On Friday, May 13, 2022 I left Winchester for Oxford - Friday the 13th - and it lived up to its reputation! It started well enough. I packed up, checked out, walked back down the high street with its market stalls and even bought some fudge for the train trip. I arrived at the train station, having bought my tickets a day in advance and having checked all the details - or so I thought. I arrived only to find that my train had left 2 minutes before my arrival. And the next train wasn't coming for 2 more hours. But, I was told by an official that I could use my ticket to board a train that was coming sooner but for which I would have to make some transfers (at Basingstoke and at Reading). I decided to wait the two hours, knowing how if you don't know exactly what platform to be on and exactly how to get there within the station, and if you're a little slow because you're hauling all your luggage around, you will miss your train. I really didn't want to take a chance on missing two more trains! Then I rethought my decision and went for it, as it just seemed ridiculous to sit in that little train station for 2 hours when it wasn't strictly necessary. I'm simply not an experienced train-traveler, and it did end up being rather frantic and tricky, despite having a railway worker on the first leg of the journey who was looking out for me. Because I had missed my original train and had had to make a decision about an easier journey or an earlier journey, and because I'd walked for 20 minutes hauling my luggage over cobblestones, and because I'd had to make that decision pretty quickly, I wasn't thinking straight, and when the earlier train arrived I started to board as soon as the doors opened. Well, they're very good here about the whole "letting everyone off the train first" before you board, and the lady coming off looked as me askance, so, realizing my error, I backed off immediately, and she said "thank you" - twice - in a very pointed and sarcastic way. I wanted to say, "I wasn't being rude; I'm just nervous. Don't be mad at me." Alas . . . no big deal, but I was already so tired and frantic that it nearly made me cry. I really do hate the travel-between-city days.
I'd had one thought in mind all day, and that was to get to the Eagle and Child for their wonderful Macaroni and Cheese. The Eagle and Child (aka The Bird and Baby) is where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and the other "Inklings" got together for a pint and to discuss their writing. It's THE place to go in Oxford for any C. S. Lewis fans. I got there only to find out it was closed. Permanently. It's been bought out by a company that is going to turn it into a hotel. Sacrilege!!
I considered going to the Lamb and Flag across the street from the Eagle and Child, which is where the Inklings met in the early 1960s when the Eagle and Child was undergoing renovations, but that too was closed (temporarily - thankfully!). Those two options off the menu, I decided to go The Mitre, a place I remember from my time here in 2016, which had a wonderful steak and fries dinner for a very reasonable price. Guess what? Closed. I just decided to go back to my hotel, because I felt like I, personally, was jinxing everything on this Friday the 13th. I bought some wine and turned on the TV for the first time in 3 weeks! I don't even remember what I did for dinner; I think I bought a pasta meal at a grocery store and heated it up in the microwave in my hotel room.
Oh, yes, that is what I did. I just found the picture.
It was kind of cool that there was a quiz show on TV, my thing for sure! It was also kind of funny to listen in on the British humor used by the host that just wouldn't work in the US. For instance, one of the items in this category was the eustachian tube, and the host said, "Not to be confused with the Euston Tube Station - very different things." Yeah, that makes sense if you've used the London underground. Anyway, the cure for triskaidekaphobia was simply to wait for the 14th and venture out again then. I just started walking.
And I stumbled across the Ashmolean Museum - cool!
I always seek out game displays when in museums, and they had a couple of them! The travel backgammon/race game and the chess board above are both mid-1400s. The display case below is filled with games from India - including circular cards.
A couple of other examples of displays are the following - the funeral pall for King Henry VII -
- and ceramics!
Time to head out again - onward and forward to the Natural Science Museum - spectacular displays within a spectacular building!
This museum is one of the places that Lewis Carroll took Alice Liddell (the real Alice) and her sisters. He was a mathematics professor (real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) at Christ Church Oxford where their father was dean. Some ideas for the creatures in his Alice books came from this museum.
Each column is made from a different type of stone and is labeled at the base.
Graduations from different colleges at the university were taking place throughout the day, so I saw graduates all over town with their families - and walking toward the Divinity School - and recessing out of the Sheldonian Theatre. It was pretty festive (lots of regalia!)
I've got this out of order, but that's OK. On my way between museums, I noticed that the Weston Library (Bodleian) was open. I wasn't expecting that on a Saturday. Though I didn't have all my forms with me (letter from HR with proof of faculty status, email confirming sabbatical studies, etc.), I stepped in to inquire about renewing my card. Since I did have a previously issued card, proof of address, and photo ID - and was able to write a short essay on the spot about why I needed to access rare documents - I was able to get my new card. WOW! These Saturday 14th adventures sure worked a lot better than the Friday 13th adventures!
I did a lot of wandering about town and taking pictures of all the cool buildings, but I think I'll hold off with posting those snaps since it would make my already long post far longer. There are really just two other big items for the day. As part of my wanderings I went past Magdalen College where C. S. Lewis had spent most of his career. I wanted to see when it was open to the public and how much it cost to go in; costs to get past the porter's lodge and view the college grounds is usually somewhere between 3 pounds and 12 pounds, depending on the college. I came across a cool-looking game store on the way, so I had to stop in!
I tore myself away from the gaming world and continued on down the high street. Magdalen happened to be open then, and was very reasonable, so I got to step into another area of Lewis's life.
Above is a picture from the outside. You really have to get through the porter's lodge and inside in order to really see the college. The next two pictures give views of the chapel tower from the cloisters.
This is the hall. Lewis would have sat at the high table with the other faculty, of course. I was excited to see it Saturday night. I was even more excited Sunday morning after worship at the chapel to be invited to come eat lunch here!
I can't currently remember the name of the building below - it's like "New College" or something, because it wasn't built until the 1700s or something like that. Sorry to not be more specific, but my brain is kind of fried at the moment! Anyway, this is where Lewis had his rooms.
Below is the view back toward the cloisters from the "new" building.
Where Lewis lived seen from the bridge over the Cherwell that leads to Addison's Walk.
A little boat moored by the "new" building.
Addison's Walk is a place where Lewis and Tolkien (also Dyson) used to walk together. Conversations along this path contributed powerfully to Lewis's conversion from atheism to Christianity.
I almost missed this plaque with a Lewis poem on it that is about Addison's Walk, but I do try to keep my eyes very open and to look up and down and around, and I saw this kind of tucked away in a bit of a corner.
After my tour of the grounds, I had time for a quick "dinner" of ice-cream and quick rest in Merton Field before evensong began at Magdalen.
Entering chapel -
Choir stalls -
The east end of the chapel - Jesus carrying his cross -
I won't give the quote, but I have been saddened over the years to know how Lewis felt about hymns. I love hymns, and I love Lewis. I had never understood how he could feel the way he did. But after worshiping here tonight (music list below) and hearing the boys choir and also the accompaniment by "Instruments of Time and Truth" (a world-class period instrument ensemble), I am coming to have more understanding for where Lewis was coming from. (I still love hymns.)
I didn't really feel like walking further that day, but since I was at this end of town I decided to walk on to South Park to get the view I'd heard of of the "dreaming spires of Oxford." (This is the view someone coming overland from London in the 16th century would have had - minus the modern housing.)
My feet were very, VERY happy about time here!
And then the walk back - past the Radcliffe Camera and Merton College and Christ Church College and over the bridge over the Thames.
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