Our Day Exploring Oxford (100th Post!)

The final city Claudio and I visited together during his time in Europe was Oxford, a world-famous city that is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the UK.

I'd been to Oxford with my family many times before, as my sister used to live there, but I'd never really seen all the sights, as we'd usually gone there for days out shopping or theatre trips. However this time, we managed to really explore the city, and I feel like I know it a lot better now.

The sight we saw first was the castle, which isn't too far from the train station. I'd actually visited it back in March last year and blogged about it here, but this time our photos came out a lot better! The castle is quite an underrated attraction in Oxford, and I would say it's definitely a must-see.

Claudio needed to buy some Christmas presents for his family, so we popped into the Westgate Centre. After he'd bought everything he needed, we went up to the top of the mall where the bathroom is. There's actually a rooftop terrace up there with amazing views over the famous spires of the city.

Afterwards, we had lunch, and then it was time to explore some more!

We had some ideas of parts of the city we wanted to see, thanks to the Chilean programme City Tour On Tour. In this programme, the two presenters visit famous cities all over the world, and in the series about the UK, they visit many of the places we went to during Claudio's stay here: London, Bath, Lacock, Castle Combe, Brighton and Cardiff, as well as Oxford. In the Oxford episode, one of the attractions they visit is St Michael at the North Gate, a Saxon tower that's the oldest building in the city.

Just across the street from the tower, you can find 26-27 Cornmarket Street, another very old building that was mentioned in the episode. There's actually a Prêt à Manger there these days, which we went into later. It was cool to have coffee inside one of the oldest buildings in the city!

Then it was time for us to see some of the university's most famous buildings, including the Sheldonian Theatre.

The area of the city where the theatre is located is where many of the most iconic attractions can be found, including the Bridge of Sighs. Its official name is actually Hertford Bridge, but it has now come to be known as the Bridge of Sighs owing to its similarity to the bridge in Venice. Standing in front of it really does give you the sense of being in Italy.

Nearby you can find the Bodleian library, the main library of the university and one of the oldest in Europe. It occupies several buildings, including the Clarendon building and the Schools Quadrangle, whose entrance is known as the Tower of the Five Orders.

The best-known building of the Bodleian Library, and also the best-known building in the entire city, is the Radcliffe Camera.

It really is a grand and impressive sight to see, and it was one of our favourite attractions that we saw during the trip.

Other beautiful buildings in the area include All Souls College...

...and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

The next place we went to see was Christchurch college. It's generally considered to be the most attractive college of the university, and it even has its own cathedral and meadow. Usually it's open to visitors, but obviously it's been closed recently due to Covid. However, it was still very nice to see from the outside.

Next we went back to the central shopping area of the city to see another famous old tower, St. Martin's Tower or Carfax Tower, which is the only remaining part of the 12th century St. Martin's church.

Then we went to see the Ashmolean Museum. It's not open at the moment, but it's a very grand, Roman-style building, and worth just going to have a look at.

During our day in Oxford, we also enjoyed exploring the Covered Market and walking round the city's picturesque streets.

All in all, we had a great time exploring this beautiful and very European city. I actually had mixed feelings about Oxford before, as I don't like the snobby, superior attitude of the Oxford and Cambridge universities. In my opinion, they're not any better than the other universities in this country; you only have to look at the incompetence of the current government (most of whom studied there) to realise that. But it's true that the architecture of Oxford University is amazing to see, and I'd definitely recommend it as a destination to anyone visiting England for the first time.

Claudio and I thought this trip would be the last one we'd have before he went back to Chile. However, his flight was moved again, so we got to spend a couple more weeks together, including Christmas and New Year, which was really lovely. We also had time for another trip - I'll be writing about that soon.

On another note, I'm quite excited that this is my 100th post on this blog! Over the couple of years since I first set up Charlotte's Travel Adventures in October 2018, I've visited eight different countries - nine if you count England and Wales separately - and had many memorable and varied travel experiences, from floating in a lagoon in the Atacama Desert, to teaching English in Poland, to exploring my own local area in South West England. Blogging has really become a passion for me, and I plan to continue writing here for many years to come!

Our Day Exploring Cardiff

Before Claudio arrived in Europe, I'd made a list of places for us to visit together in the UK, and Cardiff was one of the places on that list. I'd been there back in January last year and really enjoyed exploring the city, especially the castle. However, by the time Claudio got here, non-essential travel to Wales was banned, so we thought we wouldn't be able to go. But fortunately, after Lockdown 2 was over, we were allowed to travel from England to Wales for tourism purposes. I was very happy that we had the chance to visit another country in the UK!

We took the train to Cardiff from Swindon, which was actually an unexpectedly memorable experience. A man on the train wearing a balaclava was acting strangely, and went and hid in the toilet for most of the journey. Once we arrived in Cardiff, he finally emerged and we could hear him being questioned by the staff and telling them that his name was "Wolf". And then after we'd passed the ticket barriers, we saw him go through, following right behind someone else (as he didn't have a ticket). The station staff started shouting at him, but he ran outside before they could catch him. It was a weird, but also entertaining start to the day!

