Oxford

Throughout Ireland and most of this trip, we have always had great luck with B&Bs. Unfortunately, that luck ran out in Oxford. We checked into the All Seasons B&B for a couple nights, but we wish we hadn't. Without dwelling too much on it, the location and price was great, but the lodgings and breakfast were pretty bad. Still, we didn't let that get in the way of a good time, and gave us more of an excuse to get out and see the city. You might want to invest some time looking for a different place to stay when you visit.

View of the famous Oxford Canal than runs through the center of the city. There's lots to do along the canal.

Oxford is a beautiful city, and like Edinburgh, I'd recommend checking it out by bus first. You can pick up buses all over the city, hop on and off, and see the sights from a double-decker before venturing out on foot. Check out www.citysightseeingoxford.com/ for the rates. There's an audio tour that plays on a loop while you're on the bus and points out all the stops you'll want to see later. For a detailed listing of the stops on the trip, check out their tour stops on their website. You can also decide which walking tour you'd like to do. We didn't have time for one, but whether you're a C.S. Lewis/JRR Tolkien fan or a (British) Civil War fan, there's no shortage of history to see up close and personal on one of the city's walking tours.

View from the double-decker bus tour of some of the amazing architecture.

The Bird and Baby Pub, hangout of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien

There's a ton of shopping to do in Oxford. If you're into indoor shops, check out the Templars Square Shopping Centre. The streetside shops downtown are more fun, though, and there are tons of shops to visit in the city centre and in the famous covered market.

The shop with the red sign is where Alice of "Alice in Wonderland" would buy her candy!

After some shopping in the morning and the bus tour, we walked around the university. The University of Oxford is really many different colleges. According to their website, Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the architecture of the university buildings spans nearly a millennium, so there's much to see. For lunch, a great spot to stop is the University Church of St. Mary's, which is at the center of Oxford and the home of the international aid organization, Oxfam. It's also a (perhaps surprisingly) great place to get lunch at their Vaults and Gardens Cafe, where they serve local, sustainable produce and cater to meat-eaters and vegans alike. It's also a great experience to eat lunch in a building that's over twice as old as the United States, surrounded by Oxford students and professors!

Radcliffe Camera, right across from the Vaults and Gardens cafe.

Oxford University (NOT Miami!)

 After some more sight-seeing, we decided to visit the famous Eagle and Child Pub. The locals call it "The Bird and Baby," and it was the hangout of famous authors (and friends) C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien. We happened to be there on a Tuesday night, which was trivia night. If you want a quick blow to your pride, play a round of trivia in a pub where literary giants hung out and where Oxford students and professors continue to frequent. That should do the trick!

Imagine sitting here talking about your next chapter of Lord of the Rings!

In hindsight I would have stayed here a bit longer and drove into London a little later, but you can see a lot here in a day and a half and we only had a couple days for Oxford before moving on to our next stop: London.