Bill's Aviation Log

England - September 2018 - Oxford
Leaving Blenheim, we headed for Oxford, England's other great university town, only a 30 minute drive away. We checked into our B&B which was on the outskirts of town but had its own parking, which is key. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, founded in the 12th century. Like Cambridge, the University of Oxford is made up of multiple Colleges. The next morning we took a shuttle bus from our B&B into Oxford town. We started off by following the "Oxford Walk" in the Rick Steves book. Here we are looking through the main entrance of a college at its grass courtyard.

Walking down Broad street, we stopped in at Blackwell's Bookstore, which may not look like much, but is huge with at least three floors. It's been around a long time, founded in 1879. Although the bookstore was great, I was disappointed with its content. I don't think I saw a single conservative book. And not a single book by Paul Johnson, the great British historian? That's simply outrageous. But, of course, there were plenty of liberal books all over the place. Bob Woodward's recent trash book was displayed prominently. They did have Max Hasting's -- another great British historian -- new book Vietnam: an epic tragedy -- on hand but it is apolitical.

The free Museum of the History of Science. We passed on this one, but if we ever come back to Oxford, I'd like to see it.

Across the street was the Weston library which has a "Treasures" room with precious books, manuscripts and letters displayed. In the lobby was this printing press replica -- made in 1950 -- based on plans from the 1680s. Shakespeare's plays were printed on presses like this one. The printing press has to be considered one of the great inventions in human history.

Crossing Broad Street again, we entered the Bodleian Library courtyard called the Old School Quad. Although we didn't see the inside, the Bodleian Library is sort of like our Library of Congress. It has 11 million books and more than 100 miles of shelving. It is one of six "legal deposit" libraries in the UK -- it must receive a copy of everybook printed in the nation.

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Overlooking the courtyard is King James I, who had this courtyard built in the 17th century. "In his hand is the King James Bible -- translated into English in good Protestant style so that people could read it." -- Rick Steves.

Across the street was the Hertford Bridge built to connect the two parts of Hertford College. It's an Oxford landmark. The bridge is often referred to as the Bridge of Sighs because of its supposed similarity to the famous Bridge of Sighs in Venice. However, Hertford Bridge was never intended to be a replica of the Venetian bridge, and instead it bears a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge in the same city.

The Radcliffe Camera, built as a medical library and now used as a reading room for a gigantic library complex that runs through the tunnels underneath Radcliffe Square.

On one side of Radliffe Square is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Also called the University Church, it's older than the university and was the center of the original walled town. The reformer John Wesley, who founded the Methodist Church, preached here.

A closer look at the Church of St. Mary.

We toured the inside of the Church and then went up its tower. Inside the tower was this exhibit on its clock. Pretty amazin.

A great shot of All Souls College from the Church of St. Mary's tower. All Souls College is named for the dead of the Hundred Years War that England fought with France in the 14th and 15th centuries. Famous alums include Lawrence of Arabia and Christopher Wren (true rennaissance man and cathedral/church architect). The twin spires look like Westminister Abbey, not surprising because they were designed by the same man.

I'm always a little uneasy at the top of these 500+ year old stone towers.

A good look at the Ratcliffe Camera.

Lynnette checking out old Oxford town.

Like all English towns it seems, a river runs through it. In this case the River Cherwell. So Lynnette and I went "punting".

Beautiful day for it.

A footbridge to a big island in the middle of the river.

An English duck!

A tower belonging to Magdalen College.

Crossing under Magdalen Bridge.

Magpie Lane reminded Lynneete of Maggie our youngest.

Outside the famous Christ Church college. Is it famous because 13 prime ministers, William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania), John Wesley, John Locke (English philosopher), and Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) are alums? No, it's because scenes in the Harry Potter movies were filmed here. It was about lunchtime so we didn't have a chance to go inside and see it. Christ Church College was founded by Henry VIII's chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, in 1524 on the site of an abbey dissolved by the king.

Looking back at Christ Church College and its colorful grounds.

Lynnette and I were kind of tired and hungary so we stopped in at a little cafe across the street and had tea and scones!

Next we checked out the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. Like the Fitzwillian Museum in Cambridge, only bigger, you could have spent a full day in this outstanding museum.

Actual garments and accessories worn by Lawrence while he was with the Arab army in Arabia in World War I, fighting the Ottoman Turks. T. E. Lawrence went to Jesus College here in Oxford.

This artifact blew me away. From the placard: This remarkable object is the most important surviving artifact from the first period of contact between indigenous North American peoples and British colonists of Virginia in the early 1600s. It is the actual ceremonial mantle (robe, cloak?) worn by Wahunsenacawh, who was the paramount Powhatan chief in eastern Virginia at the time of the Jamestown Colony, founded in 1607. It consists of hides from four white-tailed deer. The decorative work is with shells.

The plaster death mask of Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658). Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles, considered a regicidal dictator by historians such as David Sharp, a military dictator by Winston Churchill, a hero of liberty by John Milton, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Rawson Gardiner, and a revolutionary bourgeois by Leon Trotsky.

A caribou-hide garment from Canada, "probably the oldest known surviving indigeneous North American leather garment and is unique."

Nice statue.

A village on the edge of lake in the Alps 5,000 years ago, modelled after remarkably well-preserved remains found underwater or at water-logged levels.

Ornate vase with exquisite workmanship.

English domestic silver and goldsmith's work from the Tudor period to the 1700s.

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There was this neat exhibit on violins which interested me since I played violin during my school days.

How a violin is built, using six different kinds of woods: maple, spruce, ebony, boxwood, fruitwood and willow.

This is one of the famous Stradivarious violins. The best ever made in world history. "The instruments made by Antonio Stradivari (1644- 1737) produce an ideal range and quality of sounds. Modern violins differ very little from those made by Stradavari in 1450." This is the first one I have ever seen. Only about 650 original Stradivari instruments (harps, guitars, violas, cellos, violins) survive. A Stradivarius made in the 1680s, or during Stradivari's "Long Pattern" period from 1690 to 1700, could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars at today's prices. The 1697 "Molitor" Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon (it did belong to a general in his army, Count Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor), sold in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for $3,600,000, at the time a world record.

The museum had four floors. Each civilization in world history had its own area. You could spend all day in here. There is a ton to do in Oxford. We didn't do half of it. To do it right, I think you need two full days. I'd like to come back some day.


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England - September 2018 - Oxford