First stop in Oxford: We took the express bus from Heathrow Airport to Oxford. This is a couple of blocks from our AirBnB.
Our first walk through Oxford led us past one of many buildings associated with Magdalen College (pronounced, for some reason, "Maudlin"). If I'm reading it correctly, the date on the building says 1480 (MCCCCLXXX).
Great Tower of Magdalen College (aka Magdalen Tower): The construction of the Great Tower began in 1492, the same year that Columbus arrived in America. To me that's mind boggling!
The bells of Magdalen Tower were first hung in 1505!
Our AirBnB hostess told us we had to go to the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin (aka St. Mary's) for the stunning views of Oxford. She was 100% right.
A church was originally established on the site of St. Mary's in Anglo-Saxon times.
According to the church's web site, during the Middle Ages academics of the university would meet in St. Mary's to vote on important issues.
During the reign of Queen Mary, the church was the site of the 1555 trial of the "Oxford Martyrs" -- Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer.
Leaving the main floor of the church, we climbed up and up and up this tower.
Elisabeth leaning on the parapet of St. Mary's
Radcliffe Camera (view from top of St. Mary's), built in 1737-1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library
All Souls College (view from St. Mary's)
View from top of St. Mary's: If you enlarge the picture, you can really see how Oxford is nestled into the surrounding countryside.
Still looking from the parapet at St. Mary's, this time at Brasenose College and Exeter College. According to kingjamesbibletranslators.org, Henry Savile, one of the translators of the King James Bible, enrolled in Brasenose College in 1561 at age twelve!
I'm not sure if this is a specific bishop or why he's standing on someone's head ;-> I do like his gargoyle friend at his right shoulder. The stone masons must have had nerves of steel (or granite, maybe, given their profession) to work at this height.
