A visit to Oxford and Hogwarts

Tuesday afternoon I took the train to Oxford to see Alison, Mary's junior year college roommate. She is doing a second BA and then an MPhil from Oxford in English literature (with a heavy emphasis on Middle English). We weren't close friends in college, but it was fun to see her. We walked around the town a bit (Oxford is very small, only about 140,000 people) to see the sites. We wandered through a couple of the colleges. Magdalen College had a lovely trail and natural gardens throughout the back, as well as a flood plain. We wandered through another college, and Alison took me into the Hall (which is where they eat), and as I looked around, I stopped dead, turned to her and said,

"WAIT. HOGWARTS IS HERE."

She laughed, and she said she couldn't believe she forgot to take me there. The Hogwarts entrance hall and great hall are filmed at Christ Church college at Oxford, so I got to go and SEE WHERE HARRY POTTER EATS. No joke. Where the magic happens! I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Other than that, we also went to the top of St Mary the Virgin, to check out the view (you can see much of Oxford from there), had some tea in a very quaint garden, and went to the Ashmolean, which is a anthropological and art museum of sorts. We went to Evensong in the Exeter (Alison's college) Chapel, and ate second dinner in her hall. Very cool - very Hogwartian. I was psyched. We ended the evening with a round of cider, but I had to get back to London. It was a relatively unexpectedly great day, and hopefully I'll make it back out there soon. It's always nice to be out of London!