Oxford

The university city of Oxford is about 1 hour drive away from London. We made a day trip there on a wet Saturday. Oxford city is old and driving in the city (and trying to park there as well, I should add) is not advisable. We therefore decided to heed the advice from oxfordcityguide.comand use the Park & Ride service. As it turned out, this was a great advice and we had such a smooth journey to the city that I would recommend it to anyone. The parking area is easily accessible from the major motorways (M4) in our case and there were ample parking spaces there and there's no parking charge - free.

Upon arrival, in our case, a bus was waiting for passenger to fill-up and a £4 payment secured us 2 return adult tickets (kids travel free). 15 mins ride on the bus with one stop along the way brought us to the city centre, about 3 minutes walk from the Visitor Information Centre. The VIC offers a number of Walking Tours and we initially opted for the University Tour. However the timing did not work for us and we ended up getting some maps and guide books and walk we went. Along the same route of the tour but at our own leisure to stop at some curious looking sights along the way. It was drizzling nearly throughout the walk and with the temperate being in the single digit, it was quite a challenge avoiding getting wet.

The tour took us past some famous sights of Oxford and allowed one to immerse oneself in the amazing architectures. It felt like nearly every building there has a history of its own that spans not decades but centuries. Quite unbelievable.

Our last destination before leaving was the Natural History Museum. Kids were excited with the close encounter with dinosaurs and being able to see and touch fossilised dinosaur eggs. Attached to the museum is the Pitt Rivers Museum with interesting collections of socio-cultural exhibits.....

For a virtual tour of Oxford, try this site.