William was our tour guide, who is a 'resident of Oxford'. We walked around two of the 38 colleges (and 6 Permanent Private Halls) that make up Oxford University - the oldest University in the English speaking world and second oldest in the world. We learnt that the University (and Colleges) were established following riots between the locals and students about them coming to Oxford - an unpopular decision by King Henry II in 1167 when he banned English students from attending the University of Paris due to the war. The Colleges and their quadrangular buildings, provided protection for the students from the locals.
We walked past the famous Bodleian Library, Bridge of Sighs and Examination Hall. Visited New College (founded in 1379) which has a beautiful Chapel and famous stained glass windows that survived King Henry VIII's attempts to remove all reference to Catholic saints. We also learnt about misericords which are small folding seats that let you lean against them when you have to stand for a long period of time. Most of them were destroyed in other Churches during the Reformation but these survived. It also has the only remains of the Roman city-wall which is still to this day inspected every 3 years by the Mayor - a tradition dating back to 1379 ( they like their traditions). The children recognized different settings from various Harry Potter movies.
We then walked to Balliol College which has beautiful gardens and continued walking through cobbled streets. By this stage our tour was at an end and we wandered off to have lunch in the Mall. We did some shopping and decided to return to our B&B as it was cold and overcast. The rest of the day was spent watching movies.
Tomorrow is our last day in England .... we are planning on visiting Windsor Castle before returning the car at Heathrow Airport. Our flight to Hong Kong is at 10.30pm so a long day ahead.
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