The first full day, Thursday, I went to see C.S. Lewis' house. Of course, it's a private residence for students who meet certain criteria, so I had to send an email to schedule a tour for a different day once I found out. However I was able to walk around the C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve behind the Kilns (his house). He loved to swim in the pond and walk, and that was a favorite spot and one of the reasons why he liked the Kilns so well. This is part of it. Beautiful. The best part is that it's unlike a tourist destination. No one was there except a local or two walking their dog. They let me pet their dog too. I was not restrained this time by my lack of German knowledge on how to ask to pet a dog. They spoke english, believe it or not.
This is the pond. It's now called Shelley's pond because the poet Shelley lived very near there and loved to row about on it. Lewis swam.
This is a little bunker in that little reserve near the pond, probably another WWII era one.
I figured out that I could set my phone camera to a timer and take pictures of myself in a non-selfie fashion.
I hiked rather far out of the reserve to another park and found a weird tree. Took a weird picture too.
I took a non-weird but dramatic picture at that park.
I hopped on my bike and decided to bike out into the country outside of Oxford and succeeded. Of course by the time I decided to stop for food, every place had stopped serving food until 5 or 6. So I just found a good place for a beer at a place called the Clifdon Arms Public House. I took some pictures inside of the Cheshire Cat and quotes from Oscar Wilde and G.K. Chesterton and more, but for some reason they turned out all completely black. Poot.
This was a country church in the middle of nowhere. This was a common occurrence out in the country.
I toured the Christchurch College Meadows after I got back. There's a cattle pasture in the very center of the college.
This is the famous bridge of sighs connecting two colleges together. I sadly don't actually know which ones. It's right next to the Bodleian library. Fun fact" there are over thirty colleges in oxford and two universities. One is Oxford University and the other is Oxford Brooks University. They used to be called Oxford University and The University of Oxford, but obviously that's tooooo confusing.
This is a fence near the Bodleian Library on which people left encouraging notes for people going through a breakup. I thought it was cool at the time.
This is Tolkein's grave and his wife's in Wolvercote Cemetery.
This was also part of the cemetery. Completely overgrown.
This was the house Tolkein lived in whilst writing LOTR. It's lived in by other people now like Lewis' house, but there is a plaque on the house. It's the blue-looking dot.
That's a pretty countryside. Not sure now where.
Super cool exhibit in the library across the street from the Bodleian. These are heightened neumes notated chants from the medieval church. I learned about these in my history class in Salzburg. Super super cool.
THE ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPHED MANUSCRIPT OF THE PLANETS BY GUSTAV HOLST. He gave it to the Oxford University for safekeeping during WWII. I've played this very piece on the page to which it's open and it was surreal to see.
The foyer area of the Bodleian Library. This was used as the Hospital wing in the Harry Potter movies. At least the first one.
View outside of the Bodleian Library.
Also a view of the Bodleian Library.
This is St. Gile's Church on St. Gile's Street on which are both the Eagle and Child and the Lamb and Flag, which were used as meeting places for the Inklings club composed of Tolkein, Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and Warren Lewis.
This is inside the Kilns, C.S. Lewis' study and desk.
This is Warren's typewriter with the note he wrote in a new typewriter mourning the demise of this one as it had stopped working.
This is the kitchen.
This is me outside the door to the Kilns.
This is a panorama of the living room area of the Kilns.
This is the outside of the Kilns.
Lewis' grave.
This is the inside of the Holy Trinity Church Headington Quarry, the church C.S. Lewis attended. It is surrounded by the cemetery Lewis is buried in. The day I saw it, as you can see from the picture of the grave, it was sunny. I decided to try to enter the church, but it was locked so I went to get my bike to move onto some other thing and as I did so the weather changed suddenly to hail and thunder. I ran to the entryway to the church which was covered and waited it out. A lady was there who had access to the church and she let me in and gave me a tour. It was a providential hailstorm.
This is the view from the pew Lewis and his brother sat in. He wanted to sit behind a pillar so that he could see no one and no one could see him. He was a bit antisocial and said that he went to church for God and not for anyone else. Of course, there seem to be some things wrong with that, but of course he wasn't perfect.
This is the "narnia" window in the church. Certainly after Lewis' death, the window shows some characters from the books in Lewis' honor. It is right next to his pew.
This is the great hall in Christchurch college. It is where students and faculty go to eat on occasions. There is formal seating where there are fancy glasses and settings, and at those seats there is table service. But the wooden unfancy tables are used for common seating and a sort of buffet. The students would also go and buy their drinks from the kitchen in an adjoining room. This was used to film the scenes in the Great Hall in Harry Potter.
Fancy table.
This is the view of part of Christchurch college from within.
A statue of a knight. Not sure if it has his bones in it or not. I think so, and this is kept in the christchurch cathedral. He was known as being an enormous man, 6 foot 7 inches and very strong.
This is inside the Bodleian library. Also some scenes from Harry Potter were shot here.
Part of Christchurch college on the inside.
I believe this is Merton College where Tolkien taught.
This is in the Botanic Gardens. The Lily pond.
This is The Fir Tree, a pub showing all of the EuroCup games and one which I attended multiple times. Three, I think in the 5 days I was there.
This is Magdalen (pronounced Mah-dah-len) College from High Street (in other words not inside of it). C.S. Lewis was a fellow here and I desired to go and tour it, but missed my opportunity. However, that didn't stop me from getting a hoodie with the college's coat of arms.
This is the church on Iffley road that I attended on Sunday. It was roman catholic and was attached to a Friary, if that's a word.
On monday I had to leave the B&B at 6:00 am and so would miss breakfast. They obligingly made a tray for me in my room beforehand and I was able to eat breakfast after all.
My last glimpse of oxford, the south park really near my B&B while on the bus heading to Heathrow Airport.
Obviously, I'm safely back in the US in Paducah and I had a great trip. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes during this time! And of course, please don't stop praying cause I still need it! Thanks and love from Aaron.
