jinjang

I would like to express my gratitude to kasie, a forum member and friend, who told me of several interesting places to visit in Oxford, most of all, the pubs: Turf Tavern and Far From the Madding Crowd; and “the book shop to end all book shops!” in her exact words: Blackwell.

We changed our mind at the last moment to stay in a hotel in Oxford instead of in Abingdon. My considerate husband arranged it well so that he would commute to Abingdon and I would walk to the city center of Oxford. When we arrived late in the evening at the hotel on Abingdon Road three miles away from the Oxford city center and eight miles from Abingdon, we were afraid that we might not find a restaurant open that late. Following the suggestion of a friendly hotel clerk to try out George Street for variety of food, we hurried along Abingdon Road and St. Aldate’s. We took Queen Street and New Road to avoid a crowd of teenagers on Cornmarket Street and made two right turns. There we reached our destination, George Street!

We thought we should try fish and chips at least once in England. We entered into the first pub we saw called Four Candles with the sign ‘fish and chip’ near its entrance. Since we have never been to an American bar (here I declare that we are rather boring people), we had no way to compare how it works in the States. We stood there for a few minutes to be seated in vain. There were three bartenders hidden behind the crowd of young people holding some cash in their hands. The casual environment of the pub held us there to wait patiently for our turn to ask, “Do we sit anywhere?” A friendly bartender, after a briefly blank face, responded affirmative. We looked around the pub and saw people sit on the couches at corners or on tables or upstairs. We went upstairs seeing many vacant tables and sat for another few minutes but no one came to ask our order. Here I confess that we are not only boring but clueless as well.

In London, passersby had spoken all kinds of languages: Dutch, French, Swedish, etc. The few Londoners we had spotted would pass us by hurriedly and quietly. Finally, in a pub of Oxford, we could hear English people talk. If I listen to them long enough, I feel I may speak like them one day. The young people drank beer like water, we noticed, because they would go downstairs every 10 minutes to pick up another mug of ale. We do not even know the difference between ale and beer if any. A mug of beer costs 1.90 pounds and a glass of wine 2.20 pounds, in case you are curious, in the pub.

As an academic, my main interest was to visit the colleges of Oxford University. But the pubs seemed to be as captivating and alive as the colleges. On Tuesday morning, I went to the tourist information on Broad Street and took a guided tour at 10:30 am. The tour guide was an old gentleman originally from Lebanon who took us along New College Lane and showed us the narrow path, St Helens Passage, which leads to Turf Tavern, a historical pub. I highlighted my map to go back there for lunch. Turf Tavern is older (built in 13th century) than most of the colleges and there was a chalkboard about Clinton who was an alumnus of University College. The guide informed us that there are 75 Korean and 1400 American students in Oxford University scattered among 38 colleges. What inspiration would the students get eating at those dining halls with many famous people looking at them back?


After a cup of tea and cake at Turf Tavern, I meandered along New College Lane and Queen’s Lane and a right turn to High Street to visit Magdalen College pronounced “Maudlin’ because of its original spelling ‘Maudelayne.’ It boasts of producing seven Nobel laureates in medicine, chemistry, physics, or literature. It was the most beautiful college among all the colleges in my opinion with Deer Park on the left and Water Meadows on the right of the New Building. It is ‘New’ because it was added in 1733 while the college was founded in 1458. The Cloisters have the best groomed lawn and plants. While I was taking the circular walk around Water Meadow, I was imagining who may have walked the same path. The written tour guide says Deer Park has about 60 deer with the first one recorded in 1705. I did not realize I spent almost 3 hours in the college. It was surprisingly quiet and I was alone most of the time.


On Wednesday, I visited Christ Church in the morning and the Bodleian Library along with Radcliffe Camera in the afternoon. The tour guide at the Bodleian Library was an enthusiastic old lady who graciously guided us to Radcliffe Camera through its original entrance, although the Camera was not part of our tour and is normally closed to the public. She took us to the tunnel connecting the Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera to show us the long pipes with the vacuum system that was used for book orders to travel between the two buildings before computers as well as the soon-to-be-dismantled conveyor belt to transfer books between the two buildings. She demonstrated the sliding bookshelves that hang from the ceiling without touching the ground to keep books from humidity, engineered by the order of William Gladstone.

There is a certain similarity between Westminster Abbey and the Bodleian Library: you stand awestruck and speechless to realize that they both are full of history and that you would feel the presence of ghosts of the past. The Gothic church contains 3300 tombs and memorials of kings, queens, poets, scientists, and many other illustrious people of the past. We gave our special salutes to the tombs of Newton, Darwin, Browning, and Hardy and to the memorials of Shakespeare, Milton, T.S. Eliot, George Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Jane Austen, and others. We missed the tomb of William Gladstone in Westminster Abbey, having thought of it only after the visit to the church.

In the evenings, we went to the pub, Far From the Madding Crowd, near Border’s on the narrow path off Magdalen Street and we would have done what the locals do: drinking beers and talking. Instead, we drank hot chocolates, rested, and talked. Our imitation was nearly perfect.

We saw a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, at Wadham College on Wednesday evening. They sang and danced well, but unfortunately and regrettably they did not know how to act. They would have done better with West Side Story. We regretted missing our dinner over that play.

On Thursday, I took the Stagecoach bus S3 from Gloucester Green Coach Station in Oxford to Woodstock to visit Blenheim Place, a birth and marriage place of Winston Churchill. A separate exhibit to show the parallel lives and the military geniuses of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and Winston Churchill was most interesting and was the serendipitously good starting point of my visit. I admired the dashing young officer Winston Churchill in a photo and his near-death bravery. “The Dukedom of Marlborough is the only Dukedom in the United Kingdom that can still pass in the female line” and there have been 11 Dukes and Duchesses of Marlborough. The present 11th Duke of Marlborough resides in the right wing of the palace. I sat for half an hour with a cup of tea to admire the Water Terraces. Then, I promenaded first through the grand surroundings of the palace, delaying a little longer my entrance into the palace. Jane Austen’s words “the grounds are beautiful” were ringing in my ears while leisurely walking toward the Rose Garden and meandering toward to the Secret Garden with the open view of acres and acres of well-groomed lawn and majestic trees. The trees looked as illustrious as the people who lived among them.


Oxford and the surroundings of Blenheim Palace brought the books alive and I actually saw the gate to the real Secret Garden in the middle of a street in Oxford. Henry VIII executed two of his wives, which brings to mind ludicrously “off with your head” of the queen in Alice in Wonderland in Christ Church. I would not mind spending a month in and around Oxford because I have not done punting, I have not visited all the colleges, I have not seen a worthy play, ..., and because I may have left part of me behind.