I know, I go there every day for work… But I had never seen Oxford from a tourist perspective. I had never been to the Ashmolean or visited Christ Church College, meandered along the river bank or browsed Alice’s shop…
In fact, I still haven’t done half of these things! In typical style we spent overlong in the Ashmolean – where I could happily have spent three times as long again!
We went to see the most spectacular exhibition, Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy. It was truly astounding to see such treasures, so intricate, so dexterously created, 2500+ years ago! The gold leaf crowns were the most astonishing items from my perspective – when you touched the perspex case the leaves shivered, they were that delicate!
We did have a wander along the Thames to see the punting, and we did wander towards Christ Church, but the queues to get in were horrendous! We were also short of time to do the full tourist thing, so we’ll definitely do another day trip soon – especially now we know just how easy and cheap the Park & Ride is!
I couldn’t resist taking a picture of these beautiful flowers!
Not sure what was going on here, but this fella was eerie!
Second Hand Shopper 
I love ‘holidaying’ in a place that is familiar for work or residential reasons. So many hidden gems and places of interest to be discovered on the door step.
I love your look. The shoe, tights and dress, belt and beret combination are fab and just the thing to play chic tourist.
Thanks sharnek – I felt very glam, and the highlight of my day was when we passes a couple in vintage dress who nodded and smiled at us. It made me grin for hours!
I can remember the first time I went back to my home town properly after graduating – I’d finally been away long enough to see how beautiful Stafford was. And even this last year Dapper and I have discovered beautiful and unusual historical elements there – I’m sure there’re plenty more hidden gems! 😀
I do like Oxford. A few years back when hubby was studying photography we did a great fashion shoot there. Those are some of the best photographs I’ve ever had taken. We’ve never been clever enough to use Park and Ride though. Parking is a nightmare. X
Sounds wonderful!
I can’t recommend the P&R highly enough. Fast, frequent and cheap as chips – free parking then a couple of quid for bus fare! Dapper hates to shop, but has said that, come Christmas, he’ll go back into Oxford to buy pressies because parking is so darned simple!
Cx
I’m coming out of hiding as a long-time lurker. I was standing on the top of the Carfax Tower, visiting Oxford for the afternoon, and saw a red beret wending through the crowd. It had to be you! It was a lovely afternoon. My son and I visited the Ashmolean, very briefly, to see the musical instrument collection before we jumped on the train back to London. Perhaps my favourite moment was feeling like I was breathing the same air (or at least smelling the same smells, minus pipe smoke) as the Inklings in The Eagle and Child.
Catherine! Hooray for delurking! I’m sure it must have been me! 🙂
I was enthralled by the musical instruments in the Ashmolean – particularly liked the story behind the Messiah, to which I was previously oblivious! We didn’t make it to many literary haunts unfortunately – next trip I think!
I’m pleased you had such a delightful afternoon! 😀