A Weekend in Oxford

With Oxford only just over an hour away from London, it makes it a perfect place to spend a weekend away. Oxford is the home of the famous universities, and it has a large student population and a lot of trendy shops, pubs, and cafes. There is a castle, botanical gardens, museums, nice restaurants, a shopping mall, galleries, and much more. I spent a long weekend in the city, and it was over the beautiful weather the country enjoyed in mid-July.

I stayed at the castle prison on my visit. The hotel, Malmaison, is located in one of the former prison buildings. You can read about it here.

Of course, I also did enjoy a tour of the castle and prison, which you can read about here.

This blog post includes the different things that I got up to. I primarily wanted to visit Oxford in order to see the sculpture trail, OxTrail. They were located all around the city and further away.

While walking across Oxford to find them, I stumbled upon many places, which I photographed to include in this post.

One of the places that I walked through was Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, where there is some university buildings and this building.

Oxford also felt a little bit magical in the evening at sunset when the sky had a nice glow and the remaining light kept its glow on the tall spires. 

A few of the university buildings are located in the central of Oxford, and they are beautiful to see.

Radcliffe Camera is one of the most picturesque buildings. It is not open to the public.

The Bridge of Sighs is a walkway between two buildings above a street.

Bodleian Library has an internal courtyard in different styles of architecture rendering.

Carfax Tower is the old tower in the middle of the city, and I visited it and climbed up the tower when I first visited Oxford on my own visit back in the year 2000. (I first visited the city as part of a tour group in 1998.) I enjoyed the views and seeing all of the spires. I still have my photographs on old camera film of that day.

There are a large number of independent shops and cafes in the city.

One point of interest is the Eagle and Child pub, which I noticed is now closed. The pub was visited by writers who livesd in Oxford, and it was shown to us by the tour guide when I first visited Oxford in 2000.

St. Hugh's College is pictured below with beautiful gardens.

The Victoria Fountain is pictured below.

The covered market in Oxford is a gem of a place to visit with a lot of independent shops and a few cafes. I had an ice cream.

After seeing the OxTrail sculptures, I had a couple of days to relax and enjoy other places. I had the afternoon tea on a cruise boat. The boat went down to Iffley lock. You can read more about my visit here.

Following the cruise, I enjoyed the botanic gardens.

Where did I eat and drink? Besides the hotel, where I had my breakfasts and dinner one night as part of the promotion, I went to a mixture of different places. I went to Oxford Brunch Bar for lunch before leaving Oxford. One other evening, I had a meal at Thaikhun, which I enjoyed.

Because the weather was so hot and I had spent miles walking to see the sculptures, I ended up having a couple of drinks at Comptoir Libanais.

I also had a few drinks sat outside at George Street Social bar.

After dinner, I went to the shopping mall, Westgate. On the roof terrace are many restaurants and pubs. I went to Victor's, which has a nice seating area outside and open to the elements. I had a couple of drinks here and enjoyed the view over Oxford.

On my last full day, after the cruise, I wandered through Christ Church Gardens. The gardens are beautiful, and some of the universities back onto the gardens and meadows. 

There was a beautiful little spot between the pastures with views over the buildings, and I think this is probably the most beautiful spot I have seen in Oxford. The grazing cattle were also right near the fence. I had a pleasant walk across this parkland to the Botanic Gardens.

I did not do it, but people who are interested to try punting or to be guided around on a little boat by a punter can do so. There are two places to do this. One is Folly Bridge, and the other is Magdalen Bridge.

I enjoyed visiting Oxford, and the journey was very quick and enabled me to see the city without having to worry about driving and parking. There's a lot of shops and things to do, and it is a pleasant place to explore for a weekend.