What a dream...the Bodleian Library, Blackwell's Book Shop and more, all in one day!  Our study group went to Oxford, and the Inspector Lewis show will never look the same to me again.  I could easily stay in this town for a long time.  Can you imagine going to school or working here?

There is no way to describe being inside the Bodleian library.  One of the oldest and most famous libraries in Europe, it was re-founded in this building in 1602.  Its beginnings, however, date back to the 14th century.  Not every librarian gets to take a look at this place!

 







No photographs are permitted inside, but the feel is nearly medieval and everything is vintage,  We were encouraged to play with unique (to us) settings on our cameras and I made this shot sepia to reflect the vintage feel of this town.

The library is having a special exhibit of Magical Books, mainly comprised of children's fantasy works by Oxford alumnae like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman.  I saw original maps drawn by Lewis and Tolkien of their magical lands, and notes in their handwriting.  Additionally there were some much older works on alchemy.  After the library visit we ate lunch at the Eagle and Child, the pub frequented by Lewis and Tolkien when they both taught at Oxford.  The food was great and I had a lemonade mixed with rosewater. 

 



 

After lunch we were off to Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford.  How would you like to go to school here?

 



 

Some of the scenes from the Harry Potter films were shot here.  This is the dining room you saw in Hogwarts, and students still eat their meals in this room!



 

Before returning to London by train, I spent some time in Blackwell's Book Shop.  Any librarian knows about the UK's most famous and oldest (1879) academic bookseller.  The Oxford location is the flagship store.  I bought a Welsh dictionary and spent some time chatting with the clerk who happened to be an American student from Virginia.  He is completing his PhD at Oxford.  Envy, envy.  As I left for the station I looked longingly at the antiquarian section in the rear.  A classmate described the three men sitting at desks there as looking like intimidating guardians, but I kept thinking about how much I could have learned from them.  One of my favorite jobs ever was working for an antiquarian bookseller.  Stop back tomorrow to find out what happens at Roald Dahl's house...