Oops – this post is out of order.  I’m so behind on blogging that I forgot about our trip to Oxford the last weekend in August, but it was so fun, I don’t want to forget it!

Now that we’re back in London and have seen most of the city sights, we’re venturing out a little further to try to see as much of England as possible.  Oxford was first on our list.  A quick train ride and we made our way out to the historic, architecturally rich university town.

We chose to do the hop on/off bus to get around the town since it’s too large to walk through.

The city of Oxford, or the city of Dreaming Spires, was founded in 1096 and consists of many universities or colleges with amazing architecture and history.

Our first stop was Christ Church where the boys spotted a field of cattle and had to interact. It’s always the little, unexpected things that end up being the highlight.  I think the boys could have hung with the cows all afternoon, but we had to say goodbye and move on with our tour.

The grounds of Christ Church were beautiful.  It is unique as the largest college in the University, but also has the smallest cathedral in England.  It is also where Charles Dodgson wrote the famous Alice in Wonderland stories.

We stopped to see the pretty War Memorial Gardens.

  

The bus looped us around the city, showing us all the major famous buildings and well-known people who studied there.

    

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin – Oxford’s largest parish church.

We strolled through the main city center and ate street food, stopped in cute little shops and listened to local musicians.  The kids loved checking out the Harry Potter store and had to buy the nasty Jelly beans that taste so horrible, they were daring each other the rest of the day.

 

My favorite stop was the Fudge Kitchen, where we got some really delicious treats!

  

A few more stops along the way.  I wish I could remember all the stops.

  

 

     

  

The Sheldonian Theatre – Sir Christopher’s Wren’s second major design in 1664 used for concert, lectures and ceremonies.

The Radcliffe Camera – a reading room for the Bodleian Library.

The Bodleian Library – Oxford’s main research library.

Hertford Bridge – much like the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, or a mini Rialto Bridge.

On our walk to the Museum of Natural History, the boys spotted a few “Hobbit houses” and wondered who lived in such dwellings.

The Museum of Natural History had some cool dinosaur exhibits and many other extinct animals.

 

Since the boys were pretty well-behaved along the tour, we treated them to a stop at their favorite candy store, Hardee’s.  They each picked out a goody and we headed back in to London.

  

Despite the boys’ worries of being bored all day, they actually had a fantastic day out in Oxford!