Oxford - Dinosaur City

Date of trip: 31 July

If I'm asked to describe what Oxford means to me in one word, it is Dinosaur. I mean it in two ways, both literally and otherwise. I'll elaborate on the literal sense later, but before I begin, the weather has been very '101-Dalmatianishly English' (meaning gray) for the whole day and the sun was too modest to show her face at all that there won't be any postcard-esque photographs this time.

'Like most things in Oxford, it is primitive but it works.'

So said one of the tour guides in Bodleian Library. I agree with him. The minute you step outside the railway station, we are greeted by this, standing beside Said Business School, which looks quite modern.

However, a quick five minutes later as you head towards the city center. All the buildings were old and classical. A walk in the main street reminds me of the commercialism of London and Glasgow, with the thronging tourists from around the world. However, nearly every direction you turn seems to bring you towards building and structures related to the University. In fact, a good part of the city center comprise of something to do with the oldest university in the UK.

I visited the University Church of St Mary the Virgin first and climb this tower to get a 360 degree survey of the city.

The church itself is where the University originally started, being adopted as the first building of the university until its eventual expansion.

The church is nice and the adorning beautiful spire is defiantly one of its defining characteristics. To behold the very place where many important people of the faith has preached from or participated through the years is great. This is the stand where C.S. Lewis was one of those who had taught from it. That would vaguely resembling the thrill of meeting a star for me.

The stairway to the tower is claustrophobic and steep but well lit and accessible for a solitary climber. Once you reach the top, there is a narrow walkway that span the perimeter of the tower. Transversing here, many landmarks of Oxford can be seen.

This is the Radcliffe Camera (camera meaning room) situated directly North of the tower. This cylindrical building toped by a dome is now part of the Bodleian Library.

Towards the south, you can see the Tom Tower of Christ Church College in the distance. Too bad I didn't get to go inside Christ Church College. It does look grand from the outside. Maybe I should look for a friend in or going to study in Oxford University.

On the West, the tower here is the Lincoln College Library while the buildings in front are from Brasenose College.

This whole area is of All Souls College, towards the Eastern direction. The two towers here are call Hawksmoors Towers.

On top of the tower, you can see many statues and gargoyles decorating the spire up close. This flying ram is my favorite among the countless.

One of the place I enjoyed the most during this visit is the Bodleian Library. Although we cannot go into the Arts End of Duke Humfrey's Library and leaf though the invaluable manuscripts ourselves. Listening to the guide taking about its eventful histories while standing on the doorstep is very entertaining.

This is the Divinity School where examinations were held and a few movies were made. This very room is Hogwart's infirmary during the Potter films. Mark the intricate ceiling. There are 455 bosses including religious symbolism, monograms and shields of benefactors disassociated with the building, that has taken generations to complete. As with the dinosaur description I've imposed, these bosses make excellent homes for spiders.

This is the Convocation House. The Chancellor's seat has an ingenuous mechanism for ease of those affluent ones who are blessed horizontally.

This is the Old School Quadrangle. This was taken facing the Divinity School.

The statue in front of the doorway is that of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University and a Bodleian benefactor.

As a whole, the 'dinosaur city' is dominated by these old university colleges and buildings. From this trip here, I realized two things about myself. Firstly, I have been absolutely right in not choosing to study architecture. As elaborately and wonderfully designed and built, historically and culturally significant these buildings are, they started to look the same to me after seeing the third. And before long, they started to blur as one and tax my patience looking at them. Secondly, although it would be very cool to study in somewhere fantastical like this, almost like studying in Hogwarts as a Potter fan friend put it, it will wear me out all too soon. Being a tourist here is fun, but I do not relish spending years and month in such places. Clean, modern and contemporary buildings are more to my taste of habitat.

Besides historical buildings, by dinosaur I also mean the many museums in Oxford, including the Ashmolean, Pitt River, Oxford Museum, and the University Museum of Natural History. Both Ashmolean and Pitt River is int he process of refurbishment while the former remained open. While the art and archaeological treasures within Ashmolean is great, I find the T-rex in the Natural History Museum much more awe-inspiring.

Although it is only a cast, it is still my first encounter with the tyrant lizard king's full size skeleton. That's awesome! The magnificent beast is no doubt either an object of fascination or nightmare for many visiting children. In front of it looms an Iguanadon's cast. Despite the small disparity in size, the plant eater is visibly less menacing.

Oxford shire has a good share of fossils, including Megalosaurus and its tracks. The academia here certainly play a role for Oxford's prominence in this area. One of the replica tracks can be seen outside the museum. I don't doubt you can lay a newborn baby flat across a footprint of Megalosaurus. Besides this, the museum houses many other fossils, rocks, skeletons, minerals and stuffed animals.

As an online reviewer puts it, this museum is a hall full of dead animals. How true indeed! Of the many stuffed animals, quite a few are put outside for visitors to touch and feel. It is an experience to touch the ruff of a cheetah or the head of a cobra. I stayed my hands from the feathered ones as I find myself developing a dislike for birds ever since I witness the disgusting struggle of a smaller bird (possibly a pigeon) being devoured alive by a large seagull. For skeletons, besides dinosaur's and many sea monster's, there are those from dodo, whales, and terrestrial vertebrates, ranging from elephants, Irish Elk and giraffe to domestic pigs. Human skeletons found their way there too.

After this visit, I will recommend non-holiday season for those who have an idea of Oxford as being relatively green, unspoiled and lofty with learned thinkers of academia. Maybe, just maybe, when there are less pushing crowds, you just might catch a glimpse of that fable.

I will conclude with some colors, almost the only vibrant ones I saw - the punts resting tranquilly beside Magdalene College.