Trip to Oxford

A trip to Oxford is long overdue for me. I have planned to make a trip there since I was in Cambridge.

I only decided to go there when I woke up this morning and saw the sky was clear and weather brilliant. It was an impromptu decision. I am glad I made the trip in time before the end of 2007 lest I've to make it a new year resolution! It was also a very enjoyable trip for me as I have learnt and saw a lot from the oldest university in Britain.

Oxford is only 25 minutes away from Reading by train. In fact, I just realised Reading is near to many other places other than London. It's 25 minutes to London, 25 minutes to Windsor and now, 25 minutes to Oxford. I should be able to discover more places in time to come. Perhaps I should give Reading a slogan of its own: "Town to other towns in 25 minutes!"

I brought my bicycle to Oxford since people who have been there told me that Oxford is a bigger place than Cambridge. I thought it would be nice to see the city in a bike. Save time, save the effort from walking too much. Besides, like Cambridge, Oxford is also a cycling city. I made the right decision. Oxford was bigger and I saved so much time getting from one place to another with the bike. Though bigger in size, I found the traffic less intimidating to cyclists than it is in Cambridge. I found cycling in Oxford much safer.

Oi! What is this?! Look what greeted me as soon as I arrived Oxford!

When I got out from the train station and headed to the city centre, I passed by the Said Business School. It's one of the good MBA schools in the UK. I stopped by the roadside when I spotted it. I peeped in from the outside. It was quite deserted especially at this time of the year. So I didn't bother going in. I had initially imagined it to be much bigger from the outside or something like the Judge Business School in Cambridge. Who knows, good things come in small packages!

When I reached the city centre, I quickly bought a map from the Tourist Information Centre. It's really essential to have one even though it cost 1.25 quid a pop. I had no idea of my orientation in the city and what were the things to see. Like I said, it was an impromptu decision to come here, so I didn't even do any research on Oxford! That aside, I found that UK is perhaps the only country (of the countries I've been) to be selling guide maps to tourists. These are usually given free. There was once a gush of wind blew the map off from my hand as I was spreading it open. It nearly fell on a puddle of water but thankfully a lady caught hold of it. I breathed a sigh of relief. The lady handed the map back to me and said, " That look just now, was priceless!" That's how much people like me will wince when they (almost) lose a map which they have to pay for it (again)! Ugly! Ugly!

I noticed the common benchmark to getting around Oxford is the Carfax Tower. I found out later that Carfax means "crossroads" in French. Now that explains its significance.

Carfax Tower

I checked the map and saw that the nearest point to start the visit was the Bridge of Sigh. There wasn't a river shown in the map where the bridge was located. So it was interesting to find out the Oxford version of this bridge and how it'll look. We have one in St John's College, Cambridge over River Cam but the one in Oxford is over a road called, New College Lane to connect both sides of Hertford College. No offence to Oxonians, but I think Cambridge's looks more picturesque and stunning.

Bridge of Sigh comparison; Cambridge on the left, Oxford on the right

Or compare the cheeky fella and the bridge...

Panorama view of Bridge of Sigh's surrounding

Around the area, there were other interesting buildings like the Radcliffe Camera and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. Radcliffe Camera is a reading room for the Bodleian Library, which has an underground storage space of 100 miles (161km)! I also spent some time at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, reading the dramatic death history of Thomas Cranmer in the church, admiring the building architecture and carvings.

Radcliffe Camera

University Church of St Mary the Virgin

700-year old well-preserved wooden furniture in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Somehow Cambridge has many similarities with Oxford. Alot of the building names and functions are the same. The University Church in Cambridge is called the Great St Mary. Mere coincidence??

Then I proceeded to Christ Church College. To enter, visitors have to pay £4.90 per pax. I tried my luck with another method.

I asked, "Excuse me, do I need to pay if I enter as a university student? I'm not from Oxford though."

The ticket master bent over, "Do you have a university card? Which university are you from?"

I showed my blue colour university card and flipped over to the back to show the university's name, "Cambridge, Sir. Would that be alright?"

The ticket master responded swiftly, "Oh! From the other place! Ah! Get in!"

I was so happy I got in for free. I pushed my luck a little further and asked, "In that case, sir, next time when I come, can I also bring in two guests with me?

"Well....it depends on the mood of the person manning the counter on that day. You see, we don't have arrangements to let people from "the other place" come here for free. Sometimes we let them in, sometimes we don't. It just depends on the mood of the person."

"Okay, in that case...oh well..from "the other place" huh...So you're telling me your mood is good today!"

"Haha! Get in before I change my mind, you cheeky fella!"

Panaroma view of Christ Church College

Christ Church College is apparently the most famous college in Oxford and perhaps in the world. It is also the only university college in the world with a cathedral in it! I can guarantee that most, if not all of us who have seen movies whether in the cinema or at home would have come across Christ Church College, knowingly or unknowingly. Take the bet? First up...Harry Potter's dining hall. Eventhough it was digitally modified, the base model came from the college hall.

Great Hogwarts Hall adapted from the college hall

And most recently, the Golden Compass was filmed in the hall and grounds of the college. I haven't seen the movie so I tried looking for the movie trailer. I found these very familiar shots in the trailer and was surprised...

Snapshots of Golden Compass filmed at the College Hall
The original hall used in the movies

Check out the picture above and compare it with the photo below. Taken today at the grounds of the college. Notice the difference? That's the power of computer graphic editting!

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was Christ Church College. I spent quite a lot of time there. I sat through a 15-minute video presentation of the college, spoke to the gatekeeper of the college cathedral who apparently was born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and had my lunch at the college grounds to admire the architecture of the surrounding.

Cathedral of Oxford in the college

Close-up shot taken in the Cathedral

If there's anything I can spot lacking in Cambridge would be a covered market. Oxford has that and it houses a variety of shops and stalls in it. When I checked out the place, I didn't find anything that interest me except a box of oysters on shaved ice which reminded me of my last visit to a Japanese buffet restaurant in Malaysia.


Oxford's Ashmolean Museum is like what Fitzwilliam Museum is to Cambridge. There are a plethora of paintings and artefacts in it. Visitors can take photograph in the museum, which was brilliant! There was a section with silver and goldwares in display and I thought it would be great if I can take photos of those and make up for the ones I couldn't take when I was in Windsor. They looked so similar. The intricacy of the carvings on the metal illustrates the emphasis on elegance and refinement in the work of arts by the British. I stood there for a while trying to figure out how some of those carvings were done and how much time it took to produce one of them.

When I was in Malaysia, the ubiquitous "Oxford" name has appeared in almost every dictionary that I ever had, except the last one by Collins Cobuild. In fact my first dictionary was "The Little Oxford Dictionary". We also have academic textbooks that are printed by the Oxford University Press. Malaysians like myself have been so exposed to this name that we no longer take notice of it. When I spotted the OUP in the map, I told myself that I should pay "homage" to this place. Standing in front of the OUP was like the final leg of completing an Oxford experience.

Other bits of Oxford....