A BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY IN OXFORD, ENGLAND: Guest Post by Jennifer Arnold

View of Oxford from the top of the tower of St. Mary.

With many thanks to my daughter Jennifer for her excellent report of her recent trip to London with my grandson, who met her there during the spring break from his semester abroad in Madrid. They packed a lot in during the week they were in London! One beautiful spring day they escaped the hustle and bustle of the city did a trip to Oxford for the day.

Street in Oxford with typical Gothic architecture.

Oxford . Oxford is about an hour-and-a-half by train from London and makes a good day trip. We wandered around and enjoyed the beautiful gothic architecture, the famous Blackwell’s book store, St. Mary’s church, and the canal towpath. We went inside the Bodleian library’s divinity school room, which is famous in movies (e.g., it was the infirmary in the Harry Potter movies).

Gothic architecture of one of the colleges.

Printing press.

Connected to the Bodleian was a museum with several free exhibits, including this printing press from the 1800s. They had it set up so that tourists could print a sheet with an excerpt from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

Jennifer in front of the Radcliffe Camera.

The Radcliffe Camera is a famous building in Radcliffe College. As with most colleges, it was off-limits to tourists to enter. Some colleges were open to the public with advance tickets (but we didn’t arrange this).

View from the top of the tower of St. Mary.

We had to pay 6 pounds each to climb the narrow and steep staircase to the tower top, but it was very worth it. From there you could see Oxford from above in every direction.

Bridge of Sighs, Oxford

Note: For Jennifer's report of the rest of their week in London, go to her post on June 16, 2025.