A walk through Christ Church Meadow

Hello all. I've been terrible about blogging this summer. The weather has been too nice to sit inside in front of a computer and I've been enjoying a break from work (though work is starting to creep back in on me, lol). I'm more than two months through my summer, and have just under one month left to go. Part of me is ready to be home, back in my own flat with my own kitchen and my own bathroom, and a bed that doesn't have springs that poke me in the middle of the night. 

But I will miss being able to walk everywhere, being so close to everything but also being somewhere where the weather is livable rather than an evil force trying to kill me. (If you think I'm exaggerating you clearly have never lived in the Phoenix Valley).

So, as the calendar got ready to start ticking down my last month, on Sunday I decided to do something I hadn't done yet this summer and go for a walk through Christ Church meadow. I hadn't done this since last summer, and even then I only did it once. It was a first date, with a guy that things went nowhere with (but that's another story). After a full English breakfast at Cote Brasserie (my favorite restaurant here, and I don't care that it's a chain) I needed a long walk but didn't want to walk too far away from city center, so I headed down some of the back roads and side streets and made my way to Christ Church College. 

As I approached it was swarming with people, everyone wants to see where Harry Potter filmed some scenes. It has a lot of other great history, but let's be real, Harry Potter is why huge tourist groups will pay £9 to tour an Oxford college when most of them only cost £2 to get into.

But once I got past the crowds and on to the path that goes around the meadow, things got much quieter and less crowded. It's a beautiful walk, the path shaded by huge trees, and when you get to the other side you can look across the meadow and see Christ Church as well as the tower of St. Mary's and the dome of the Radcliffe Camera. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and a bit warm by English standards, though still perfect considering the temperatures back home.

Below are my pictures from the afternoon. Hope you enjoy. xx

This is probably one of my favorite buildings, on New Inn Hall Street, around the corner from where I ate breakfast. Love all the green! 

Coming from the suburbs of Phoenix, where every house looks like the other, it's so cool being somewhere where every building is different from the other.

Walking behind Marks & Spencer to avoid the crowds on Queen Street.

Love this phone booth outside the Story Museum.

Passing Christ Church College to get to the meadow.

Everything is Alice this year.

Especially at her shop. :)

View of the college, just inside the gates to the meadow.

Massive queue of people waiting to get in to the college. No thank you.

One of the playing fields for Christ Church, and I think that's Merton College across the way (I get all the colleges a bit mixed up).

Loved this cottage.

Don't ask me which river this is. But it was a great day for punting and rowing.

Looking back across to Christ Church.

In the center is Christ Church, but the tall spire to the right is St. Mary's. You can't see the dome of the Radcliffe Camera in this shot, I'll have to take another. Planning to do this walk before I leave and take my DSLR with me.

Geese! I walked past them pretty quickly. Ducks I like, geese and swans kind of freak me out.

All in all, it was a lovely walk. I've done it two more times since Sunday. Hope you've enjoyed the pictures. I'll try to get more blog posts up soon. :)