Sights and Sounds of Oxford

So yesterday we took a walking tour of Oxford to check out the art and architecture. Of course, this place in ancient and the first college we visited, Balliol College, was opened in 1263...you know...basically yesterday. It is a beautiful place, lovely quads, gardens, and Mediaeval Architecture.
Stop 2: Exeter College. This is where J.R.R. Tolkein went to school and there is a bronze bust of him on the way to the chapel. It was estbalished in 1314, but the oldest part left, Palmer's Tower, was built in 1432. And the chapel. Wow. Google it or something because it is absolutely gorgeous!
Stop 3: Brasenose College, established in 1509. It got it's peculiar name from a statue that lost it's nose - 'Brazen' 'Nose' = 'Brasenose. And you thought everyone here was a genius...
Stop 4: University Church of St. Mary's. Pretty sure every chuch here is named St. Mary's. Well here in Oxford, there has been a church on this site since the 1100's. Dang.
Stop 5: Magdalen College (remember to pronouce it "Modlin"). Established in 1453 and C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll both attended here. It has the tower with the famous dreamy spires and it's right along the river. It's absolutely beautiful and there is a deer park with live deer - duh. Still cool. And there is a gigantic tree out back that apparently inspired Carroll's rabbit hole for Alice in Wonderland. And Addison's Walk - wow.
Stop 6: New College - coooool place! First of all, 'new' in this instance means nothing. It was established in 1379 - maybe that was new once upon a time. There is an ancient Roman wall that runs through the campus as well which is fantastic and then there is a great mound on the quad that was said to be a burial ground during the Black Plague. If you're ever in the area, you should go up to the mound and clap. Sounds retarded, but the strangest thing happens - when you clap, the sound echoes as a squeak. It's so bizarre! In the chapel there is a very strange statue to Lot's wife turning back and turning into salt. And in the quad between the cloisters has this great old tree that was used in Harry Potter - where Draco turns into the weasel. I touched it! Haha! The cloisters were also in the film - they were pretty freaky though, dark, with creepy statues.
Stop 7: Keble College: what a wierd looking school! It's a Victorian structure, red/yellow/blue brick instead of the gorgeous stone that all the other schools are made of. One thing that is cool is that in the chapel, there is a painting by Holman Hunt called 'The Light of the World' and it is just gorgeous. It's the original. Sweet deal.
So that was our tour...Now you can imagine what I see everyday!