Austin and Mandi's Great Adventure: Vacation in Oxford

As our final days in the UK approached, Mandi and I took a short jaunt down to Oxford, the place that had originally inspired me to come back to study in Britain. After an excruciatingly uncomfortable 12-hour night bus down to London, we discovered that the bus station charged an exorbitant amount to hold our luggage until our bus to Oxford, so we traipsed around London with two overflowing backpacks and a canvas bag. Rather exhausting. Buckingham Palace was, sadly, fully booked, but we got a good look at the houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

The bus up to Oxford was far more comfortable, so we snagged a few much needed hours on the way. Getting into Oxford in the afternoon, we set up base camp at our hotel and marched immediately to St. John's College, where I had lived for the British Studies at Oxford program. It was just as I remembered it, but this time I had a wife to accompany me! We walked around the city centre and ended up across the street from my old rooms at the Eagle and Child pub, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, among others, met regularly to share and discuss their work. It was a favorite for me during my first visit and so it was required dining for us during this one. Still the best fish and chips I've ever had!

Our full day began with shoe shopping, since Mandi neglected to bring appropriate footwear, but afterwards we visited the Oxford market stalls and the covered market, where we bought a cookie from Ben's. We took a look in Blackwell's bookshop, the divinity school of the University's Bodleian Library, and generally just strolled about.

Eventually we visited Christ Church College, one of Oxford University's most prestigious and elite colleges, and the site of the inspiration for the Hogwarts Great Hall. The Queen herself dines in the Christ Church hall occasionally! After that, we walked along to Magdalen College, the place where C.S. Lewis taught for over 20 years. Magdalen has always been my favorite, and Mandi loved it as well. We walked around the deer park and around Addison's Walk, where late one evening Tolkien and Hugo Dyson convinced a then-unbelieving Lewis that Christianity was the True Myth, God's own story become reality. It was an instrumental point on the road to his conversion.

The next day, we had to run to catch our bus out to begin our C.S. Lewis day. First, we visited Holy Trinity Church, where Lewis and his brother worshiped for 30 years, and where a small plaque commemorate their regular seats. There is also a Narnia window. Lewis's grave lies in the Churchyard. Afterwards, we walked over to Lewis's house, the Kilns. He founded a nature preserve behind the house and we took a stroll through it before our appointment.

The day before, I had called the house (owned by the C.S. Lewis Foundation and home to visiting scholars and conferences) to book a guided tour, but was informed that sadly, we had missed the tour day and they did not offer any tours on Friday. I hung up and told Mandi, and we were both dejected. But we decided to call back and explain our situation, and throw ourselves on their good graces to even let us have a peek inside. Wonderfully, the woman offered to let us have a quick look inside the main two rooms. We arrived and came inside to discover that the expected visiting scholars had not yet arrived. That meant that we basically got our own private tour of the whole house! We were overjoyed. Mandi and I actually agree that Lewis's house is really wonderful and we would have liked to live there.

On our trip back up to London and on to Edinburgh, we made a short stop at Heddon Street where David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album cover was shot (Mandi's dad is a huge fan), and then rode home. A great and relaxing vacation, and I got to share one of my favorite places with my favorite person!