29.08.12 - Oxford, UK - Museums

29.08.12 - (Oxford, UK)

Today is research day. I spend most of my time at the Radcliffe Science Library, looking at MS Bodley 297, John of Worcester's Chronicon ex chronicis. After that, I meet Ramona and we head to the museums to see some pretty sweet stuff. Here are some museum photos from wandering around the Ashmolean Museum (below) and the Museum of the History of Science (way below). To be very honest, a few of the Ashmolean photos are from different days, but these are the newest, most interesting photos. I'll try to keep everything lumped together by topic.

Satan!

Laocoon.

Anglo-Saxon belt, situated among other A/S, Danish, Frankish, and German artifacts.

Gilt copper alloy and and champleve crucifix, 12th or 13th century.

Oxford Museum of the History of Science

What's HAPPENIN GUYS!?

I'm pretty sure that back in the day this geocentric universe rotated and was super sweet.

Heliocentric universe model based on Copernicus' writings. Also mechanical.

Einstein's blackboard!

The Museum of the History of Science closes and kicks Ramona and me out in the rain. We hang around waiting for twenty minutes or so, and then the sun comes out, and we see this...

IT'S A DOUBLE RAINBOW!

Back in Edinburgh, I met a few guys from Wales and an Aussie. Today, I track down Dixie's pub, called The Grapes, on George St. I get a half-pint while we talk and I find out that Dan, the Aussie, was scheduled to get on a bus at 8:30am for a three day coach tour of Loch Ness and the Highlands, but Dixie tells me that he's not sure that Dan made that bus. Hmm... Anyway, here's the pub.

Dixie's that handsome bloke int he blue shirt.

That night, we get a new guest at Jane's. He's from Japan, and his name is Yusuke. As a welcoming gesture, I buy him a pint at a pub just a few doors down. We talk a bit and then head home.

Until next time.

27-28.08.12 - Botanical Gardens, Tower, and Museum

27.08.12 - Oxford, UK - Around the Town

Today I meet Ramona, 22, a German language student from Essen who also happens to have read Edward Said and is interested in cultural criticism. She's staying at Jane's for about three weeks and in that time hopes to improve her English before she returns home to write a few research papers at university. Though I've been around Oxford a few times now (it's not that big). I decide to show her around and see some of the bits I'd missed.

Close to Christ Church College, in the green, there's an archery tournament going on. Beside it, there is a booth that charges 1 pound so you can shoot three arrows at the target. I'm rubbish, but I manage to hit seven pretty consistently. Ramona and I take turns and snap a few photos.

Christ Church College, Cathedral, and Chapter House (somewhere therein)

This is (supposedly) the oldest pub in Oxford.

After wandering around High Street for about thirty minutes, we head to Carfax Tower. Ramona has everything she wants to see in Oxford planned, and at this point I'm basically going wherever she goes. I hadn't seen Carfax Tower the day before, but it apparently is a thing to see. You can go up the tower for about three quid and look at the city. So, we do just that.

Carfax tower.

"Truth is strong" - motto of Oxford University. The two bell-ringer men are recreated examples of what the originals looked like. The originals are in one of the museums in Oxford (but I since haven't found them).

Carfax Tower, while not the tallest building in Oxford, allows for the best view of Oxford. Just as we get up there, about twenty Japanese people also arrive and basically take over the tower. We get as many photos as we can, while a middle-aged Japanese man balances on the central spire and takes photos of his entire coalition.

Shortly thereafter, we wander through Oxford's covered market. There's not much going on here today, and some of the shops are closed. Despite that, it's still busy in the market.

At the Bodleian Library, again.

The other day I'd made my way to, but not into, Oxford's Botanical Gardens. I wasn't sure that the four dollar entry price (three if you're a student) was worth it, but today Ramona talks me into forking over the cash to have a picnic there while the weather is nice. We grab some baguette sandwiches from a patisserie and walk around, looking for a nice spot to sit. We find one beside the river, talk and eat. After the picnic, we go to the greenhouses and I snap a bunch of photos along the way.

Tree-hugger.

Really huge lily pads.

Feed me Seymour!

On the way back to the S1, I spot a unicorn etched into the pavement.

For Diana.

28.08.12 - Oxford Again.

Ramona. 

I look absolutely ridiculous in this poncho. Didn't really have a choice, though.

Back to the Ashmolean!

Sweet late medieval sword.

Another college. These things quickly blur together. And I've forgotten which one this is.

