A Lovely Weekend in Oxford, England – Journey Dudes

Searching for someplace new to spend in a weekend at within the UK?

How a few enjoyable weekend in Oxford? It’s an excellent weekend getaway from London – simply accessed by catching the X90 bus from London Victoria to town of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.

I did this lately with my sister and we had a extremely enjoyable and attention-grabbing weekend in Oxford, exploring this stunning and historic college metropolis.

The beginning of a weekend in Oxford: Arriving on a Friday night

We arrived at about 9.30pm and checked into the Greatest Western Linton Lodge, a stunning Edwardian model lodge about 20 minutes outdoors of town centre. Wanting the benefit from our first night time, we dropped off our luggage shortly and headed to the Pure Historical past Museum for a particular night time time ‘Museums at Night time’ occasion. It was pretty seeing the shows at night time, and I significantly appreciated the life sized animal shows. Solely concern was, the museum ran out of booze! What an atrocity!

Simply joking, we have been truly secretly happy, as a result of it meant that we might get up on Saturday as recent as daisy’s.

Easy methods to spend a Saturday in Oxford

On Saturday we had an enormous day deliberate for sightseeing, and we determined to take the scenic route into city alongside the river and college parks. It was completely stunning, however BEWARE – ballet sneakers are NOT applicable for nature walks – significantly when it has lately rained!

Arriving into city with muddy ft, however comparatively unhurt, we purchased some wise sneakers and began exploring a number of of the museums round city.

The museums in Oxford got here extremely really useful, and you may see why – town is extraordinarily cultural, academic and historic. My favorite must be the Ashmolean – I really like historic historical past, and the Egyptian part was tremendous spectacular! I had by no means seen an actual mummy earlier than, and it was wonderful! 

After the Ashmolean and the Science Museum, we visited the Coated Markets, which have been round for the reason that 18th Century! There have been many pretty little shops and meals retailers, and we sampled one of many BEST freshly baked chocolate chip cookies from just a little store known as Bens!

We additionally watched noticed some severely expert bakers making some extraordinary wanting desserts…all so intricate and detailed. I felt very untalented watching these artful cake-makers, I have to say!

Do an Oxford metropolis strolling tour

After a fast lunch break, we joined the Metropolis Strolling Tour from the Guests Centre, and it was positively a must-do in Oxford. We realized rather a lot from this tour – most significantly, how influential the College has been previously, and likewise within the current.

To be trustworthy, I ‘made an ass out of u and me’ and assumed that Oxford College can be one massive campus, however truly the Uni is scattered everywhere in the metropolis in seperate schools. We have been allowed into the Keble School, and our information Monica informed us all about pupil life (previous and current).

We even had a peek into the eating corridor, which is seemingly the most affordable place for the scholars to dine, and appeared precisely just like the corridor in Harry Potter!

Exhausted from all of the strolling, we returned again to our cozy beds on the Linton and had just a little nap earlier than heading out to Cowley Road for dinner. We went to a spot I discovered on-line known as Door 74 (it’s sadly closed down) and loved a scrumptious meal, washed down by some Pinot Grigio. I had the lamb which was delish, however my favorite half must be the darkish chocolate semifreddo for dessert – such scrumptious goo!

We met an outdated good friend at a few funky Center Japanese bars earlier than heading house to the 24-hour lodge bar earlier than midnight. 

Excellent first day, with good firm!

Sunday: Easy methods to end off a weekend in Oxford

We awakened at about 9am on Sunday and headed right down to the recent buffet on the Linton Lodge.

The breakfast was simply what we wanted to begin one other large day of sightseeing (I really like a very good hash brown on a Sunday morning!). 

The Linton is situated a few 20 minute stroll out of the principle city, and it’s completely pleasurable to walk previous the museums, schools and pupil housing. For those who’re not up for the stroll nonetheless, it solely £5.50 in a cab – cut price!

A tour of the Oxford Fort

We walked into town after breakfast and loved some recent air earlier than testing Oxford Fort. The positioning was as soon as house to the Norman Oxford Fort, after which the notorious Oxford Jail for the reason that eleventh Century.

We did the ‘Oxford Fort Unlocked’ tour, and have been escorted round by ‘Mary Blandy’ – a prisoner that I personally consider was wrongly accused of killing her father. She informed us all in regards to the historical past of the jail, and let me inform you – English folks have been BRUTAL again within the day! Thank goodness I wasn’t an on a regular basis individual in debt  throughout these instances, that’s all I can say!

Exploring Blenheim Palace

After the tour, we caught the S3 bus to Blenheim Palace. Just like the X90, we discovered all of the Oxford buses to be actually common. We jumped straight on, and travelled for about quarter-hour by the countryside to the well-known Palace.

It was a toss up between Blenheim and the strolling tour, however I’ve to say that this was my favorite a part of the weekend. The Palace is HUGE and stuffed with historical past, most noteable being the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. The ticket contains entry into the palace and entry to all the encompassing gardens. You would spend an entire day exploring.

Since I’ve arrived in London, the countryside surrounding Blenheim Palace is essentially the most stunning that I’ve seen in England.

The Palace is surrounded by rolling hills, lakes and 2000 acres of gorgeous parkland. Ange and I took a protracted stroll from the formal gardens, previous the Italian Backyard and ultimately got here to a wonderful cascading waterfall. We even managed to see some bunny rabbits on the way in which! How English is that?

On that observe, do you know that the true Alice from Alice in Wonderland was from Oxford?

After taking a few zillion pictures at Blenheim, we headed again to city and spent our final hour consuming lunch and consuming a pint on the Eagle and Little one (also referred to as the ‘Chook and Child’) pub, close to the city centre. The pub was a well-known assembly level for the ‘Inklings’ – a Oxford writers group that included C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien! It was wonderful to consider these males writing such well-known novels in that very pub.

The historical past in Oxford was simply wonderful. We have been very unhappy to go away on Sunday. What a improbable place!

I might advocate going for longer than one weekend, as a result of there may be simply a lot to see. However in case you have restricted time, you possibly can squeeze all of it in, similar to we did.