This post is long, long overdue. I was in Oxford on Wednesday of last week (October 29).
I left my flat in London just before 5am to get breakfast and catch my 6:20 train to Oxford. I quickly learned that I didn’t need to take a train anywhere near that early. I was in Oxford by 7:30 because the trains run quite quickly in the UK (120 mph).
As I walked from the train station into the heart of Oxford, I was greeted by the local Chinese restaurant. I don’t think the name was chosen by anyone intimately familiar with Western culture.
Because almost the entire city was closed down at that hour, I decided to head to Starbucks for a hot chocolate. They do it right here, with real china and plenty of whipped cream.
The Ashmolean is Oxford’s premier museum. Though they’re perhaps most known for their ancient artifacts, they also have excellent displays of art from non-Western cultures in the Middle East and Asia. During this morning visit, I explored the parts of the museum that contained Western art and artifacts.
Though the British Museum in London contains more famous artifacts like the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles, the Ashmolean did a far superior job with presenting their collection. For example, where the British Museum had mummies and sarcophagi strewn about several galleries, the Ashmolean did an excellent job of presenting an Egyptian burial in an educational and interesting fashion. Important Egyptians were buried in a series of coffins and sarcophagi – one inside the other like Russian nesting dolls. The Ashmolean’s display shows how closely these pieces fitted together over the mummy.
After my first visit to the Ashmolean (I’d be back later in the day for the Asian and Islamic galleries), I went to the Bodleian Library, the main university library in Oxford. Many of the colleges have their own libraries as well. The massive Gothic building is extremely imposing.
Next to the old Bodleian building is the Radcliffe Camera, certainly the most famous structure in Oxford.
After visiting the Bodleian, I went to Covered Market for lunch, and then walked north towards the Ashmolean. I had a pint at the Eagle and Child, a pub that has been around since the end of the 17th century. It was the informal meeting-place of the Inklings, a group of writers that included J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. It was here that Lewis first circulated drafts of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
