Monday and Tuesday: exploring Oxford, no cycling

April 28, 2014 to April 29, 2014

WEATHER: MOSTLY CLOUDY ON MONDAY, MIXED ON TUESDAY, HIGH 15.

Unlike many airbnb hosts, Hoonie provided a good breakfast of homemade muesli and freshly baked sourdough bread upstairs in her dining room. It was a nice change from bacon and eggs, and we enjoyed wide-ranging conversations with her about subjects as diverse as sourdough starter, Oxford's history and North American politics.

Most of the museums in Oxford were closed on Mondays, but luckily the Natural History Museum was open after a two-year closure for renovations and cleaning the beautiful small-paned glass roof. It had only re-opened a month ago. We arrived there at 10:00 and had the place mostly to ourselves. The displays were very interesting and well done, and the light filled building was a pleasure to visit. We spent several hours exploring the place and had sandwiches, almond croissants and coffee for lunch in the cafe overlooking the main hall.

One of the informative displays in the Natural History Museum

The museum's glass roof provided wonderful lighting for the displays

The door to the library at the museum. For those who have studied evolutionary theory, this room is notable as the location of the Huxley-Wilberforce debate in 1860.

There was a surprising amount of colour in some of the displays

Then it was on to the historic Bodleian library, which one can only visit with a guide, and the tours for Monday afternoon were full. We were told to come back on Tuesday morning, and in the meantime did the 40 minute self-guided audio tour of the divinity school and the outdoor areas.

For dinner on Monday night we decided to try the early-bird offering at Pierre Victoire, a French restaurant highly rated on Tripadvisor. At 23.50 for three courses, it was pricey, but worth it. We started with a scallop and prawn skewer, then duck with rhubarb sauce for the main, and tarte d'abricot for dessert.

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the Bodleian right when it opened at 9:30. The 10:30 tour was already fully booked, so we signed up for 11:30. Then we walked a few blocks to the famous Ashmolean museum and wandered through some of the impressive displays, before fortifying ourselves with croissants and coffee in the museum cafe. All major museums in Britain offer free admission, making it easy to pop in and out for an hour or so at a time. We planned to come back to the Ashmolean in the afternoon for a more comprehensive visit.

The imposing facade of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

Inside the Ashmolean Museum in the Asian pottery section

The Randolph Hotel across from the Ashmolean Museum

The guided tour at the Bodleian was interesting, and we even saw one room that actually contained books—very old ones--unfortunately no photos allowed. We learned from our guide that there is a huge respect for tradition in Oxford and an extremely high regard for money. The story of the library from its start in the 1400s to the present is all about funding and cultivating the wealthy patrons who provide it. Our guide talked non-stop for more than an hour and was very informative, but by 12:45 we were ready for lunch.

Inside the divinity school section of the original Bodleian Library

We returned to the Ashmolean cafe for sandwiches, and then spent a few hours looking at the pottery exhibits from Asia and Europe. Afterwards we stopped off at the curious History of Science museum with its astrolabes and early microscopes, telescopes, X-ray tubes, etc.

One of the displays of old experimental scientific equipment in the Museum of the History of Science (which unsurprisingly defaulted to a display of technological artifacts)

Fully museumed-out by this point, we wandered back to our lodging through the crowds of tourists. Busloads of people from all over the world visit Oxford, even now, between Easter and the summer season. We were glad to be staying on this quiet street in Jericho away from the hordes.

Typical central Oxford street scene, in an area with no bus tours

We had dinner just around the corner at the Old Bookbinders Pub. Nothing fancy, but good pub food—cauliflower and leek soup, coq au vin with garlic bread, and lemon tart for dessert. We had enjoyed our stay in Oxford and felt we had made good use of our time,

There were many choices for dinner within several blocks of the B&B

Addendum: Why Al had 4 punctures in one day.

While in Oxford Al had time to take a good look at the tire which had been on his front wheel before he changed it in Bristol. Using two pairs of glasses, he practically turned the tire inside out and finally discovered two tiny slivers of glass deeply embedded in the rubber. Each puncture was probably caused by a bump on the road which pushed the glass up into the tube. The mystery was solved, and as the tread was quite worn, he was glad to discard the tire.

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