July 10 - Walking About and Above Oxford

I finally tried the proper English breakfast. It was... okay? I'll have to try it again and slowly work up to actually eating the baked beans... Eating the tomato glob and mushrooms just isn't going to happen, though. Essentially, I pretty much ate only the meats (yes plural!) and the potato triangles.

Brit Lit class was boring, but Arts class was great because instead of sitting through a class, we walked to St. Mary's Church to climb up the tower. Holy smokes, Batman, that tower was crazy! But I'm getting ahead of myself. First we had to walk down Broad Street to be shown were Cranmer and the other traitors (martyrs) were burned. A cobblestone cross is embedded in the center of a highly commercial area to mark the place. The weird part was the gate tower: of course it isn't even near the edge of the city now, but at the time it was a watch tower where prisoners were housed. They were executed just a few yards away from the prison/watch tower.

St. Mary's Church is close by the Radcliffe Camera (pictured below), the reading room for the Bodleian Library.
The church itself was quite gorgeous. It gave me chills, not because of the chinks in the marble from where Cranmer's stage was set up, but realizing that so many great people had been there. From canonized saints like Edmund Campion to amazing writers like C.S. Lewis to great theologians like John Henry Newman... If I have to hear one more person whine about Cranmer, I will scream!!! The man was a traitor, not a martyr! Anyway.

This pulpit is name after Newman because he spoke so often from here!

After wandering about the church, we lined up to climb the tower. I ended up being one of the first ones up. You first went up stairs in various rooms before coming to a spiral staircase. This was an affair of stone, duh, with an occasional very deep set window every so often. It was also a strictly one way deal. If you were going up those stairs, you'd better hope you don't meet someone coming down. Of course we did meet someone going down. A whole group of someones. Luckily we were close to the bottom still, so the guys just turned around. I climbed into a window and scared everyone from my gargoyle perch as they passed by. It was possibly the best part.

We finally got to ascend the stairs and take a look at one from the best vantage points in Oxford. The city really did spread out before you with ant-like people.

carvings in the spire

Estavan taking pictures of Christ Church (College)

The round tower is Tom Tower

Smile! The wind made me have to hold my hair back.

The tower here is for Magdalen College.

We circled the tower only to find that it was a dead end. Our entire group of about 20 crowded onto the tower and went all the way to the end. The last up the tower had to be the first down. Fear of tight spaces and of heights began effecting the first group up before they were finally allowed down.

After St. Mary's Tower, we were set loose. We passed by the "Bridge of Sighs," which is a copy of a covered bridge in (I think) Venice.

Left to right: Zach, me, Sarah, Borden

A few of us went to lunch at the covered market, then on to the Botanic Gardens.
The gardens were very pretty with some really awesome plants including giant lily pads,...a very warm, humid room full of ferns,
...an alley of white trees,...and a goldfish pond!
The entrance to the Gardens was guarded by this impressive gate.Flowing alongside the Gardens was the Thames, where you could rent a boat and go punting.

We walked home through Christ Church (college). This is the WW2 memorial garden. You can see the Tom Tower. Our group will be touring the whole college later, so I'll have more pictures later!

I don't recall what was for dinner.
Note that I'm trying to do this in order, one day at a time. Even though I'm behind in posting, I'll try to give each day the proper coverage.