Oxford Pt. 2

So it is now Wednesday and it is still going just as wonderful as the first two days. On Monday, I started my class. Then after class, a few of us took a walk around the city and wandered over to Christ Church. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. We walked the trail around it and just chilled out, yo.

We have our own lane!

Here's the sign I mentioned in my previous post...

For some reason I am fascinated by all the red doors I see...so I had to take a picture of one

Sunglasses on the side of a building...Oxford has given me so many decorating ideas!

In front of Christ church

Some of the gardens at Christ church...it's like the Secret Garden!



Along the trail...

This duck/goose/whatever was one of the weirdest creatures I have ever seen...it's feet are really gross looking


Some views of Christ Church from the trail:

The last pointy steeple on the right is my college area...


This goose loved me. After I whistled at it it turned and looked at me...



On Tuesday (yesterday) we went to West Wycombe Park. It was built by Sir Francis Dashwood. It had some pretty interesting history. If you want to read about him more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Dashwood,_15th_Baron_le_Despencer and also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hellfire_Club

The house itself was pretty amazing and had decor from all the major decor movements like Palladian and Neoclassical...all mixed together. That was interesting. There are also some caves that we went into that Francis dashwood and his buddies used to have meetings for their Hellfire clubs. The caves were somewhat dark and scary. And at one point, I found myself alone because I was too busy taking pictures and I didn't realize the group had gone on ahead. I heard water dripping and it wasn't very fun. Luckily, they hadn't gone too far. The grounds were gorgeous and the BBC Network were filming Little Dorrit (I had never heard of it..turns out it is some Dickens novel). I was hoping it wasn't a period film, that way I could just wander on set and be part of the film. But I think they would notice me in my street clothes. I looked up the film on imdb.com when I got home and I recognized some of the actors. Gollum from the Lord of the Rings is in it...but we didn't see any of the actors...Anyways...here are the pictures from there: (Unfortunately I couldn't take any inside the house itself)


The main house


The music temple on an island...they were filming:


So supposedly Sir Francis Dashwood liked to play war and he and his buddies would fire cannons at each other from across the pond. This is one of the cannons they used. He also kept a scaled down military ship in the pond with a hired commander-man-dude and a cannonball hit him and killed him one time.

Me trying to look casually intellectual.


I took this picture of this dog because I thought he was cute, then his owner walked by with a fishing pole. Turns out he is one of Sir Edward Dashwood's (the current Barron and owner of West Wycombe) good friend. This dog might have possibly known Prince William.




Rebel.




Inside the caves:
Weird. They were trying to demonstrate how the local children would come and play in the caves. It just came off as extremely creepy, as did most of the mannequin displays they had set up.



Today we went to Stratford-upon-Avon (the birthplace of Shakespeare) and toured the city and then went and watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. On our way to the city, we made a pit-stop at the Baddesley-Clinton estate thing. It was a 16th century Tudor-style home, complete with a moat. This house also featured several priest holes, because England wanted to kill the priests because they had been plotting against Henry VIII, so this house would hide some. We couldn't take pictures in the inside, just like at West Wycombe. One of the bed frames had been made with wood that was salvaged after the Spanish Armada washed up on the shores of England. That was truly fascinating to see. I mean to know that that wood had come from the ships that...GAHHH...it's mind-boggling. So here are a few pictures from that house:





Then we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon and toured Shakespeare's childhood home. The floors are all original as is most of the furniture. To know that I was walking on the same floor that William Shakespeare had walked was mind blowing too. It's not so much the fact that I just love him, but he's just such an important figure I've heard of all my life, and well...I'm sure you get it...lol...Also, I am taking the Shakespeare in Performance class and we are currently reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I have never really taken a lot of Shakespeare, but I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about.


The gardens outside the house





The front of Shakespeare's crib


Some random boats with the female leads from his plays on there

The theatre we went to



The end. Until next time.


Cheers.