Even though I’ve admitted to and joked about the realities of tourism with four kids under ten years of age, I still find myself disappointed by those realities each time I plan something.  It never goes the way I imagine it, and that may just be the way I describe these two years once they are all said and done. 

“It was nothing like I imagined…”

But it’s an experience nonetheless.  

Oxford is the home of one of the oldest universities in the world AND various scenes from Harry Potter movies, so what could be more appealing? 

We loaded up the brood in the morning and made the drive in about an hour fifteen.  We parked at a park n’ ride because we were told that parking at the university is hard to come by.  The bus took about 15 minutes to get into the town and then there we were- at Oxford!

The list of alumni from Oxford is impressive.  It’s EPIC for lack of a better word.  Something like 47 Nobel peace prize winners, two kings, 12 monarchs of sovereign nations, 25 prime ministers, 35 presidents of 19 other countries, the list goes on and on.  Julius Ceasar, Dr. Seuss, Hugh Grant and Bill Clinton all went to Oxford.  

I had a “walking tour” sort of mapped out in my mind but that didn’t match up at all with any lunch plans and it quickly went out the window.  Miriam and Simon were feeling particularly restless so their attention spans were virtually non-existent.   So I’ll just post pictures of our patchwork visit to this great establishment of learning. 

The Divinity School was built in 1488 for the study of theology.  It’s a gorgeous building, and I marveled at the discussions that must have taken place in those walls. 

I also marveled at why they reduced such a remarkable place to the ranks of “hospital wing” for Harry Potter filming. It’s majesty was apparently lost on Hollywood…  

Dang.  If I wasn’t so busy planning a trip to Oxford for a family of six I would have looked up these images BEFORE we went and taken a picture of myself in the exact Prof. McGonagall pose… We stood on that staircase while we waited in line to see the dining hall.    

Alas- the picture on the left is my shot of the lampost you see in the picture on the right.  Please don’t ask me why it’s cool to see places from movies because I could not muster a satisfactory response.   The places we saw have sufficient merit on their own for architectural beauty and historic magnificence.  And yet I keep going…

There was so much I didn’t get to see.  There are a couple really neat museums in Oxford that we didn’t even walk by, and a quick trip into the Oxford bookstore to use the loo had me dying to go back.  So will someone please come visit so I can have a reason to return? Sans children? 

Once the kids were sufficiently bored we took the bus back to the park and ride.  I had read in a guide book that Oxfordshire is one of the prettiest places in the countryside so we drove outside the town and took a walk along the river.  The Thames.  The same river that runs through London.  You’d never know it…

So I suppose the trade-off to having kids and not getting to spend hours in a museum, is that you get to spend gorgeous late afternoons in a field with the glorious sunshine.