Adventures in London: Day 9

I had to get up at 7 this morning and meet the bus by 8:30. Torture! I am dying to sleep in!! Today was a very good day though. Our trip to Oxford took about an hour and a half. We went on two buses and had tour guides to show us around Oxford when we got there. I learned today that Oxford is made up of 39 small colleges, each with its own buildings and each has its own chapel. Oxford was founded 800 years ago by French students who were kicked out of France (I can’t remember the reason). Oxford was home to all kinds of famous people, including J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, and more. So on our tour we walked all around Oxford and saw numerous different colleges, the most famous tavern that many famous people have gone to (including Stephen Hawking and Kiera Knightly), the Alice Shop (a little shop based on Alice in Wonderland), a cool covered market, and lots more that I can’t remember. One of the most interesting things we saw was the spot where Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake.

The spot where Thomas Cranmer and two other bishops were burned at the stake.

This place is called Brasenose. It's an interesting story. On those big black doors there used to be a very large brass knocker. Apparently if you were being chased by the cops you could run to this place and grab on to that knocker and claim sanctuary and the cops wouldn't be allowed to arrest you. The knocker later was stolen, but has now returned and can be found in the dining hall in that college.

The famous tavern.

At about 12 we got to have free time to have lunch and shop on our own. I went with a group of people to a place called Café Pret where I had a delicious sandwich for pretty cheap. Then we went over to a university store because everyone wanted to get t-shirts and sweatshirts. All I got was a postcard that I plan to frame later because I don’t really want to spend my money on a shirt of a place I visited once for half a day. I would rather get a shirt from Richmond University. I went and checked out the covered market and found a cool little cake decorating shop and some other neat shops as well. I got two cute necklaces in one of them for 1.50! I walked from there over to the Alice Shop and got a cool deck of playing cards that are decorated with original drawings of Alice in Wonderland, although they aren’t normal playing cards, they’re a special Alice in Wonderland game that I am interested to try. I also bought a children’s illustrated book of Alice in Wonderland that I plan to give to mom to keep at our house so my darling niece and nephew can read it once they get old enough.

At 2:15 we met back up and took a tour of Christ College. There are a lot of scenes in Harry Potter modeled after this college, including the staircase where in the first movie Professor McGonagall says “Welcome to Hogwarts” to the first years, as well as the dining hall that the great hall was modeled after. This is one of the richest colleges in Oxford. We also saw their chapel which has three functions: as the college’s chapel, as a cathedral because it’s home to a bishop, and as a parish church (I think that last one is right, but I’m not sure). Inside there’s a shrine to the patron saint of the church, which I can’t remember the name of. There’s also beautiful stained glass and a stained glass window depicting the murder of Sir Thomas Beckett, a former Archbishop of Canterbury. This was the end of our tour and we went home shortly after that, arriving back in London around 5:30.

The staircase from the first Harry Potter movie.

This is what the great hall is based on (sorry the picture wouldn't turn).

The shrine of the patron saint of Christ College's chapel (again, sorry it didn't rotate).

A very interesting sundial.

Jamie and I went back to Nando’s for dinner at about 6:30. If you forgot, Nando’s is that delicious and cheap Portuguese restaurant with the yummy Peri-Peri chicken. From there we caught the tub e at Notting Hill over to Lancaster Gate, where we went into Kensington Gardens. Our main goal was to find the Peter Pan statue, and we sure found it! It was placed there in 1912, apparently as if by magic, because J.M. Barrie didn’t tell anyone he was going to put it there. It’s a very cool statue, and there was this cute little kid there that was so excited about it, it made Jamie and I all the more excited, just like little kids again. And then from across the Serpentine Pond we could see the theater where the play is going to be put on and we could hear the music drifting across to us. It was magical. The sun was setting, painting the sky this brilliant pink and yellow, the historic statue of Peter Pan was in front of us, and his music was floating through the air all around us. You just can’t beat that. The best experiences are the free ones! And it only got better. Jamie and I really wanted to find our way to Hyde Park because we haven’t actually gotten out of Kensington Gardens yet, but once we crossed the bridge we decided to go see what we could hear coming out of the theater tent. We snuck up behind the fence and listened for a while and could hear them rehearsing what sounded like the beginning. I’m pretty sure I heard Wendy say, “But Peter, boys can’t fly.” And we saw a bunch of pirates out back all dressed up and we even saw Captain Hook!!! I am so incredibly excited to see Peter Pan, I can’t even begin to explain how much. I would gladly have traded Phantom of the Opera, Spring Awakening, and Romeo and Juliet just to see Peter Pan.

Jamie and I listening in on the rehearsal.

After we got our fill of stalking Peter Pan we walked into Hyde Park. Unfortunately there were tons of bugs all over the place because it was getting to be that time of night, so we decided to head back and instead go do the park tomorrow morning/afternoon. On the way back we stopped at the Builders Arms to get some yummy dessert because it just seemed like the right thing to do. And now I’m back home, ready to go to sleep and sleep in until I’m good and ready to wake up. I am very excited that I finally get to sleep in! Oh man, Jamie and I are trying to buy tickets to the show right now and they want our card’s address to send the tickets to. That’s not going to work. I hope we can find some way to get tickets… Fingers crossed, everyone.