Holiday Season Trip 3 - Oxford

We spent a whole day in Oxford. We started the day early. While we took a walk to get to know the town, we fortunately found a place to have breakfast that was open as early as 8am!

We were happy early bird customers who had not only a window table but also the entire upstairs cafe space of Organic Deli Cafe & Wholefoods Store to ourselves. I had pancake with fruit and yogurt. The pancake wasn't what I expected. It was like a huge and slightly sweetened omelette made with eggs and flour. It was fluffy and tasted fine. Just a little surprise.

J had Eggs Benedict. The color of the poached eggs' yolk was so vivid orange! That was a surprise for him!

Oxford is best known as the home of the oldest university in the English-speaking world! The city was packed with numerous buildings belonged to the university. We had a private tour of Duke Humfrey's Library, the oldest reading room in Bodleian Libraries and actually in Europe. 

Also we visited Museum of Natural History, including Pitt Rivers Museum, in where numerous archaeological and ethnographic objects around the world were displayed. It was like a large collection of souvenirs by world travelers. 

The prestigious Oxford University has 45 colleges. We had a chance to see a few. One of them was Magdalen College. Founded in 1458, the college is often said one of the most beautiful buildings in the Oxford University. It has 100 acres of grounds which include the deer park. Yes, we saw deer far away! C.W. Lewis was a Fellow and Tutor in English Language and Literature there. Narnia series were my favorite books in my childhood.

We visited Christ Church, too. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, it is one of the Oxford's larger colleges. Perhaps the 12th century Christ Church Cathedral is the centerpiece of the collage although my interests were on Harry Potter's filming and model locations, such as the staircase and the Tudor Great Dining Hall.

When I was searching the best bakery in Oxford before the trip, Ben's Cookies popped up. I happened to find the shop in the Covered Market, we tried a classic oatmeal and raisin. It was a soft chewy cookie. Pretty sweet but not so bad. The shop was tiny but original. Their franchise shops are now several in the UK and overseas. I have never heard of them, but surprisingly there are four shops in Tokyo! Well, at least they haven't come to Harrogate yet.

Oxford has a quite beautiful city centre to wander around. It's said that it showcases the examples of buildings from every English architectural period since the late Saxon period.

There was a cafe called the Grand Cafe on High Street. Established in 1650 by a Jewish entrepreneur named Jacob, it is said the oldest coffee shop in England. We passed by the cafe a couple of times. I saw fancy European style fresh cakes in the showcase but we didn't have a chance to entire. Tripadvisor's rating was so-so: 3 out of 5 based on over 780 reviews. It seems like a tourist trap, but I was curious about the place because it looked nice and I am simply attracted with the most "something" things.

We had dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Gees according to J's friend's recommendation. The restaurant was situated in a historical conservatory. It was supposed to be high-end but looked rather open and casual. It was perfect for us because we didn't dress up. On the other hand, there were at least two couples celebrating a birthday. The place must be chosen to be special or memorable, which was a good sign.

Bread with olive oil. It was nicely crusty and chewy.

We had two kinds of starters to share - octopus lentils salad and smoked haddock croquettes. Both were pretty good!

My main was fillet of hake, wilted spinach, potatoes & lemon butter. The fish was a little over-salted but overall the dish was fine. 

J had linguine with king prawns, clams, chilli & fennel. I would have ordered it if chili could be removed!

After the dinner, I was pretty much tired. It was a long day with a lot of walks and funs!

To be continued...