We did briefly consider having an Oxford campsite on Tom Quad at Christ Church College, but we informedly advised ourselves against it. (See, we can be clever and don-like too.) And it’s a good deal more clever to have Oxford camping on the outskirts of the city too, because that way one can alternate days peering around the city with days tripping around highlights of the shire like the Oxford Canal and the start of the Cotswolds at Burford. Also donnishly clever.
Some sleight of mind will be needed to sort what to do first in Oxford, but if we were there this very week (packs), it’d be straight to the uni first for the Bodleian Library’s 11 million tomes and the art and archaeology of the Ashmolean Museum, followed by a trip to Blackwell’s and the biggest roomful of books to buy in Europe – because after the Bodleian we would have to buy something literature-like. Punts along the Cherwell and Oxford stretch of the Thames would be very much in order too, preferably reading lazily while someone else did the hard work. That’s a pretty brainy way to do things too.
