Historic Oxford University was founded 800 years ago, in the 12th century. Today, we visited this amazing place! In reality, there are three dozen different colleges — all having a distinct history and building complex.
Oxford is truly a university city, crowded and bustling with students. We saw several students who were taking exams. We knew this because our guide told us that their traditional black and white clothing and various colored carnations denoted exams. A white carnation means that the student is on the first day of exams; pink is the middle stage; and a red carnation is glorious — it means the last day of exams.
Many famous people attended Oxford, including Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea, but most notably our own Dr. Reed!
Oxford is a wonderful school and very historic, but all of us agreed that we prefer our own Queens University of Charlotte, and not ancient Queens College, Oxford!
Today we went on a 4-hour guided tour of Westminster Abbey and several other adjacent areas of the city. Westminster Abbey is not a cathedral, but it is supremely important as the church where the Queen or King of England is traditionally crowned. The last coronation, of course, was that of Elizabeth in 1952. When we entered the Abbey, they were cleaning the large ancient chair that the sovereign sits in when being crowned.
The Abbey is also home to many graves of important people, including those of Lord Byron, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and tons of others in what is known as Poet's Corner. There are also areas for statesmen, for scientists, etc. There are the burial places of many Kings and Queens of England, including Elizabeth I, Bloody Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry VII and Henry VIII. Everywhere you turned in the Abbey was buried some famous figure from British history.
It was also very interesting how these men and women wanted to be buried — some standing up, for instance. And Charles Dickens did not want to be buried in the Abbey at all, but he was so well-loved by the public that the British government went against his dying wish (or so we were told). There is also a wonderful large marker in the entrance that simply says "Remember Winston Churchill" (who is not buried in the Abbey).
Later that night, some people in the group decided to go to see the theatrical production of Fame, some went on the frightening Jack the Ripper Tour, and still others just walked around Hyde Park or went shopping at Harrod's. A jolly good time for all!
