Oxford

We began the day at Paddington Station, whose name you may recognize because of the iconic Paddington Bear.

Paddington Chilling with Pigwidgeon

We arrived in Oxford about an hour later and met with Kathy, who was our kindly guide  through the city.  Our first stop was the Bodleian Library.  The Bodleian is the main research library of the University of Oxford and one of the UK's repository libraries.

Entrance to the Library

The library was amazing!  We began a tour in the divinity school and learned a little about the history of the library before viewing it.  Did you know that they used to chain the books to the shelves so no one would steal them (all the books were actually stolen from the library at one point).  Apparently, no candles were allowed in the library either so scholars were forced to read by the light of the many windows.  Unfortunately, the windows used to be stained glass so it limited the light.  It's still dim in the library today.  I am very curious how they deal with the humidity though as the library keeps its windows open and does not have air conditioning.

Part of the library was under construction so we also were offered a tour of the Radcliffe Camera.  The Radcliffe Camera is actually a reading room of the library.  Previously it was built to house the library collection but the rounded nature of the building was not particularly conducive to bookshelves.

Radcliffe Camera

Next we had lunch at the Eagle and Child.  This was the meeting place of the Inklings, which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien (a couple of my favorite authors).  I was seriously craving some tea again but, alas, no one sells tea!  The common excuse is "Our coffee machine is broken."  I really don't understand this at all as I need is some hot water and tea.  Perhaps someone can give me some insight into that.

Anyway, after that we made our way over the Christ Church.  Contrary to how we would probably call it, it's not Christ Church College.  Christ Church was attended by many notable persons, including John Locke and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (author of Alice in Wonderland).  It was also where the staircase and great hall of Hogwarts were filmed.  It's amazing how many sites around England have Harry Potter connections.

Tom Quad in Christ Church