We managed a little holiday last week; hubby had booked the 2 weeks off over the Olympics, not so much to watch it but so he wouldn’t be caught up in the traffic going down to Weymouth for the sailing events.

So I decided it was a good time to grab the chance for a little break, from Monday to Thursday last week.

When I first came to the UK to study, I lived in Oxford for about 3 years. The night before we left, I realised that I’ve actually lived in this country for longer than my birth country… I came to Oxford about 30 years ago!!! I had a ‘feeling old’ moment!

We took the train, as it’s a direct route (back in the day, I remember I had to change trains once, sometimes twice to visit my sister who lived in Bournemouth) and takes under 2 hours.

From the moment we got off the train, nothing looked familiar.

I remembered the station being up a hill (the times I had to lug me bags up that hill!) but now it’s on level ground. And the journey into town, to where we were staying, the boys kept asking me if I recognised anything; I kept shaking my head.

Thanks to a tip from Jennifer, I’d booked a room at one of the Oxford colleges.

During the holidays, the colleges (and I think most of the big colleges do this) open up their accommodation to holiday makers. It was too good a chance to pass up, especially as the rates are reasonable, and you’re right in the middle of town, so no need to worry about transport.

We stayed at Keble College, one of the few that has a room for 4. It was split into a double bedroom, a twin, and an en-suite bathroom.

Breakfast is included in the price, and for an extra charge, dinner is provided. There’s no tv in the room, so we had a ‘screen-free’ holiday and it worked out well.

We did miss seeing some of the Olympics … but Neil had taken his little radio so we could still keep up with events. I did mind, a little, missing the showjumping and team dressage, but, in hindsight, it’s just as well as I think I might well have passed out during the ‘jump offs’!!

View from the dining hall; our room was on the bottom left

Breakfast was served in the Victorian dining hall, this one being the longest in Oxford – ‘help yourself’ to cereals, fruit and yoghurt, as much as you want; and either a cooked breakfast or a continental one, with staff to serve. Very nice.

We were so well located, it hardly took any time to walk anywhere. We had a bit of an explore on Monday evening, to familiarise ourselves with the streets.

On Tuesday, we went to the Ashmolean Museum, Britain’s first public museum, founded in 1683. It’s a bit like a mini-British Museum, covering Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Near East, India, China, Japan… most interesting.

(Annoyingly, I hadn’t made a note of what this is)

After walking around the museum, we were ready for lunch.

We weren’t too taken with the same-old, same-old that can be found in every town until, down a little side-street, we noticed a Malaysian restaurant! Obviously, that’s where we went.

Huge portions of well-cooked, yummy food and the owners were so friendly.

I couldn’t get enough of the medieval buildings

I found the buildings full of character…

It was lovely, spending time in our room, the surroundings were so peaceful. Even with time spent gazing out the window, chatting, listening to the radio, I realised I was zooming through my book quite speedily, I had to slow myself down by the last evening or I wouldn’t have had anything to read on the journey back!

The chapel seemed to be always open, I guess because tourists are always present ...

The stained glass window behind the altar

To the side was this little ‘room’ dedicated to the war dead.

On Wednesday, we went to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History – ideally situated directly opposite Keble College!

On the lawn outside is a set of dinosaur footprints - a 60metre long reconstruction of the tracks of Megalosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur, which had been found on the floor of an old limestone quarry about 12.5 miles (20km) away from the museum.

A wonderful thing about this museum - it actually has signs that say PLEASE TOUCH, instead of the usual PLEASE DON’T TOUCH!

It’s a very light, bright museum; even though there were lots of things laid out, it didn’t feel cramped or crowded.

(Again, forgot to make a note of what this is)

All around the museum, against the pillars, are statues of different scientists and thinkers including Hippocrates and Darwin...

Amongst all the fossils and dinosaurs, there’s a display dedicated to ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’!

The author, Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson was a mathematician at Christ Church and used to visit the museum regularly, sometimes taking Alice and her sisters too.

It’s thought that the painting of the Dodo inspired the character of the dodo in the book.

Display dedicated to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ complete with white rabbit holding a timepiece

The evolution of horse teeth; the bottom 3 were found in the UK while the others were found in Nebraska and Wyoming.

The 4 right at the top are from 'Hyracotherium', which was about the size of a fox and lived about 52 million years ago.

The next 2 are from 'Merychippus', a grazer which lived about 20 million years ago and was endemic to North America.

The next set of 3 are from 'Pliohippus' which lived about 5 million years ago and was very similar to 'Equus'., and the 3 at the bottom are from 'Equus cabbalus'.

50,000 year old fossil rhinoceros vertebra

450 million year old trilobites with brittle stars (Morocco)

Further in, opposite the museum entrance, is the entrance to another museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum, named after General Pitt Rivers who gave his collection to the University.

This museum is dimly lit and crammed full of so much stuff, it evoked the feeling of having wandered into some eccentric collector’s basement. Its displays include archaeological and ethnographic objects from around the world.

Very intriguing, very interesting but hard work also, as the brain tried to process it all; also, I struggled to get clear photographs.

Collection of religious statues in glass cabinet

After lunch, we went to the Museum of the History of Science (situated in the Old Ashmolean) to check out navigation and surveying stuff as that’s related to his work.

The Old Ashmolean, which houses the Museum of the History of Science

Grasshopper Send-Receive Morse Key c.1899

We also went to Blackwell’s, an extremely large bookstore; strangely, we didn’t buy anything.

On the way back, I spotted this little church and graveyard right in the middle of town, surrounded by big-name shops.

Church and graveyard in the middle of town

Gravestone in the shadow of a large tree

Short though it was, we had a fab time in Oxford; hopefully, we’ll get a chance to visit again.