Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1996 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

July 20, 1996

From Universities to an Overrun Writer Hometown

Rushing through Oxford, Stratford, and Warwick

by

Manfred P.

This should be a pretty short trip report. For the second time in my life I decided to go on an organized tour. The first time around, eight months back, the guided tour was not enjoyable. Still being physically weak I thought it might be better for my health to do a one-day guided tour rather than exploring some part of England on my own for the whole weekend.

The trip ran from London to Oxford, Stratford upon Avon, Warwick Castle, and back to London. Oxford had the expected appearance of a British university town. The 30 or so colleges are spread throughout the city. Oxford is the oldest university in the UK. The oldest bookstore is just across the ever expanding library. This is the largest library in the UK but books are not allowed to be checked out. Some library. That tells you something about European customer service and satisfaction. Not unlike the 20th century (Berkeley, etc.) 800 years back, town folks didn't get along with the students. It was so bad that the King allowed the town people to shoot students that "misbehaved". The colleges had to build high fences to keep the town people out at night and to create a safe haven for the students. A lot of the students left Oxford to head for Cambridge making it the second most respected university.

Heading north we swooped by Glenheim Palace where Sir Winston Churchill was born. Not far from it is Woodstock. Not the Woodstock that is well known by the hippie and Pepsi generation. It was the center of the glove making craft. The finest glove makers were to be found here. Shakespeare's dad was a glove maker for example. Rumors have it that OJ Simpson visited Woodstock. Needed to replace that bloody glove, OJ? The rumor is most likely true. He also gave speeches at UK universities (I think it was Cambridge).

From Woodstock it was only a short hop to Stratford. While Oxford was visited by many Japanese tourists buying golf shirts with the Oxford logo, Stratford was packed with European exchange students. It's the summer vacations and all exchange students from continental Europe, I gather, are being sent by their organizers to Stratford, Shakespear's birthplace. French and Italian teens jammed the streets talking everything but English. Shakespeare's birthplace, a rural home with an adjacent museum, wasn't worth visiting. It was humid and hot and I just wanted to get out. Stratford has nice green areas at the river, great for picnics and spending some money for taking a boat ride on Avon. Beyond that the city is definitely overrated. During the off-season without the tourists it's most likely a tad better.

Warwick is one of the best restored castles in Britain. It was built in 1068, just two years of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Back then it was built as a wooden fortress. In the 14th century it was rebuilt as a stone castle. It later centuries it was refurbished as a weekend getaway place, a party hangout for the rich-and-famous of those days. Rich and famous translates into British Royalty and Nobility in this case. They put up Rubens and Van Dyck's on the wall, had gilded shower knobs, etc. You get the idea. Another fad that is spreading throughout the UK is the need for a dungeon at every major attraction. While there used to be only one, now there are three that I know of. Most likely there are even more. One of the dungeons is here. On weekends they also have jousting contests and other spectacles for the visitors.

Well that was about it. And luckily for me the tour guide kept his comments to a minimum on the way back to make this guided tour better than the first.