When we got outside, we discovered that it was absolutely tipping it down with rain - not ideal for sightseeing. But we decided to persevere!

Naturally, we headed for the castle, and on our way there we saw the impressive St John the Baptist Church, the only medieval building in the city apart from the castle.

Then we went inside the grounds of the castle! The interior wasn't open to visitors, but the public square was free to enter. It was very quiet, but there was a lot going on there compared to the previous time I'd visited, including a German Christmas market, a Christmas lights display, and an Alice in Wonderland display.

Claudio was really amazed by the castle, and he said that it was one of the best things he'd seen in the UK. It really is a dramatic-looking place, especially in the rainy weather.

Next we went to Bute Park, which is just next to the castle. It was very muddy there but still a nice place to walk. This is where you can find the Gorsedd Stone Circle, which looks very similar to Avebury but which was actually installed in 1978!

There are also great views of the castle from the park. 

The next place we went to see was the City Hall, a very grand and beautiful building.

After having lunch in St David's Dewi Sant mall, we went off to explore another part of the city, Cardiff Bay. I hadn't managed to go there on my previous visit, as it's quite a long way from the city centre, and I'd ran out of time. 

Luckily this time, I had some Uber vouchers courtesy of my side hustle doing online surveys, so it only took us 5 minutes to get down there.

Cardiff Bay looks like the ocean, but it's actually a man-made lake, with the sea just beyond its boundaries. The part we arrived in was a retail area called Mermaid Quay (what a name!) and it was a very attractive place. We were quite intrigued as to why there were Swedish flags there!

Many of the capital's most famous buildings are in the bay, including the Pierhead Building...

...the Senedd, which is the Welsh parliament building...

...the Millennium Centre...

...and the Norwegian Church. This is actually now an arts centre with a café, but unfortunately it's closed at the moment. It was still very cool to see such a typically Scandinavian building in the UK. It brought back memories of Skansen in Stockholm!

After exploring Cardiff Bay, we took the Uber back to the train station and just managed to board the train with a minute to spare! It had been a very tiring and rainy day in the capital of Wales, but we had had a fantastic time.

Claudio really enjoyed visiting Wales for the first time, and we'd like to go back there again and see different parts of the country. Here's hoping we can do that in the relatively near future!

Brighton: Day Two

On our second day in Brighton, we arrived at the Pavilion in the morning, ready to go inside when it opened.

The weather was a little nicer than it had been the previous day, and the Brighton Dome looked stunning in the sunlight.

Then at 10 o'clock, it was time for us to enter the palace!

When we'd been planning the trip, we actually hadn't been sure about buying tickets to go inside; they were quite expensive at £15.50 each, and the pictures and videos we'd seen online of the interior didn't look particularly impressive. But in the end we decided to go for it, because after all, you don't get many opportunities in your life to look around an Indian-style palace!

And as it turned out, the cost of the tickets was totally worth it - the interior of the Pavilion was absolutely amazing. Although the palace's exterior was inspired by India, most of the rooms inside were inspired by China and Japan, and the decoration was so elaborate and ornate, featuring many beautiful chandeliers, paintings, curtains and pieces of furniture. In addition, we had the place almost to ourselves, which was just a brilliant experience. 

After we'd finished exploring the palace (and the gift shop!), we went back outside to take some photos. The opposite side of the building to the visitor entrance is the part that is photographed the most, and we hadn't seen it yet. But when we got there, it looked quite different to how it did on the internet! For starters, there was scaffolding covering parts of the building. And the "lake" which had looked so beautiful in pictures online was actually a tiny little pond surrounded by litter...

But despite all that, it was still a beautiful sight to see. We almost could have felt like we were in India, if it weren't for the British weather!

Afterwards, we wandered through the city down to the beach again. The difference between the ocean that day and the previous day was incredible! Whereas before the ocean had been wild and dramatic, now it was calm, and there was sunshine. In my pictures, it actually looks quite summery!

The final sight we went to see was the Western Pavilion, a house that was inspired by the Brighton Pavilion. It's not very big, but as one of only a few Indo-Saracenic buildings in the UK, it's an interesting place to look at.

Next we had a look around the Lanes shopping area, which to be honest I thought was a bit overrated and worryingly busy. After that we had lunch at a really nice Italian restaurant in the shopping centre, and then (sadly!) it was time to take the long train journey back home.

We had had an wonderful weekend exploring Brighton, and our trip there was definitely one of the highlights of Claudio's time in Europe. It's a really unique and vibrant city, which manages to be both very British and very international at the same time.

Both of us would like to go back one day - preferably in the summer, when it's possible to swim in the sea. Our tickets for the Brighton Pavilion are valid for a year, so perhaps we'll be able to take advantage of them later on in 2021. Watch this space...

Read about Brighton: Day One here!