Oxford in the Springtime Part Two: All Souls College & Christ Church Meadow

Did you see my first post about my trip to Oxford this spring? No? Click this link to read all about what I got up to in the morning, then come back here to read today's post about the afternoon's adventures... or be a magical time traveller and read this post first and then go read about part one of my day.

Ready? Let's go...

I spent the afternoon walking through the city with Polly, who is always delightful company. You can't go to Oxford for the day and not visit one of the Colleges, so we picked All Souls which I'd not visited before (I've been gradually ticking them off during Oxford Open Doors weekends and on other visits).

This turned out to be an excellent choice. If you've ever visited Oxford you'll probably have walked past All Souls College, it's the one next to the Radcliffe Camera with the fabulous black and gold gate. You can just see the gate in this photo (it's very shiny close up).

You get so many interesting glimpses through gates in Oxford, it's lovely when you get the chance to go behind the walls and see the quads and the gardens and (of course) the wonderful buildings. The Chapel at All Souls is beautiful - you can see some pictures of the Chapel interior and read about the architecture of the College here.

 

Look, there's the Radcliffe Camera viewed from inside the grounds of All Souls..

... and here's the Library, complete with a wonderful sundial. Don't those windows look like they're covered in black sequins? (Or maybe it's just my textiles-obsessed brain that sees sequins in this picture?).

The College buildings are all so elegant! Imagine studying in a place like this.

Here are those gold gates again, looking out towards the Radcliffe Camera.

It was lovely looking round All Souls, and because Polly and I are both bloggers we both wanted to take our time taking lots of photos to remember our visit by.

This is one of the great perks of visiting places with other bloggers - no-one gets annoyed when the other person keeps stopping to take photos, in fact they probably say "ooh, yes, that looks great!" and get their camera out as well! It was really nice to slowly wander, chatting and taking photos and soaking up the beauty and the atmosphere of the College.

Because Polly loves nature, I suggested our final stop for the day should be Christ Church Meadow.

Of course, we took a whole bunch of photos along the way...

I'd visited the Meadow once before, on a hot and sunny summer's day. It was interesting to see it in a different season and honestly I think it's the perfect way to end a day in Oxford, getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city and out into the wide green open space.

It was a joy to spot lots of birds and other wildlife, and gorgeous wildflowers like cowslips.

And that sky reflected in that still water! Such a simple thing, but so very gorgeous and a really wonderful end to our day.

For even more pics of the Meadow, you can read Polly's post about it here. You'll find all my posts about Oxford here. 

Have you ever been to Oxford? What was your favourite bit of the city?