And that sweet City with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening, Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night! “Thyrsis,” Matthew Arnold, April 1866 A century after Arnold penned those words about the city of Oxford a latter-day pop manifesto urges us to “Open your mind, arms and heart to new things and people.” If you think you are ready for some time under the ... Read Full Article
Searching for Literary Oxford
We were in Wonderland and, like Alice, we were lost. Not down a rabbit hole, but on the teeming streets of Oxford’s city center searching for our hotel. We were overwhelmed by the traffic - cars, bikes and busses and the sidewalks crowded with the pedestrians.Beyond the traffic and the tourists, I saw no Mad Hatters or Dodo birds, but glimpsed instead, gargoyles and uglies ... Read Full Article
English Gardens: Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?
Spotting British actors we’ve seen in TV shows and movies is a favorite pastime at our house, but even better is spotting the UK locales where our favorite shows and movies were filmed. Here's a little rundown of where some of the more popular films and TV shows were filmed in England Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen fans have their own favorite version of this classic, but for locations, my ... Read Full Article
Oxford Walking Tour: Five Towers and a Meadow
Down through the middle of Oxford, home of England’s oldest university, runs a north-south axis that takes you past interesting churches, towers and colleges, to a gorgeous meadow. This axis starts with a road called St Giles’, it continues with Cornmarket Street, and then changes its name to St Aldate’s. Following this thoroughfare north to south provides just as interesting a tour of Oxford as ... Read Full Article
Oxford, England: Where Streets are Broad and High
To walk in the center of Oxford, a city just fifty miles from London, is to walk in the footsteps of the renowned University of Oxford's many notable alumni, including: kings, saints, prime ministers, Monty Python performers, and the writers who brought us Narnia and Lord of the Rings. Rather than being set aside in a separate campus, the university buildings are dotted around the city itself, ... Read Full Article
Out and About: Day Trips Near London
With urban sprawl for miles and miles and a bulging population of over seven million people, London can be a bit too much for some tourists to handle. Happily, there are a number of nearby villages and hamlets that are perfect for a day trip and easily reachable via the transport networks leading out of the city. Try some of the following places to ease your mind and get a feeling for what ... Read Full Article