1.5 hours public bus ride (S6) from Swindon to Oxford but only for
2 GBP. Take the same journey by
train with a change in Didcot Parkway for
34 mins and you pay
13.6 GBP (Off peak) The bus went through pretty villages, beautiful
bluebell flowers carpeting the Earth, an army enclosure with a “’Chaplain museum”’ among others, leaving us a good mile away from Oxford city center because of “’road construction work’’.
I walked to the city center and straight to the Tourist office. It seems only
Harry Potter tours were available but outside there were many private tour guides, soliciting eager customers.
There were
many paid guided tours and they charged about
20 GBP for groups of 20 people or more.Oxford was flocking with tourists with children, their parents and the elderly on a Sunday. The tourist office was waiting for the
students to come and work as guides!
There were a
few bookstores which catered to a wide variety of customers. Unlike an airport book stall which had a shelf of books for niche business travellers.
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Colleges At the Weston library, a big group of middle aged/elderly people were singing songs with some spirit and some mis-coordination but the public encouragingly applauded.
There were
many libraries but none of them had free entry. The minimum guided tour of 30 mins cost 10 GBP to enter the libraries.
I peeped into the
Exeter, Balliol and Trinity colleges as much as allowed to outsiders. There were
old, yellow structured buildings with a small courtyard in the front with administrative offices in the front, acting as gate keepers on weekends too.
An old castle ruins with a tower used to exist here before the first college, Balliol was opened in 1263. In Oxford, the colleges are registered as charitable organisations.
There was a
free exhibition on Chaucer who wrote Canterbury tales which it seems was never finished. The
manuscripts were on display. Some modern very short stories were exhibited too which was off the taste in my view and not sure if children were tall enough to reach up to read them.
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Geography of Oxford region Oxford has two rivers,
Cherwell and
Isis (Thames) which converged in this city.
Interestingly, Oxford was once a low lying coastal swamp with hot and humid climate in the middle Jurassic age.
Fossils of aquatic animals and the
first named Dinosaur (
Megalosaurus) were found in Stonesfield from where the
tiles for Oxford home were quarried.
An interesting information is that
ancient dragonflies used to have a
total wingspan of 25 cm because there were probably not that many predators then. Indeed, you can visit the
Natural History museum in Oxford for more information.
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Folk music and dance performances on the day There was a nice
tap dance on the streets
by women and
Morris dance with
mostly women near the
Radcliffe building (a round shaped
library with no entry for public).
Where were the male dancers? Some of the instrumentalists were male.
Again, it seems it was mostly middle-aged people who were keeping the tradition of folk dance and music alive.
While we watched the performances,
cyclists tried to wriggle through the pedestrians.
•
Westgate shopping and Oxford covered market The Westgate shopping center was buzzing with people. Indeed, it had everything of London Oxford street (except Selfridges and the American candy shops).
The
covered market was filled with the
usual eateries of many countries- Chinese, Portugal, English, Korean among others. Many had vacancies for part time jobs probably waiting for the students. It was
cold even in the covered market.
A chicken and mushroom pie with gravy and a side cost around 10 GBP. A dry Apple pie with cold custard cost 5.60 GBP at Brown’s Café opened in 1924.
The
falafel wrap store next door was doing brisk business.
Tourists, bring the money to Oxford! After rambling about a bit, I was right in time for return bus.
•
City Impressions Oxford is a lovely city to visit. The architecture is old. However, whether it is
charming to study in old buildings is up to the readers to decide.
If knowledge is free and to be shared, why are libraries closed to public?
With so many part times job vacancies, I was wondering if there were
many students who struggled to meet their needs and hence worked. Indeed, parents could barely fund the full education of their children and the young people work to make a living in this expensive country. Even the
tourist offices patiently
waited for students to work as travel guides.
The city’s economy depended on the students.
If the city is less crowded,
maybe one could look up at the skies and see the dreaming spires, fantasies like Alice in Wonderland as Lewis Carroll did in 1800s.
For the present,
it is better to look down and
watch out for the ever polite cyclists. Probably do another visit in June 😊
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