Read my Norwich Travelogue here

              The fifteenth city on my list is Oxford. Can you believe that I have never been to Oxford before? I’ve been alive for twenty-nine years and it just hasn’t happened. It’s a lot more well-known than Lichfield or Hereford (sorry Lichfield and Hereford, but it’s true) yet I have never had any reason to come here.

It has a rich literary history with JRR Tolkien, Lewis Caroll and Philip Pullman all writing their famous books here. Some of the Harry Potter films were filmed here. Plus Oxford has one of the most famous universities in the country if not the world. And they have a long-standing rivalry with Cambridge in their university scholarship, rowing plus the TV quiz show University Challenge. But no. I have never been here before. Don’t @ me.

              Anyway, you will find Oxford fifty-six miles North-West from London. It isn’t far at all. My journey today started in Reading where I caught the 11.30 GWR train to Oxford. Yes, it worked out cheaper to take the local train to Reading before I took the national train to Oxford. Plus, I had any off-peak day return meaning that I could take any train. So, I took the 11.30 one. That also meant that it was ram-packed and I didn’t get a seat so alas I sat on the floor. But it was only a half-hour trip, so it wasn’t too bad at all.

              I arrived into Oxford at midday. Although the station had very little signage showing that it was indeed Oxford station. Instead, there was a statue of an ox.

Oxford was named by the Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century. We all know now that a ford is a natural river crossing, so Oxford is literally the ford where oxen could cross. The river in question is the Thames – known locally as the Isis.

              From there, I headed to what is always my first stop on these trips: the city cathedral. On the way there, I found Oxford Castle, which dates back almost 1000 years to William the Conquerer. It was £20 so I didn’t enter, but I had a look around the gift shop where I found lots of bottles of mead. Does Oxford have a big mead-producing industry? Who knew? Well, I guess Oxfordians. Outside the castle, there was also an over-sized mound not unlike the monstrosity they built in Marble Arch, London.

             

I continued onto the cathedral where I saw one of the most unusual buskers ever – a violinist on a tightrope.

I struggle in playing the viola on solid ground so I don’t know he can play the violin on a tight rope. Mental stuff. But so far, I was liking Oxford a lot. Unlike other cities *cough cough* Chelmsford or Gloucester, it had a healthy buzz. Of course, it helps that I am in the city centre.

              In my efforts to find the cathedral, I instead found the Covered Market. Like Norwich, it was a big food court with all kinds of food imaginable – croque monsieurs, noodles, katsu, Lebanese wraps, Greek food, rendang curry, Neapolitan sandwiches. I also saw that the average price was £10, similar to London really. And just like Norwich, I was over-whelmed with choice and settled on a £1.60 sausage roll from the local butcher. But it was a damn good sausage roll. It was so lovely and warm. And £3 cheaper than what Upper Crust were charging in Reading Station. 

              Anyway, at one o’clock, I finally found the Christ Church Cathedral, but alas it cost £20 to enter. I was too cheap to pay that so I admired it from the outside.

And, instead, I went into this nearby second-hand book shop which, contrary to most second-hand book shops, seemed to be marking up the prices of their books. A mouldy copy of Sense & Sensibility with a tatty cover cost £25. Crazy. I was beginning to find that Oxford was a bit of a rip off.

              As I didn’t go into the Cathedral, I tried going into St. Aldgate’s Church, but, alas, that was closed. Instead, I went into the nearby Museum of Oxford which was free, small and interesting. I learned that Oxford once had a thriving motor and steel industry. It also hosted a large Welsh community which experienced a lot of prejudice and abuse. Very sad. It didn’t matter whether you were Welsh, Black, Irish, Italian or Chinese, as long as you were different, the English would treat you with disdain. We were a hateful people. But on a lighter note, I did some fun dress-up.

And I saw the little exhibit on cycling. Similarly, to Cambridge, there is a massive cycling culture. I lost count of the times I was almost run over by bikes.

              Although that sausage roll was nice, it wasn’t that filling, I returned to the market for some proper lunch. I also noted the Alice in Wonderland decorations.

Initially, I fancied the Neapolitan sandwiches, but the café only took card and I had cash I wanted to use. If I have cash, I like to use it and save the business paying tax. In the end, I settled on some Chicken katsu curry for £8.50.

It wasn’t amazing, but half the price of the katsu that I paid in Exeter, so that was something, I guess. The sauce was a tad watery.

              By now, it was 2, so it was time to see the rest of the city. That included some more of its churches like the small St. Michael’s church and also going to the rooftop terrace of the Westgate shopping terrace.

It was a nice view. And, after it was onto yet another church: St Mary College church. And this was a gorgeous church with all the quietness and peace you would expect. It was far bigger than St Michael’s and also free, unlike Christ Church.

I also lit a candle for my grandmother who died fifty years ago. I never knew her. I don’t particularly believe in God, so I’m probably being quite hypocritical, but I’ve always wanted to light a candle. I have just never had any reason to before.

              After this, I stumbled into yet another church: St Mary the Magdalene – a Catholic church that smelled of incense. It was small, but pretty.

It was about 3 at this time, and unlike, Norwich where I quickly became bored, I still had so much to see in Oxford.

Next on the vague agenda was the Science Museum, but that was closed, so instead I wandered to the impressive Ashmolean Museum named after its Elias Ashmole. It contains his collections – the oldest museum in the UK. Unlike the Museum of Oxford, this was massive showcasing collections of art, statues and archaeology from across the world – from ancient times to the modern-day. They had exhibitions on China, Japan, Egypt, India, as well as exhibits on the history of money (which is inherently valueless) and art galleries choc-a-bloc full of paintings. Please, don’t ask me to be any more specific than this.  I always like to think of myself as an intellectual who enjoys going round museums and soaking in the culture, but I quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the collections. I think I like the idea of going round museums like a pseudo-academic, more so than actually doing so. Lol.

The museum was far too large to look around in one go, so I stayed there until four which is when I decided it was high time for my walk in nature. I ventured down to the Oxford Canal which was used to transport coal from Coventry. I had a lovely walk along it. It was peaceful and quiet.

Best of all, unlike with Norwich, it was still day light. I guess I could have followed it all the way to Coventry, but I only went as far as Aristotle lane – half an hour away from the city centre before I headed back.

It was five by this time. I still had two hours before my train home, so my plan was to do my Too Good to Go bag with the station bakery, get dinner and a drink. Alas, the TGTG was all sold out, so instead I had an early dinner at a local Dosa store. I’ve had Dosa in Milton Keynes and London, so it was time to try Oxford’s version. I had a Chicken masala dosa with a mango lassi. Alas, this wasn’t great. The dosa was only half-full and it was a tad cold. Milton Keynes was and always will be the best. And that was because it was just street food and not a proper restaurant, so they didn’t care about making it fancy. It was a good, honest South Indian pancake.

By this point, it was almost six. Just one hour to go before my train home. While I was tempted to navigate back to the city’s Wetherspoons, instead I went to the much nearer Lighthouse pub and had a pint of Moretti while I wrote up this travel logue. The beer was £6.30 – on par with London prices.

And at 7, I caught my train back home. I thoroughly enjoyed Oxford. There was plenty to do here and it had some pretty nature. I was in Oxford for just over seven hours and I thought I would quickly get bored, but that wasn’t the case at all. I would definitely rank it in the upper half of the cities I’ve visited before. Unfortunately, it was overly-expensive, so that would stop it from cracking the top five. Portsmouth. You’re next.