Traveller's Tales...

Oxford

On the second day of our trip down south we decided to explore Oxford, which was a forty minute drive from Kingham where we were staying. When we arrived it was quite busy, but then it is very popular with tourists, especially with it being the school summer holidays. We had a wander around some of the shops on the high street, and went into the indoor market, which had everything from hand knitted scarves to decorated wedding cakes and a fishmongers, a quaint change from another Topshop and Primark.

At this point it was around lunchtime and we were feeling a little peckish, so we stopped at a nice little sandwich shop and bought some food. I had a bacon, brie and cranberry panini which was lovely, but they also had some more unusual combinations, such as chicken and mango chutney, and butternut squash and sweet chilli sauce. We walked through a park that was nearby, enjoying the good weather, and then headed to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The museum had some awesome felled trees outside that had come from all over the world, so after we had taken some photographs we went inside. It was free to enter, and had some amazing displays, including huge dinosaur skeletons, stuffed animals (some that you could touch), fossils that were millions of years old, intricate model boats and clothes from different cultures that were interesting to look at. We didn't get chance to look at everything as we were on quite a tight time schedule, but it was great to have a browse and feel like you were learning something!

When we got back outside it had started to drizzle, so we decided to go for coffee and cake in the Ashmolean dining room, a rooftop restaurant in the Museum of Art and Archaeology that specialises in afternoon tea. I had a cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle cake that was delicious, and my friend who had recommended the place had a cream tea that looked gorgeous. It was a luxurious establishment (I especially loved the light fixtures made entirely of feathers!) it was just a shame that the rain meant we had to sit inside, instead of enjoying the view from the roof.

As my boyfriend and I had to travel back to Cheshire that evening unfortunately we didn't have enough time to look around the attached museum, but the bits we saw of Oxford were very nice, and some of the architecture along the main streets is beautiful. If you do go though, be careful with parking, as we got stung for £11.50 for 4 hours in the area we were in! It didn't spoil our day though, and we headed back to Altrincham after a nice restful couple of days thanks to our lovely hosts.