A weekend away can do wonders. I have had a
few not so great weeks and desperately needed some time away from London. Don’t
get me wrong I love London and could not ask for a greater place to live but
sometimes, very occasionally, I need to leave London and breathe some fresh
English country side air.
My housemate was heading to Oxford for the weekend and I joined her. The plan was to go college hopping do a spot of shopping and just generally relax. And that is exactly what we did.
It is super easy to get to Oxford from
London – there is the train or the Oxford Tube. Make your choice between the
two depending on how rich (or poor) you are feeling and how much time you have.
The train takes about an hour but can be quite expensive if you do not book in
advance while the Oxford tube takes a bit more time yet is significantly
cheaper.
My friend Jenni used to study in Oxford so I
used to go and see her quite regularly. She was a rower and we used to spend fantastic
weekends together just exploring the city, eating and shopping. So this weekend
was a bit of a trip down memory lane, especially with the Head of the River
going on.
Back in the day with my Oxford Blue
We started our Saturday of with a little
wander down the river and ended up watching the Novice Head of the River. It
was great to see Jenni’s old College Lincoln row past us and cheer them on.
We then headed for a wander around Christ Church college, perhaps one of the
most famous Oxford colleges, whose Great Hall inspired the Hogwarts Hall in
Harry Potter. A quick tour through the Christ Church Cathedral before we headed
back out and headed towards All Souls
College.
We passed the Bodleian Library, the largest
university library in the UK holding over nine million printed items. In its
reading rooms, generations of famous scholars have studied through the ages
among them 5 Kings, 40 Nobel Prize winners, 25 British Prime Ministers and
writers including Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.
Our final college of the day was Lincoln College before we started
shopping. Oxford has a great little high street and Letty and I had fun looking
around the shops for some more Christmas presents. My personal favourite shop
is the Cath Kidston shop as it is particularly pretty.
We rounded our day up with an Evening Song
at Magdalen College Cathedral before
cooking dinner and spending the evening on the couch with food and wine. All in
all it was the perfect weekend away with friends.
Oxford is beautiful and definitely worth a
trip if you haven’t been yet. It’s easily done in a day but if you have some
more time on your hands do stay the night and have a look at the Covered Market, The Ashmolean Museum
and the Botanical Gardens are
breathtaking in the summer.
I wore Gap Always Skinny jeans (similar here),
Princess Goes Hollywood Cashmere Jumper (shop the collection here),
Polo Belt, Burberry
Duffle coat in Military Red, Stefanel Cashmere Scarf in Cream (similar here),
Tommy Hilfiger Ankle Boots (similar here)
and a bobble hat from a boutique at home.
Any tips for my next trip to Oxford? Any café
or restaurant I should know about and try?