Oxford Day Tours

The Dreaming Spires

Oxford - the 'City of Learning'. For centuries, scholars have studied here, under the ‘Dreaming Spires’, to one day change the world.

The city, which grew out of a Saxon settlement favoring the strategic position of the River Thames at the River Cherwell junction, became the center of British politics during the English Civil War, when Charles I chose Oxford to house his court. A city of incredible historical and cultural interest, Oxford is home to myriad world-famous museums and art galleries, including the Ashmolean Museum (the UK's oldest museum), the University Museum of Natural History (home to the most complete remains of a dodo anywhere on earth), Christ Church Picture Gallery, and Modern Art Oxford.

Yet, undoubtedly, Oxford is a city defined by its university, the oldest in the English-speaking world. 44 prestigious colleges, emblematic of every English architectural style since 1066, are nestled amongst the iconic Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library, Clarendon Building, Bridge of Sighs, and Sheldonian Theatre. Between them, students hurry in their gowns and mortarboards, balancing bags of heavy books on their bicycles. Just outside the center, Port Meadow stretches along the Thames River, dotted with quaint barges, where Lewis Carroll drew inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

By bicycle, you can explore Oxford's most outstanding architecture, charm, and traditions in a single day, and might even leave the city feeling a little more scholarly.

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