We head to Oxford Castle, just on...Castle Street. Figures. It's about 8 pounds to get in, but The Mound is just a pound. It's supposed to be a pound per person, but we just paid for one and got the code to the fence and went in.

Oxford Castle. Sure it doesn't seem like much, but look at the location!

The Mound. It's just next to Oxford Castle. Yeah, the location is nice.

25.08.12 - 26.08.12 - Eynsham and Oxford, UK

25.08.12 - Eynsham, UK - Arriving

I arrive by cab, worried that I'd get there and that my landlady, Jane, would be asleep. I could have taken the bus. It was a timing thing. The cabbie charges me a small fortune. Flat rate, all places outside city, twenty-five pounds. Ugh. I should have taken the bus. Take it. Just take it. I don't even want my money. Just take it. I just want to get to where I'm going. Timing thing. Yes, yes, now go away. I slam the door and the cabbie speeds off, and I'm in Eynsham.

Eynsham is about five miles outside of Oxford. Not walkable: not at nine-thirty, anyway. I would have gladly done that for twenty-five pounds. Earlier that day, I'd received a text saying that I have to push through the white gate by the side of the house. We don't use the main door, the text reads. Okay, no problem. Jane's home is very large, as though part of the garden had been used to extend the main home. Not sure if that's true; Jane says the house had been remodeled. The rest of the family is in France, preparing their other home for renters. There are two Australians in the room next to yours. Okay, I like Australians. She's tired, clearly; I'm tired, but faking it. Shows me to the room. Looks good. There's the bed. Got it. Put the bag down. Goodnight! Goodnight! Go to sleep.


26.08.12 - Oxford, UK - Walking Around

The S1 stops just a few buildings down from where I'm staying and runs regularly. I hop on the bus and decide to do a little sightseeing.

Oxford reminds me of Cambridge, but bigger and more expensive. It's streets spoke-and-wheel about; its city centre is a footpath around which autos are diverted, its markets, both covered and uncovered, spiderweb between the main driven roads, its signposts, pre-eminently age-obsessed with being first at this, oldest at that, its colleges, scowling schoolmarms who glance away as you go by them, cross their arms in serious poses.

Oh, yes, I'm in Oxford.


Like Cambridge, there is an arrogance in the "old" bits. The center of town, near the colleges that charge you for entry, whisper: we do not really want you here, but if you pay a fee we might let you glimpse the good stuff.

Give me the good stuff, Oxford.

Only if you pay.

Isn't that a bit much?

(scoffing) This is Oxford.

Will you let me take this photograph?

There is a waver that you have to sign.

Do I have a choice?

(scoffing) This is Oxford.

Five pounds for Magdalen (pronounced, "madalen") College. Eight pounds for Christ Church College. Three pounds for...

I'll wait. On the 8th the colleges are "open" to the public. You don't have to be a prospective student. You don't have to pretend to not speak English to snap a few photos of the inner sanctum.

University Examination Building.

Bodleian Library.

The Radcliffe Camera.

The museums are Oxford's jewels. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The Pitt-Rivers museum contained some dinosaur bones, some rocks, some plants, some bees, some...

This thing is utterly terrifying. I dislike the word "utterly" but find it appropriate here.

Inside the Pitt-Rivers Museum.

 The Ashmolean Museum is the best free thing in Oxford. I can't believe it's free. I can't believe this is real.

We'd would like a donation. Anywhere from a pound to a million would be great. We recommend three pounds so that you don't feel unconquerable guilt when...

Stuff it.

Right.

Where was I? Oh yes. I get to the Ashmolean and immediately head up to the Anglo-Saxon exhibit.

The Alfred Jewel. Along the side, in gold, are the words:
 "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" - "Alfred had me made"

The Alfred Jewel, above, was found in North Petherton near Bridgwater in Somerset. The plaque below the jewel at the Ashmolean speculates that it was once attached to a stick and might have been used as a reading prosthesis for large tomes. There's no real evidence that it was used this way. It might've been part of a staff.







After the museums, I find the "bird and baby" pub, which is famous for being one of the locations where the Inklings (Tolkien and C. S. Lewis's group) would hang out and drink. The pub is not shy about it's celebrity either, having scratched this fact into a chalkboard somewhere near the middle of the pub.

 The pub is actually called the "Eagle and Child" - you might've noticed. But the Inklings referred to it alliteratively as the "bird and baby" when they frequented it.