Oxford Day Trip: Doors, Christ Church, and Harry Potter

So last Friday my friends and I headed to Oxford for a day trip.  We took a train directly from the Paddington Station to Oxford.  It was about an hour train ride, which sounds easy enough, but it was an early morning.  And just when I dozed off, the conductor (or whatever they're called) comes around to check tickets.  This still baffles me.  You have to swipe your ticket when you get on the train, then you have to swipe your card when getting off the train. Why do you need a third check?  And it's like an automatic 20 pound fine if you don't produce a ticket when you get off.  Regardless, we made it to Oxford, and it was freezing there.  I really regretted not bringing my gloves (luckily, I did have my scarf).  I started assessing whether I wanted to take a picture based on how willing I was to have my hands exposed.  The most clutch purchase of the day was a two pound hot chocolate at the train station. It really perked me up and warmed my soul (maybe that's getting too dramatic).

Heading to Oxford, we legitimately had nothing planned. None of us had looked at any guidebooks, read anything online or even received tips about things to check out.  We had a vaguely heard there was a Willy Wonka-esque candy store and a Harry Potter tour to see locations used during filming. Unfortunately, the HP tour was only held on Saturdays, and the woman running the tourist info center had never heard of any such candy store (this is mean, but she looked like the kind of woman who would have been to this store MANY times).  So we grabbed a map of the city and started wandering.  We stumbled upon the Sheldonian Library and a church in its shadow.  We entered the church and lucked out.  For three pounds, you could go to the top and see the entire city.  It was amazing.  A picture of our view is below:

After coming down from the top, we asked the woman running the gift what we should see.  She said the Christ Church was the THING to see. We were sold.  We continued to wander around the streets as we made our way to the church. 

Side Note: We quickly realized that there were all these "colleges" around the city.  Christ Church was an example of one the "colleges".  So at Oxford, the university is broken up into like 30 different colleges.  From what we gathered, they are kind of a cross between a dorm and a frat.  Each with their own crest, personality, etc. Sounded interesting.  Since it was during the week (or maybe it's always like this), the colleges weren't really open to the public.  Each college also kind of had their own little grassy square.  You could poke your head in to see the square, but most were closed to the public or paid entry.  Neither really fit with our goals.  We actually snuck into a few of them.  There was one where a woman refused to let us exit through this side gate because "you had to have a key to open the gate," which she opened and grabbed the gate to close it shut so we couldn't slip through.  It was so disgustingly pretentious.  We went the other way through the main gate and met her on the street. I wanted to say a few snarky remarks, but I held off.

We made it to Christ Church around 1ish, and the guard said it wouldn't open until 2:30.  Therefore, we went to eat to kill some time.  My friend got a scone/afternoon tea combo, and it looked so delicious with clotted cream and jam (see below).

 
The food there was great, and we were able to refuel for the rest of our day.  Once we were able to go into the Christ Church, we were in awe.  For me, it was my first European church in five years.  The churches here are just so massive with so much history.  They don't make them like this in America:

Tangent: Maybe it's those Catholic roots, but I think of all old European buildings, churches are the most mesmerizing to me.  I can't want to see Notre Dame in Paris and other churches around Europe (I also love castles, which is in-line with my desire to be treated like a king ((kidding, kind of...)))


Christ Church did not disappoint.  We did get a chance to see some Harry Potter sites.  We saw the staircase used during the first movie when the first years were lining up to enter the Great Hall for sorting.  Then, the best part of Oxford, we saw and went INSIDE the Great Hall.  It was awesome!! Here's a picture of it:

 

Truly unreal.  After Christ Church, we hunted for the Willy Wonka candy shop.  We did end up finding it, and it was cool, but I just wasn't in the mood for candy or chocolate at the time (I regretted this later).  After candy, we popped into a few smaller museums and snapped a few photos of forbidden college grounds.  However, after the awe-inspiring view from the original church and the Great Hall, everything seen wasn't quite as appreciated.  It was understandable though.  By the end of the day, all we wanted was some pub food and a speedy train back to London.

 

End of the Trip Thoughts (ETT's): Oxford was wonderful.  The city was way more beautiful than London.  A lot more history and older buildings.  That's sounds wrong I know, but Oxford seemed to be built all at the same time.  More cohesion.  London has more history, obviously, but the history is more concentrated in Oxford. Oxford is actually how I thought London was going to look.  It was breathtaking.  I have never been so enthralled by the simplest things.  The weirdest this was their doors.  Every door had character.  It varied from door to door, but I've never taken so many pictures of just doors.  They varied by color, size, shape, fixtures, etc. Just crazy. Here's one of them:

One of my friends said she wishes she went there.  Initially, I was thinking, yeah this place is amazing.  But in the end, I was quite glad to be in Paris for a few reasons. First, the pretentious nature of going to a school like Oxford is suffocating.  They serve up their Oxford "Kool-Aid" on the daily.  It was just obnoxious.  Also, I feel like after one day there, we saw most of the city.  I need more to do than that.  I thought being there for more than two days would have been a waste.  I am so glad we got to see England outside of London, but I'm also glad home base was London.  All in all, great day trip and worth a visit.