Saturday morning(May 21 2005) it was pouring cats and dogs and in spite of the weather we decided to see the University town of Oxford. Left Reading Central at around 10:00 by the First Great Western (That’s the name of the railway). Reached Oxford in a jiffy!!! The very next station after Reading is Oxford. From the station itself we took the sight seeing hop off hop on tour of the city. This was a double decker bus with an open top but due to the incessant rains we never bothered to go up. We got down at the first point - Christchurch College. The best part about Oxford is that there is no university campus. In all 39 colleges make up the University of Oxford. Christchurch is the beautiful college which comes into your mind when Oxford is mentioned. It is in this college that the Harry Potter movie is shot. One interesting thing about Christchurch is this . There is a tower known as Tom Tower and the bells of this tower tolls 101 times every night at 2105 PM. (Why 101 and at 2105 !!!) That’s because when the university of Oxford was started in its first year there were 101 students. During that time the Oxford time was 5 mins behind the GMT. The students had a cut off time at 9 PM and these bells were supposed to beckon them to return. The beautiful aisles down to the gallery, the huge cathedral and the stupendous dining hall ... all are a real treat to the eyes. We never knew how time flied across and by the time we came out it was lunch time!!! Went to Pizza Hut and had a good vegetarian pizza and orange juice.
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Post lunch we went to the Carfax Tower on High Street. This tower was originally a part of St.Martin’s Church. Due to the road widening programme some years this church was razed down but the tower was maintained for historical purposes. Making the way to the top we had a bird eye’s view of Oxford. Then again continued with the bus tour and saw the different colleges of Oxford. The Trinity college lawns is way damn beautiful. Then passed through the walls of the richest college in Oxford : St.John’s. The legend goes to say that a student could have walked from Oxford to Cambridge without ever setting his foot off St.John’s land!!! So that gives an indication as to the amount of richness. By this time it was pouring hailstones. Luckily by the time we reached Ashmolean Museum the rains stopped and we were able to walk to the museum from the bus stop. This museum has all the equipments which great scientists like Albert Einstein worked on while they were in Oxford. I didn’t understand the equipments much but it made good viewing. Then we went to the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge is the replica of the original one in Venice and it looks pretty much the same except the canal part. In front of the Bridge of Sighs was a college (I could not get the name of the same) where it was examination time. In the Oxford University there is a strange custom that the students should be dressed in a graduation gown (white shirt, Black robe and the black hat like stuff) if they have to be eligible to appear for the exams !!! So found a lot of students in that attire. Having seen these we walked down to the High street where did a bit of shopping for myself. Some memoirs and souvenirs to remind me of Oxford always. Took the bus to the station from where we reached Reading pretty comfortably - exhausted but thrilled at having a chance to see the famous university town of Oxford.