Anyway, most of the city is devoted to the university, which consists of dozens of independent colleges. It's several hundred years old, so there's lots of cool architecture to see and a great atmosphere overall. Many of the colleges' grounds are perfectly manicured, and there are flowers and trees all over the place. Seeing this made me wish I'd worked harder as a student so I could have studied in such a grand setting.
Christ Church College:
Our first stop was meant to be Christ Church, but it was closed until the afternoon, so we wandered around until we found the university's botanical garden. We strolled around in there and saw all sorts of interesting flowers and plant life.
One thing I found interesting about this botanical garden was that it also had common vegetables planted in it. I assume this is for the lords of the college (more on that later).
I had never seen real holly before this:
There were a few greenhouses with more tropical plants growing in them:
Check out these giant lily pads:
After we finished in the garden, we crossed a couple small bridges. The area reminded me of the illustrations in the Peter Rabbit books I read as a child.
We stopped at a nearby pub so my colleagues could have lunch. Here's a view down the street from there, which was fairly typical for Oxford:
A look in the opposite direction:
We made our way back to Christ Church after lunch and viewed the grounds. A view from the outside:
I think Harry Potter is lame, but this dining room, which is apparently connected to the movies in some way, was pretty damn cool:
Portraits of many famous Christ Church attendees are on its walls.
The grounds inside Christ Church:
We visited a small art gallery inside Christ Church, but photos weren't allowed, so I have none to show you. The main exhibit was Italian religious art in the post-Byzantine Renaissance. Pretty interesting stuff, if somewhat lacking in variety.
Afterward, we paid a visit to the nearby Church of the Virgin Mary:
An orchestra was practicing an oboe concerto inside, so we hung out for a few minutes to watch that, which was also interesting. I had never seen an oboe solo before.
I didn't find out what this was, but it was in the church's backyard:
Our final stop in Oxford was its castle. Unfortunately, we arrived five minutes too late and couldn't get in. That's OK, though, as it was smaller than other castles I've visited and didn't look particularly impressive.
With the bitter taste of defeat strong in our mouths, we went back to the train station and headed for home.
I spent the better part of Sunday working, which was fairly lame, but it had to be done. When I couldn't take any more, I hit the town on my own in the afternoon. My destination was the Tate Modern art gallery, which had come highly recommended to me by an artist friend. The Tate Modern specializes in contemporary art, so my afternoon was filled with more of the same kind of weirdness I had experienced the previous week at Minneapolis's Walker Art Center. Not a bad thing, though. I'm coming to appreciate modern art a lot more.
My first stop was the paid exhibition, called "Exposed". I enjoyed this a lot because its focus was photography done surreptitiously or as part of surveillance. I don't particularly care for photographing people, but when I do, I like to catch them in natural poses and actions, so this was right up my alley. Well worth seeing if you're in London.
The rest of the gallery was free, as is typically the case with British museums (very cool). This room, dedicated to Andy Warhol's work, was one of my favorites:
There were other interesting and famous works around the gallery. Here are some of my favorites:
Optical illusions:
More Andy Warhol:
I was excited to see this Dali piece. I had a poster of it hanging outside my bedroom during high school:
A very random piece with glowing lights underneath kitchen utensils, but I liked the glow:
Magritte was another high school fave of mine:
Many of you will recognize this famous Monet piece. I had no idea it was so huge:
All in all, I liked the Tate Modern. I'll probably come back the next time I'm here, as a Gauguin exhibition is starting this coming weekend. I've seen some of his work before, and while it's not my favorite, this will be a good opportunity to review and re-evaluate.
When I was done inside, I found a vendor outside and bought a hot sausage with grilled onions to eat. Good food for a bleak, rainy/windy day. I got lots of stares as I happened to be the only guy in London wearing shorts and short-sleeves.
The view from my sausage-eating perch:
That metalwork you see is a footbridge which crosses the Thames. So, I decided to cross it to see the other side.
Entrance to the bridge (St. Paul's Cathedral is in the background):
The Thames River (Tower Bridge is in the distance):
Farther along the bridge:
As had happened the day before, I got to the cathedral five minutes too late and wasn't allowed in. Pictures of the outside will have to suffice:
I decided to wander around for a while after this despite the weather and my (lack of) attire. At every turn, I (stupidly) ignored signs for the subway and kept walking. Bad idea, since when I finally wanted to go home, no subway station was to be found. When I finally found one, it was closed for repair. It took me another 15 minutes of walking to find another, by which time I had walked about 987235987235 miles around London. I told a few people in the office about this stunt this morning, and they all giggled at the sheer idiocy of it. Oh well.
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