Cambridge and Oxford

Oxford and Cambridge are reputable university in the world. If one is able to graduate from any of these colleges, they are normally regarded as the cream of the crop in the society. And I have planed to visit these two great universities between 22-23 Oct.
I took a “virgin” train from Manchester to Oxford. The trip has not been smooth sailing because another train broke down along the same track resulting in an hour delay for my trip. In all, it took 4.5 hours to get to oxford. The train station is right at the edge of the cit y centre. And of course one can expect the university right in the city centre. If not, it will at least be very near to it. This is only natural as shops and other commercial building are built around the university to tap on the huge student population.

University of Oxford is the oldest university in England and it consists of 39 different colleges. Now how is it possible? Well this I am not sure as the history is quite complicated therefore if you are interested, you can go to the university website to read up. The city is actually quite vibrant as expected from a city of students. There are many pubs and restaurants and other retail shops selling clothes and other stuff. The city also has quite a fair bit of tourist attraction such as its own colleges, church, museum and other attractions.

Today the city is actually much crowed because there is a graduation ceremony for one of the colleges. I read from some where that says that the graduation ceremonies are very traditional and it is still being held in Latin. My first visit was to the colleges and their architecture is indeed quite nice and also very old. In fact each college design looks just about the same from the others and I got bored very quickly. The design consists of a rectangular wall to form up the parameter with a relatively small entrance to the college. Upon entering there is usually a large courtyard with very nice grass like those in the golf course and probably a statue right in the middle of it. Then of course there are rooms at the parameter of the courtyard.




I also visit the famous Oxford Museum. It showed case a lot of exhibits. With themes from the Roman Empire, Egypt dynasty, Japan, China and of course England’s very own heritage. The exhibit is just too much to describe so I will not be elaborating it.






The other venues that I visit are the church and some towers that claim to be more than 1000 years old. Well some of them are still in fact can be considered as still being the tallest around oxford as I am able to have a good view from around the town without obstruction.
My trip to oxford came to an end at about 6pm where I will be taking a coach to “the other side”. And the journey took me about 3.5 hours. I quickly proceed to my accommodation at a youth hostel to rest because it is late and there is nothing to see in Cambridge at night other than drunken students roaming the streets.













At Cambridge my itinerary is about the same after all both this towns are established due to the huge student population and thus have about the same stuff. However there is a huge difference in both the life style and architecture. In Cambridge, the city is not as vibrant as in oxford. I do not know the reason but I suspect because of the culture. Similarly, University of Cambridgeconsists of 31 colleges. The reason the place is called Cambridge is because there are many bridge over a tiny river known as the river Cam. The width of the river is probably not more than 20 meters and at most about 2-3 meters deep. (Even much smaller than kallang river) This river has a very long history as it was a major trading route during the Roman Empire and also when the Vikings were in England.

Cambridge was also involved in the civil war which results in many of its bridge being destroyed all except one. And it is still standing and has the privilege of being the oldest bridge. For the architecture of the colleges, many of them are very beautiful and easily surpass those in Oxford. Probably because they are not as old but still was built even before Sir Stanford Raffles discover Singapore. Each of the colleges is unique in design and is very huge. The most popular colleges are king, queen, trinity and St Johns College. Between these, Trinity is the richest and also has the most nobel prizes.

The best attraction is of course punting which is taking a small boat ride down river Cam and enjoy looking at the colleges which are situated just beside the river. The ride has proven to be very enjoyable and I highly recommend it. They also have museum that showed case different exhibits from all over the world. Except that those in Cambridge focus more on England and it’s own heritage. That is all that I visit in Cambridge because of the shortage of time and also because Cambridge is really a small town as well. Now I have to endure the longest journey back to Manchesterwith a 3.5hour coach ride and 4 hour train ride.

Next stop is London, Capital of England.