Oxford

Remember a while back when Queen Mary organized a night cruise on the Thames and I forgot to check that the memory card was in my camera? Well, same thing happened when I went to Oxford last week to see the town and visit Terry. I will try to include pictures from other sources to illustrate what I saw.

The first stop for us upon my arrival was the Eagle & Child pub for lunch. Why this pub, you might ask? Well, it was here that the Inklings meet every week for beer and a discussion. Who are the Inklings? None other than J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, among others.After lunch, we headed over to Blackwell's bookstore, which has the Norrington Room, which is the largest single room selling books with over 10,000 sq. ft., over 3 miles of shelves, and over 160,000 books.

After that we headed over to the Bodleian Library, the main library at Oxford. The tour doesn't go into very much of the library, and to actually be able to use the library is difficult. But the tour did start in this room:Yes, that's the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. But in reality it's the Divinity School at Oxford. The ceiling is a beautiful example of fan vaulting.An interesting fact about this room: the University makes more money from filming in the room than for any other purpose.

Then they take you upstairs to the main part of the library, which also was used in the Harry Potter films, and this time as part of the Hogwarts Library.

While Terry was having her Latin tutorial, I sat in Blackwell's reading, and when she was done, it was time for dinner and catching our trains back to London and Bath.