Oxford: The Bookworm's Literary Heaven

If you are in London, and if you love to read, then Oxford NEEDS to be a priority visit for you.  It's only an hour train ride from Paddington Station, and it was filled with so many literary sites, I could hardly take it all in.  Just trust me on this one, folks, and put it on your bucket list. Now.

C.S. Lewis/J.R.R. Tolkien

So we woke up bright and early to catch our train to Oxford, and our first stop was at the Eagle and Child Pub.  The Inklings, a writing group that included none other than C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, met at the pub regularly to talk and read each other their manuscripts.  It was in this pub that C.S. Lewis distributed his manuscript for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They had photos, paintings, and memorabilia from Lewis and Tolkien all around the pub. I got a very British meal of fish and chips, and we had wonderful time sitting and chatting. Just a few things to consider: it doesn't open until 12:00 noon, and it's a little pricey.  But the plates were huge and well worth the price, in my opinion.

The Rabbit Room, where The Inklings would hold their meetings.

So excited to eat my fish and chips.

J.K. Rowling
Next, we went on a tour of Christ Church, which has various places where they filmed HARRY POTTER! So I was a little excited to see it.  Just a bit.

Our photography focus of the day was to use a unique setting on our camera.  This shot was taken with the "vivid colors" setting.

*Side note: You'll have to forgive my not-so-great pictures for this portion of the trip.  I was so excited about the location I was in, I was not focused on my pictures at all. I was just randomly taking pictures while thinking to myself, "Harry Potter was here! Ron Weasley was here! Neville Longbottom was here!" And so forth. Luckily there were some other people that snagged some good ones. But you won't get to see them in this post. Sorry.*

 On the way to the dining hall, we walked down this hall:

Don't recognize it?  Here, let me help you out with these few edits:

Watch out, Pixar. This girl has got some computer animation skills.

These are the very halls they used in the Harry Potter films! I totally geeked out. I felt like I was strolling down the hall at Hogwarts, and that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be just around the corner.

The courtyard in Harry Potter where Draco gets turned into a ferret. Why didn't I take more pictures of this, or actually get the courtyard in this picture?  I don't know.

 Alright, let's go on to the next scene.  Do you recognize this one?

You got it! This staircase was used for various scenes including when Harry first arrives and Hogwarts, and the flashback scene with Tom Riddle.

Oh my gosh, it's Hogwarts!

Voldemort touched this lamppost. It's basically a horcrux.

Then we moved on to the next setting. See if you can figure this one out:

 This was was a little trickier, because they didn't actually film here, but it was used as inspiration for the Great Hall. It was magnificent, and I was very jealous of the students that get to eat there on a regular basis.

Doesn't Dumbledore look right at home?

Okay, so the last Harry Potter-related place we visited was the Bodleian Library. The ground floor was absolutely stunning. Can you figure out where they used this room in the films?

Here is one of them:

They used this room in the fourth movie when learning how to dance for the Yule Ball. They also used this room at the Hospital Wing, although they changed a lot of it with computer effects.

Dumbledore walked through THESE DOORS.

I told you I was just a little bit excited.

We went upstairs next where we weren't allowed to take pictures. The upstairs was used for filming in the first movie, when Harry goes to the restricted section.  Fun fact: when Harry pulls one of the books from the shelf, it starts screaming. These books are also in what you could call the restricted section, and would make an alarm go off if you pulled a book from the shelf. Magic!

Philip Pullman

 After all of that Harry Potter stuff, we ran down to the Botanical Gardens. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman takes place partially at Oxford, and the ending scene of the trilogy takes place in these very gardens.  We followed the description in the book to find the bench they sit on at the end, and with the help of the garden worker, were able to find it!

Took a picture of a sunflower for my mom.  They were absolutely beautiful.

And here's the bench!  It was tucked away in the far corner of the garden, facing towards the beautiful flowers in the garden.

After we found the bench, we laid on the grass for a little while, but decided we needed to get up before we fell asleep. 

Lewis Carroll

After we left the garden, we headed toward Alice's shop. Christ Church was the setting for part of Alice in Wonderland. Carroll also attended Oxford and met Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland at Christ Church. Her father became the Dean of Christ Church, and Carroll became friends with his family. There were various shout-outs to Carroll, including his portrait and a stained glass window with Alice Liddell and characters from the books, and a cute little shop with Alice in Wonderland memorabilia. We were lucky enough to get to the shop before it closed. It had teacups, jewelry, posters, bookmarks, and a bunch of other cute souvenirs to take home.

After Alice's shop, we were pooped, so we headed back to the train just to sleep on the way home and get super confused about how to use our underground tickets to get back to our flat. But we made it, no fear.

See you tomorrow when we get to take a tour of the BBC!