Wednesday 30th April 2025

Today I booked a tour of Christ Church College at 10 am, then my plan was to potter around a few of the other Oxford sites. The college tour is led by a porter and includes the Great Hall and Tom Quad. The Great Hall is stunning. The dining hall in the Harry Potter films was modelled on it and they used the stairs in filming. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style for the college. Dinner has two sittings, the first at 6:15 pm and the second at 7:15 pm. If you go to the late sitting you need to wear formal academic dress. At the entrance to the Christ Church Cathedral we were handed off to the verger for a guided tour of the cathedral before exploring the cloisters independently.

After the tour I walked to the University Church of St Mary primarily to climb the tower. The view is spectacular. Afterwards I had a look around the church and attended the short Communion Service at 12:15 pm.

My friend who took me on a tour the previous day pointed me towards the website that lists goings on in Oxford. I decided to go to the lunchtime organ recital in the chapel at Queens College. I used to play the electronic organ and I enjoy a good pipe organ too, and bonus—I got to see inside the gates of another college. Queens College was updated in the 18th century with much of its medieval buildings replaced.

By the end of the recital it was getting late for lunch and I was hungry. I headed to the covered market. I had my heart set on a pie from Pieminister, but when I arrived they were sold out of most flavours. I asked and they had some warming in the oven that would be ready in about 15 minutes. I decided to wait, but I was starving so I popped over to Ben’s Cookies and bought a couple. I ate half of one and kept the rest for later.

Feeling better, I popped across to the History of Science Museum. When I arrived they said that a tour would be happening at 3:30 pm which was 10 minutes away so I decided to hang around and join that. I turned out that I was the only taker, so I had the guide all to myself which was great. In the basement of the building was Oxford’s first scientific laboratory where students were taught chemistry. The museum has a wonderful collection of Islamic time pieces, historic scientific equipment. It’s a small museum but I found it fascinating.

My next stop was Blackwell’s Bookshop. I’d been inside with my friend on our tour the previous day but now I had time to settle in and peruse the shelves. From the outside it looks like your standard small bookshelf, go inside though and it stretches back in to the distance and then you head downstairs and it’s a whole new world of books.

By this time it was almost 6:05 pm which is when Evensong starts at Christ Church Cathedral. I found this service a lot better than Evensong at St Paul’s. We had the full order of service for a start, along with the psalms for the evening. It was also more intimate.

Afterwards I stopped at Marks and Spenser and picked up two small salads for dinner—after the pie I needed my greens.

Daily steps: 16,809