Oxford

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I arrived in Oxford around 3o'clock on Monday afternoon.I first booked into the Youth Hostel which was directly behind the train station.The hostel had only been open a few months and was in beautiful condition.In Newcastle I had taken the open top bus tour and realized that this was a good way to get to know the place and to learn a little about it,so I decided to do likewise here.

Oxford has 39 universities in total and these are scattered around the town.In fact if none of these universities were there there would be very little in Oxford.Most streets border at least one of the universities.After the bus tour I decided to go into one of the universities.Many of them are open during the Summer for visitors.

At the top of the page is a picture of the quadrangle of one of the universities-Christ Church College.

I went on the tour of this university which was very interesting.It included a tour of Christ Church Chapel,Oxford's cathedral-the smallest in England and Christ Church Picture Gallery which has a fine collection of Italian,Dutch and Flemish paintings.

In the centre of the town is Carfax Tower which is the only reminder of an old church which was on this spot.I climbed the tower's 99 spiral steps which give a fine view of the town and surrounding countryside.Below is a view looking down on the town.

 

At night time I found it difficult to find a pub with a decent atmosphere.There is an Irish pub in the town but I wanted to keep away from that and sample some of the local hostelries.I was in Oxford in August so there would not have been as many students around as during the academic year.

In the hostel I met a man who had only been in England a few days and was hoping to find work in Oxford as a language translator.He had travelled from the Ukraine.We swopped stories about our respective countries.Before I left the hostel he gave me a currency note from his country-one side of which is pictured below.He told me that about 5 of these notes are equivalent to 1 American dollar.

The following day I travelled by train to Manchester.

In the background you can hear Johann Sebastian Bach-Concerto in D [BWV972]

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