A Winter Retreat

We decided to get away from London for a couple of days and headed to the Hawkwell House Hotel in Oxford.  We left around 3pm on Christmas Eve and arrived to find chocolates, crackers and Santa hats waiting for us in our room.

I’d really been looking forward to spending Christmas in this hotel as it is so cosy and festive.

We spent a lot of time sitting by the fireplace just reading newspapers or books.

And we spent some time in the lounge too where I played with my camera and read while Ste watched football.

We stayed for three nights at a rate of £95 bed and breakfast per night plus Christmas dinner included.  It was nice not to have to worry about cooking on Christmas day but not so nice that the kitchen wasn’t open for room service for the whole weekend!!  We had to go into Oxford for some Nandos on the Saturday night.  Nandos will always be our first choice as they are a South African franchise!

On the morning we left, there was even some sunshine and so I got to take some lovely photos of the buildings and the ground.

We had a lovely and relaxing time away and it was just the kind of winter retreat that I had in mind.  Mostly, I was just glad to be healthy and happy during this visit as I had been so sick when we visited in 2008!

Road trip (West) 2008: Oxford

On 23 December, we took a walking tour around Oxford with a very knowledgeable guide called Maureen. The tours start at the Oxford Tourist Information Centre in Broad Street and take you around a couple of the colleges (depending which are open) and take about 90 minutes.

Oxford is home to Oxford University which is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The university itself is made up of 38 independent colleges and can trace its roots back to the 12th century.

This was my second visit to Oxford (the first visit was in 2005 to visit the lovely Tender Hooligan). I have to say though, it most definitely won't be my last visit. There is just so much history there that my poor, flu-addled brain could not absorb during the walking tour and I also want to go back and trace my steps through Lyra's Oxford. Mostly, I just want to visit the aforementioned hooligan again!

Future visits aside, here are the highlights from this visit.

We started off at Jesus College which was founded by Elizabeth I in 1571. The most famous Jesus alumnus was T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and perhaps the most interesting alumnus Pixley ka Isaka Seme, founder of the ANC.

The dining hall in Jesus College

The next college we visited was Exeter College. This college definitely had more exciting alumni including J.R.R. Tolkien and (gasp) Philip Pullman!

Exeter College had the most beautiful gardens and from those gardens we saw the building that featured in the Harry Potter films as the divination class. Last time we came to Oxford we went to Christ Church College and saw the dining hall and stairs from Harry Potter.

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries at about this point and for the first (and only) time on our road trip I did not have spares handy! Definitely another reason to go back to Oxford some time soon!

Radcliffe Camera

I loved this lovely old building! It was built between 1737 and 1749 and used to house the Radcliffe Science Library. These days it is part of the Bodleian Library and holds books from the English, history and theology collections.

After our visit I felt such a strong desire to study in a wonderful place like Oxford. The one thing that attracted me was the style of study. In South Africa, our primary mode of study was attending lectures in massive lecture halls with 400 or more other students. We were given generic reading packs to study and a choice of four or six essays to submit each term. Our guide explained to us that the teaching at Oxford is far more individual and based on a tutor / student relationship. It gives meaning to the term "reading for a degree". Could that really be? That sounds ideal to me - a far better experience than my days at Wits! *Sigh* Who am kidding? Studying makes me miserable. I am not sure I'd want to study another degree!

Road trip (West) 2008: Arriving in Oxford

After our trip to Bath, we headed over to Oxford and arrived at our hotel at about 6pm. 

We stayed at the lovely Hawkwell House Hotel.

Picture courtesy of HawkwellHouse.co.uk

This was such a lovely hotel. It was like a grand old country estate with swanky dining rooms and cosy sitting areas around open log fires. We were really lucky to get a room at this hotel for a fraction of the normal price as we had booked through Lastminute.com.   All I wanted to do was sit by one of the fires with a glass of sherry and an old book.  Of course, I don't drink sherry but you get the idea!  There were Christmas trees and the whole hotel had a warm, festive atmosphere.  I would definitely like to go back there again and I'd go there in winter too as it really seemed felt like that type of warm, welcoming place.

We headed out to find a place to eat supper and I must say, parking is really a problem in Oxford!!  We almost gave up at one stage!  We eventually landed up at The Jericho Tavern on Walton Street and once again we really got lucky.  What a magnificent restaurant!  We shared a camembert starter which was yummy and I had a cheesy potato skins "snack" that was an extremely generous portion.  The tavern had an obvious student vibe but we felt right at home.  Definitely recommended.

Despite my plans for a nightcap by one of the fires, we landed up going straight to bed.  The bed was super-cosy and I enjoyed my first peaceful night free of flu symptoms in days.  Good thing too as the next day was spent in a big walking tour around Oxford!