In early September, we decided to take a much needed family vacation. Only a 2 hour train ride from Brussels (through the Chunnel), England seemed like the perfect destination for us. With a little less than a week to see the sights, we opted to visit Oxford and London.
##Oxford
Knowing that we’d be in London a few weeks later to visit with Amanda’s parents, we devoted the majority of our first England trip to exploring Oxford’s beautiful scenery and historical colleges.
Oxford is the second-oldest university in the world. It’s comprised of 38 Colleges, each of which have their own campuses and faculties. Since we couldn’t see them all, we visited two: Magdalen College and Christ Church College.
Magdalen
Magdalen College boasts some pretty impressive alumni (among our favorites: Oscar Wilde, Terrence Malick, and Andrew Lloyd Webber). But the college has special significance for us because one of our favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, was a professor at the college. We were pretty excited to walk the halls and paths he would take in conversation with J.R.R. Tolkien (another Oxford professor).
Christ Church
Christ Church College was equally magnificent, and the grounds were idyllic; this is what you imagine when you think of an old-world university.
Max was especially happy to run through the meadows and explore all of the side paths.
We toured the Great Hall in Christ Church, an amazing formal dining room for students and teachers that was replicated to create the main hall in the Harry Potter films.
In addition to touring the colleges, we also made sure to visit Oxford’s other historic sites, including the Radcliffe Camera and The Eagle and Child Pub (where the Inklings, including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, used to meet to discuss literature).
##London
After Oxford, we had only a few short days in London. With a cranky babe who was tired of being strapped into his stroller, we opted to forego most of the usual London sights.
Instead, we took Max to both the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Going to the museums turned out to be a good idea, as he was giddy with excitement during both trips. The highlights for him included: the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, the classic car exhibit at the Science Museum, touring an old World War II airplane, and playing with the ‘hands-on’ science experiments at the Science Museum.
More to come soon…