Hi everyone,
Sorry that I am failing at posting recently. Having an internship and looking for a real job takes up entirely too much of my time. Please excuse the informality of this post, a friend had asked me to tell her what to do for a day trip in Oxford so I am going to re-paste the email below. Maybe in the near future I will have time to clean it up!
1) The ORIGINAL Ben's Cookies is in Oxford in the Oxford Covered Market (it is a bit hidden off the high street so might be best to ask someone, one entrance is near boots). The high street it is off of is Cornmarket http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=the+covered+market,+oxford&fb=1&gl=us&hq=the+covered+market,&hnear=0x48713380adc41faf:0xc820dba8cb547402,Oxford,+UK&cid=0,0,6404221355595297140&ei=FcpoToDQJura0QGRlM2EDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&ved=0CAQQ_BI. The covered market is also cool in general and has a really popular shake shack as well.
2) The Garden Pub. If you do not have lunch here you are really missing out. This is a strictly vegetarian pub but it is so freaking good that my boyfriend an avid meat lover would make us go on the weekends specifically from Reading for lunch some weekends (he was lamenting about not having it the other day). It is in Jericho which is a really trendy neighborhood but a little out of the way so either write down directions or take a cab. http://www.thegarden-oxford.co.uk/
It is also a quintessential academic/ country pub.
3) The Oxford University Press, can't go in but it is big and impressive (also in Jericho).
4) Christ Church, this is 'the' elite college of Oxford you pretty much have to be someone to get in. It is also where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed. You do have to pay to go in (which I have never done since I could care less about wizards) however the grounds themselves are also amazing and you can walk down to the river and see some of the crew clubs as well.
5) The Eagle and Child is a famous pub where previous famous oxford students used to go. (Tolkien, C.S. Lewis).
6) The best yet most impossible pub to find (once again ask because I can barely find it just wandering and cannot possibly hope to give directions- just know you have to walk down a really really narrow alley near the bridge of sighs for one of the two entrances - both of which are down narrow alleys) is Turf Tavern. This is another famously frequented pub and is allegedly where Bill Clinton 'did not' inhale. http://www.theturftavern.co.uk/
Other than that Oxford is a city with a university unlike Cambridge which is a university with a town so you can fill your day fairly easily. All the 'big' tourist attractions however are doable in a day. I personally recommend arriving in time for lunch, going to Garden Pub walking through Jericho to get back to the center, ambling around, having Ben's Cookies as a snack and ending the day at Turf Tavern.
