May 7: A quick walk around Oxford

It's not my intention to spend too much time in Oxford. I'm more interested in venturing back into the Cotswolds. So after my arrival it was this afternoon's task to see what I could.​

First task was to check in. The hotel used to be the Oxford prison.

My room is in the annexe which is nice and bright. 

My room is top right. 

Opposite is the main part of the hotel. I'm glad I'm not over there - they don't appear to have much in the way of natural light.  I'm sure they'd be nice in side though.

Then I headed out with my camera. Early in my walk I came across a canal/stream with a long line of barges docked. 

They appear to be permanent residences - with postal services! 

From there I wandered into a part of the city that appeared to be residential. This building caught my eye with it's bright red window frames.

Of course there were the obligatory tudor buildings too. 

Soon I was in amongst the university part of the city. 

I popped into the Divinity School to admire the architecture.

While wandering I happened to look up and noticed people looking from a vantage point at the top of one of the buildings - a tower! I had planned to wrap up my walk but instead I sought out the tower with renewed vigour. It belonged to St Mary's Church. The steps are probably the narrowest I've encountered so far.  I'm surprised they didn't ask me to sign some kind of waiver.

But the views were worth it. 

On one side I could hear a violin. This guy was patiently performing down below. 

After the tower it was definitely time to get back to the hotel. However, my journey was abruptly interupted when I stumbled across a crew filming. By the clothes it looked like it was set in the late 50s or 60s. After witnessing a short scene I continued on.

All around Oxford there are bikes "parked" against buildings. I hoped the owner of the owner of this one was a doctor. 

As I approached the hotel I noticed one last building. The angles of the building below the spire appealed to me for some reason. 

Time to start planning my days of walking and exploring further into the Cotswolds. 

May 7: On to Oxford

Even though I didn't get back from Singing with Nightingales until nearly 1:00am I wanted to get up and out fairly early this morning. The alarm woke me at 7:30am after a solid sleep and I headed down to breakfast. 

After my first repack for the trip - everything still fits in the suitcase - I headed to the station to catch the 10:43am high speed train to St Pancras station. From there I caught the Circle line to Baker Street followed by the Bakerloo line to Marylebone Station. Being a Sunday morning, neither of the tube lines were busy and there was no trouble getting my luggage on or off. Although navigating from one line to the other at Baker Street was a bit tricky - up and down stairs and through a maze of walkways. Finally I was able to get on the 12:35pm train to Oxford after pausing for a quick lunch. 

The train took about an hour. After the cool grey skys of Ashford, Oxford greeted me with blue skys and scattered high cloud. By mid afternoon it was even t-shirt temperature. 

My pre-prepared map isn't correct as the train I caught went through High Wycombe instead.

I've chosen Oxford as a base to further explore the Cotswolds, this year from the east. I had considered staying in the middle, but didn't want to be constrained to one area.​

As with Kent, there are more places on my wish list than I could possibly fit into 4 days. I'll just see how I feel each day.