Anyway, my morning first took me to Christ Church, one of Oxford's colleges. The college was home to a few (at least I only know a few), famous writers. From the streets of Oxford, it is Mort recognizable from Tom's Tower, standing tall at its entrance with a massive reflecting 'Hershey's Kiss' top. The entrance for visitors is on the south side of the college, where the view looks over a meadow that stretches to the Cherwell and Isis Rivers, where we punted yesterday. Through the entrance building I followed a short path and a hallway to the cloister. Here stand a fountain and an olive tree. Very simple; very pretty. The visitor route then led to the dining hall, which has its own merits. However, it was closed to visitors for lunch at the time being. I did learn that if I came back between 2 and 4:30 I could be readmitted.
We then headed into the cathedral. It was, a cathedral. I say that not to make it sound demeaning, but morose to emphasize that this school has cathedrals scattered throughout it. I think that's just cool. The campus uses buildings, many of which are older than the US. The cathedral itself was quite nice, but I fear no specific really stood out in my mind. From the cathedral I was lead out onto Tom's Quad, which houses the Tom Tower over the main gate. The quad was huge! And green and quite beautiful as its surrounded by a wall with a very pretty tower rising from the edge. The path then continued around the cathedral for a view of the outside of the library. This library was where Lewis Carroll did much of his work. Apparently, he would look out his window, to a cat on a chestnut tree. This cat became the model for the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Despite scouring for a view of said tree, it was hidden from me by a quite sufficient wall. For now... that concluded my tour.
Next stop was the Museum of the History of Science. The museum was small, with a ground floor, upstairs and down. I ran out of time unfortunately, and never made it to the upstairs. Rumor places one of Einstein's blackboards there... which is just cool. In many ways that described the museum as a whole. The most prominent objects all seemed to be astrolabes. Unfortunately, for all I read I fear I still know very little about how they work. They are however quite beautiful. The ground floor was mostly collections of early tools and models. My two favorites were 1) a collection of wooden geometric shapes, used as teaching aids. They reminded me of the shapes we like displaying on our mantle back home. 2) was a tower/model/memorial (nobody is quite sure) to mathematics. It was a marble pillar, sculpted into various geometric figures, and decorated by a few 3D models made of brass or iron. I thought it cool.
The downstairs level housed the current featured exhibit, this time on Sciences and Arts in the Islamic World. Here there were large collections of teaching models and surgical equipment. By size alone the collection was impressive. This was also home to many of the displayed astrolabes. Around the the other side of the exhibit though is what I found most interesting. I've always known Islamic art was very symmetric and geometric. Here, there were a series of these designs, and the breakdown to how they can be geometrically recreated. When you look at their construction it was amazing how simple their components are. Those were awesome.
So it was just after noon and I headed up to meet Emmy at her place. We'd emailed to see if anyone cared to join us but received no confirmations. So, we went for our walk with no company, but we were aplenty of company for ourselves. We walked north, out of the city. We crossed a horse field of some kind, though the details on the field were a bit unknown. From there we crossed a river (a portion of the Thames) and continued north. The course of this walk simply continued north up the river as we passed this field to our right. As Oxford faded into the distance we had some great views of the city. It was unfortunately grey weather, but the cloudiness with patches of blue made it feel strangely in place. The one "major" site on the route was the remains of an Abbey. It was pretty, but not all that impressive. However, it was nice to ask some questions, which I think led me to a better understanding about the structure of abbeys, monasteries and cathedrals.
Our walk ended as we reached a series of locks. Here we crossed the river again to a restaurant/pub called The Trout. Sadly, all of the tables were booked, but, we were able to swipe a bar table when another couple left after just a short wait. It was a very fun environment. We each ordered lunch, Myself a butternut squash risotto and Emmy a trout off the specials. Both were good but it was funny to have trout at The Trout.
Lunch was great and we walked back. When we reached Oxford it was 4:30. Em went to meet a friend who has been taking some time off and was on campus for the day. I returned to Christ's Church. Here, they had already closed to tourists. Luckily I explained I was here earlier and that the dining hall had been closed. They laughed and let me in, joking about "another Harry Potter fan". With that I laughed and explained that Kenyon had the runner up dining hall for the movies and I wanted to compare. It was funny. So, the hall was pretty great. As I turned the stairs that climbed to the hall, I could see the scenes from the movie where every character stood there. It was neat.
The hall itself was pretty cool. Most times, locations are computer modified to resemble the real room but not be so recognizable. Here, it was clear mirrors were used to enlarge the room, but short of that it was identical. A long, dark wooden hallway. 3 long tables that spanned the room. At the head of the tables, and a step elevated stood the High Table, running perpendicular to the other three. The walls were densely mounted with portraits. It was very much the dining hall. From a comparative standpoint, I could see a comparison, but for the most part, they were still different. I fear I am uncertain of how to describe that effect... but there you have it.
I then met up with Em again. We killed some time at her place looking at pictures. We then went out for a small sushi dinner. It was no Tsukiji fish market sushi... but it was still good. Also, a necessary step in return myself to eating Japanese food again.
After dinner we went to the Jesus College Chapel. There we saw a small orchestral/choral performance. First, we listened to Handel's Dixit Dominus. It had 9 movements, and I fear I don't know enough about music to say much detail about these. Both the first and the last were extremely exciting and the middle sections were at the very least good. There was then a short intermission, followed by Haydn's Symphony 44. I actually enjoyed this one more and it's first movement (of 4) was my favorite of the night. It was a very good performance and a lot of fun.
After that we returned to Em's place. We worked out a few plans for the next 2 days, and then entertained ourselves looking at pictures. I've discovered I have some really good ones... and some really bad ones. But, they're fun to look at. At this point it was far later than I should have stayed up, so I meandered back to my hostel and collapsed into bed.
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