Oxford: a beautiful, cultural city

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Yesterday, it was a little bit a disappointed. Today, we should visit Oxford, and tomorrow we should go home. So, we hoped that today it would be also one of the highlights of our trip. And it was. Oxford is a very beautiful city. It feels small, open, not very busy and is very atmospheric, also because of it beautiful, cultural buildings. And all highlights are easy to walk (well, some parts take a huge walk, but you do not need to take a taxi). I think it was more beautiful than London, because London is bigger and it feels very huge. Also, London is very busy, especially at the Oxford street and almost all highlights are far off each other, so you need to take a taxi or the metro. So, today, Oxford!

At 10 am we arrived in Oxford, at the bus stop. That's very easy of Oxford. A central place, where tour operators can park there bus in safely. In London, we didn’t park our bus at a certain bus parking place. It is very easy, safe, and close by the city centre. From here, we took a small walk to the Christ Church. We only saw it from outside. It is one of the biggest colleges of the university and also has a beautiful garden. Also, some shots of the Harry Potter movies were done in the Christ Church. When we wanted to visit the Christ Church, it wasn’t complete open for public, normally it should. They were shooting for television (or a movie), so we couldn’t enter the garden. But still, they asked the full price of the entrance. So, we skipped. We decide to do everything walking. First, we visited the Carfax Tower, which you can enter. The height is 23 meters, and you can enter the plateau at the top. It’s worth you money, and you can combine it with a bus "sightseeing tour". The tower was first a part of the St. Martins Church, however at the end of 1800 the church was demolished; the road had to be broadened, and the church would block it. However, they left the tower upright. After we bought our ticket, we had to take 99 steps to reach the plateau. The stairs was at some points very small, so it's an adventure to take the steps. But it was worth it. I really advice to visit the tower. The view was fantastic, you could see the whole city and even a little bit beyond. Also, we had beautiful weather. You really can see the historic buildings and how large the city is. You really can plan your trip from above, so you do not need a map, haha!

Back on the ground, we took a walk. First, we visited one of the colleges, it was the St. Edmund Hall. We only could visit the garden, but it was really nice and took a small sit. You really can see that the colleges were found out of a monastery. At some paths you walked over some tomb stones, and some were even renovated.
Then, we visited the university park and took a little walk. After that, we visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History. This was very beautiful. for the first time in my life, I saw a real dinosaur skeleton! That's very beautiful, because I really like these animals and I think its fascinated that these (big) animals walked on the earth before. Especially I like the big, predators. So I was very happy to see the T. Rex skeleton. It was big, and it was only its skeleton. Can you image how it would look like when you saw one from flesh & blood? Also, we saw some other dinosaur skeletons (the herbivores and smaller predators) and remains of dinosaurs, for example teethes, or rocks. It was really beautiful. I only missed a mammoth skeleton, that should really an addition to the collection of this museum. However, we saw skeletons of now-living mammalians, for example an elephants and a giraffe. But you also could visit stones for example, ones collected out of volcanoes. You also could see special minerals and specially stones, even some that were fluorescent (you had to look from a special made small room). I think the museum is very nice, also for kids. Behind this museum, you can enter the Pitt Rivers museum. This museum shows world anthropology & (old) archaeology. If you really want to see everything and your are interested in anthropology, you can spend hours inside. We also visited this museum. It was also very nice to see this huge collection, and it was quite big. Yes, it shown some differences between the British museum. At the British museum you have more archeology. At the Pitt Rivers museum, its more anthropology. For example: there is one floor with historical weapons. But you really see old traditions and utensils of different cultures. Also, this museum is very nice to visit. After a while, we decide to go further.

Then, we came acros the Wadham college, which we gave a small visited. Then, we took some ice cream. After that, we had to go back to our bus, we should leave at 4 pm. That was a little bit earlier. We preferred to stay a little bit longer. However, we got stuck in a traffic jam, for one hour. There was an accident.

At 6 pm, we arrived by our hotel in Luton. After check-in we took a free tea and we got room 504. After our buffet, which was very large, we took a swim. The hotel had a swimming pool and it was free for the hotel guests. The water was nice, there was also a Jacuzzi and a sauna. So, instead to go to the pub, we decide to swimming and relaxing in the Jacuzzi and the sauna. The water was very clean, and the swimming pool was large. Also, the sauna was very clean. They also had a steam cabin, but we didn’t used it. It was very nice to relax after a day of walking through Oxford.

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Photos

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View from the Carfax Tower.

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College St. Martins Church

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Me and the T. Rex in Harvard Museum of Natural History

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Pitt Rivers Museum

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Wadham College

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The Christ Church

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The Carfax Tower

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Oxford city view

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Another historical building in Oxford