oxford is oxford
The title of this page come from a famous quote by English novelist E.M. Forster who said:
Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.
What a lovely well composed insult in the truly british way, delivered without malice to poke fun at Cambridge and maintain the rivalry between these two globally renowned university cities. Oxford is a nice 1 hour ride from London on the express service out of Marylebone Station, to make a trip of it (or if you are showing a friend around as I was) once your day is complete you can return into Paddington Station in an hour on a different line.
The city is home to the oldest university in the English speaking world and is known as the "city of dreaming spires" after a term devised by English poet Matthew Arnold. It's also known for it's "bridge of sighs" on New Collage Lane. The actual name is 'Hertford Bridge' which joins two parts of Hertford College across New College Lane, but is incorrectly referred to as 'the bridge of sighs' because of its supposed similarity to it's namesake in Venice, it was never meant to be a replica and is in fact much more similar to the Rialto bridge which is also in Venice. Whatever the history and name it is a very striking structure to find in an english city.
Oxford has a number of incredibly striking buildings, several waterways, a castle and medieval prison and a thousand and one photographic opportunities. One day is certainly nowhere near enough to capture it all but it is still very much worth the trip for a day out from London. My only other advice for visiting this wonderful city; watch out for bikes, bikes are everywhere and being pedal powered make no noise whatsoever, the streets of Oxford are littered with the shrapnel of tourist 'v' bike encounters.
There are no captions in the gallery as it's a very small city and all of the shots are within a short step of each other just a couple of miles from the railway station.
Oxford is Oxford: not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another.
What a lovely well composed insult in the truly british way, delivered without malice to poke fun at Cambridge and maintain the rivalry between these two globally renowned university cities. Oxford is a nice 1 hour ride from London on the express service out of Marylebone Station, to make a trip of it (or if you are showing a friend around as I was) once your day is complete you can return into Paddington Station in an hour on a different line.
The city is home to the oldest university in the English speaking world and is known as the "city of dreaming spires" after a term devised by English poet Matthew Arnold. It's also known for it's "bridge of sighs" on New Collage Lane. The actual name is 'Hertford Bridge' which joins two parts of Hertford College across New College Lane, but is incorrectly referred to as 'the bridge of sighs' because of its supposed similarity to it's namesake in Venice, it was never meant to be a replica and is in fact much more similar to the Rialto bridge which is also in Venice. Whatever the history and name it is a very striking structure to find in an english city.
Oxford has a number of incredibly striking buildings, several waterways, a castle and medieval prison and a thousand and one photographic opportunities. One day is certainly nowhere near enough to capture it all but it is still very much worth the trip for a day out from London. My only other advice for visiting this wonderful city; watch out for bikes, bikes are everywhere and being pedal powered make no noise whatsoever, the streets of Oxford are littered with the shrapnel of tourist 'v' bike encounters.
There are no captions in the gallery as it's a very small city and all of the shots are within a short step of each other just a couple of miles from the railway station.