Windsor & Oxford

Day 4 Windsor & Oxford

A free morning to wander around this Royal town on a sunny morning or watch the changing of the Guard ceremony at Windsor castle. The guards were magnificent in their scarlet tunics and the band played the “Great Escape” as they come out of the castle.

On to the University town of Oxford with many famous colleges. Christ Church College formally called cardinal college after Cardinal Wolsey. Henry VIII changed the name after Wolsey failed to get the divorce he wanted. Many famous people have been to Christ Church among them, a certain Charles Dodgson or more famously known as Lewis Carol, author of Alice in Wonderland. One of the windows in the Great Hall has been created in the 1970’s to show all the characters from the Alice tales. The Great Hall was also where Michele Obama gave a speech to some schoolgirls last week.

Magdalen a college, features a previous student, a young Thomas Wolsey. The chapel has all superb sepia stained glass windows which is very unusual if not unique. Also in Oxford is the memorial to the Martyrs Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, burned at the stake by bloody Queen Mary.

On to Tewkesbury to stay the night in the Tudor House hotel dating from 1540 and where the Pilgrim Fathers stayed before embarking for the new world. We had a splendid dinner in the hotel dining room finished off with port and stilton.