Day 8: June 13, 2014

The day started out with a trip to Oxford, England. There we visited Oxford University and the oldest Church in England, which is also the smallest cathedral in England. It is Christ Church and sevens as a chapel on campus. Here are pictures of some of the buildings that we passed:

This is the visitor's entrance.

This is the steeple of the chapel.

 

This was the foyer of the Chapel.

 

The inside was gorgeous. There are stained glass windows everywhere that illustrates beautiful stories. Here a re pictures of some of the windows:

This window is the most iconic for the story it illustrates. A very virtuous and devout woman was betrothed to marry a very lustful man. She did not want this, but instead wished to become a nun. The man wanted her more than anything and became so obsessed with the thought of having her that he began stalking her and one night he began chasing her into the woods. To protect her, God blinded the man. He left the woman alone, asked for her forgiveness, and promised to never bother her again. She forgave him, and prayed for God to restore his sight, which He did.

 

Some of the other things inside the chapel were:

All of the cushions look as if they are individually sewn by hand, and the stich work is very detailed and tells a story of its own.

This is the alter of the church.

This is an original archway, from before Oxford was a university.

 

We also visited the grounds of the university where U.K. Rowling got many of her idea about Hogwarts. Here is a picture of me on the stairs used for the entrance of Hogwarts and also filmed for the moving staircases:

 

The ceiling was so detailed, that I had to take a picture of it.

 

 

J.K Rowling was also inspired by the dining hall in Oxford, which I also have pictures of.

 

Oxford is also famous for some of its students and faculty members.

 

Lewis C. Carroll was inspired to write Alice in Wonderland after counseling the Dean's daughter, Alice, and it is from the fireplace above that inspired him to write about the rabbit hole.    

 

Here is a monument of another esteemed professor from Oxford's early university years:

 

There is also a spacious courtyard with green landscaping.

 

We walked through the university to get back to the main shopping streets and passed some impressive monuments and stone work on the way.

 After sending some time wondering around Oxford we all met up at the pub Eagle and Child for lunch. It's the pub where Carroll and Tolkien would meet up on Tuesdays to discuss what they were writing. It was pretty great to be there. After a little more shopping we all headed back to London. That concludes Day 8.