Feb 11th, 2012 at 8:00AM:
Thanks to the London Olympics, which will open on July 27, and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, 2012 is expected to be a boom year for tourism in Great Britain. In the hopes of capitalizing on this trend, six historic cities have teamed up to get noticed by travelers intent on venturing beyond the English capital.
Bath, Carlisle, Chester, Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and York, Britain's ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Oxford posts
Britain's Heritage Cities are ready for visitors
Feb 11th, 2012 at 8:00AM:
Thanks to the London Olympics, which will open on July 27, and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, 2012 is expected to be a boom year for tourism in Great Britain. In the hopes of capitalizing on this trend, six historic cities have teamed up to get noticed by travelers intent on venturing beyond the English capital.
Bath, Carlisle, Chester, Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and York, Britain's ...Is the British pub an endangered species?
Jan 19th, 2012 at 4:00PM: The figures are in for 2011 and it's more bad news for the British pub. An average of 14 a week shut down, and Oxfordshire alone lost 35 this past year.
The pub is an institution. More than just a place to drink real ale, it's a place to see friends, get out of the house, do the pub quiz, and watch football.
My family and I spend every Easter and summer in Oxford, and while we aren't big ...Queens Lane, Oxford: a thousand years of history in a single street
Aug 31st, 2011 at 3:30PM:
Most of the time when we travel (or write about travel) we look at the big picture, yet sometimes a single place can sum up the history and character of a city. Queens Lane in Oxford is one of those places. A quiet backstreet linking the two more popular thoroughfares of High Street and Catte Street, it's overlooked by most visitors. I use it when walking to work at the Bodleian library as a way ...The coolest museum in the world
Aug 30th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
Oxford is full of things to see such as medieval colleges and a lovely stretch of the Thames. Of course, you can find similar sights in other parts of England, although not in such a dense concentration that makes Oxford a perfect day trip from London. The one thing Oxford has that is truly unique is the Pitt Rivers Museum.
The Pitt Rivers is laid out the way museums used to be: cabinets ...The five most beautiful colleges of Oxford
Aug 29th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Oxford is the most beautiful city in England and makes a great day trip from London. What makes Oxford unique is its famous university with more than two dozen colleges. While each has its own distinct character, they tend to all be similarly laid out with one or more quads and a chapel. Here are five of the best.
Magdalen College
Founded in 1456, this college's soaring Gothic tower on High ...London day trip: Oxford
Aug 27th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
London is one of the most popular destinations in Europe because of its eclectic shopping, crazy nightlife, and world-class museums and galleries. It can get a bit tiring and stressful, though. For those who want to get out of the Smoke and see a bit more of England, Oxford makes an easy and enjoyable day trip.
Getting there
The best way to get to Oxford from London is the Oxford Tube, which ...A rural ride through Oxfordshire
Aug 17th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Yesterday was my birthday, and now that I'm halfway to 84 I figured the best way to spend it was with other decaying leftovers from ages past. I mean medieval buildings, not my travel companions.
Oxfordshire offers plenty of hikes, historic buildings, and good restaurants. To celebrate my increasing decrepitude, some friends drove my wife and I from Oxford to the nearby village of Great ...Hiking in Oxfordshire: follies and fields near Faringdon
Aug 15th, 2011 at 12:00PM: I'm spending the summer in Oxford, and so far the English weather has been pretty disappointing with rain, clouds, and cool temperatures that are already making the leaves change color.
Whenever the weather is good here I'm out in the countryside hiking. The weather hasn't been cooperating, so I and a friend went anyway. We chose a hike from Faringdon to Buckland. Faringdon is an old ...England riots: watching Basket Case 2 and waiting for Oxford to burn
Aug 11th, 2011 at 11:30AM: The night before last, I walked into my local convenience store here in Oxford and the pothead manager told me, "Be glad you don't have to stay here all night."
"Expecting trouble?" I asked.
"You haven't heard the news? It's all over Twitter. They're going to gather in five different locations and then attack the city center."
I considered for a moment. The store, and my house, are on the ...Five places to see shrunken heads
Jun 17th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
Call me sick, but I've always been fascinated with shrunken heads.
"OK, you're sick!"
Fine, but you're still reading this, aren't you?
Throughout history many cultures took heads as trophies, including the ancestors of many Gadling readers--the Celts. Celtic warriors used to cut the heads off of enemies and attach them to their chariots to look extra intimidating in battle. Japanese ...The best views of Oxford, England
May 4th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Oxford is the most beautiful city in England. Its famous "dreaming spires" have inspired generations of writers, poets, and scholars. The problem is, there are only two easily accessible spots to get appreciate Oxford's skyline at its best.
This photo shows the Radcliffe Camera, part of Oxford University's Bodleian Library and where I work when I'm not feeding hyenas in Harar, Ethiopia. I ...From myth to Empire: Heracles to Alexander the Great
Apr 29th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
Today's royals have nothing on the ancients.
Alexander the Great and his predecessors enjoyed a sumptuous lifestyle that beats anything William and Kate will ever enjoy, not to mention real power as opposed to lots of TV time. Now an amazing new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, gives an insight into the life of the royal family of Macedon.
Alexander the Great ...Oxford's Ashmolean museum improving its world-class Egyptian galleries
Apr 28th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
The famous Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, England, reopened in 2009 after a £61 million ($101 million) makeover. The redesigned space is more open and airy, with more natural light and windows between exhibitions. Floorspace was doubled in size and the exhibits were made more informative and user firendly. A museum worker explained to me that part of the plan was to ...London 2012 Olympics schedule and ticket prices released
Feb 15th, 2011 at 7:30AM: If you're thinking of going to the London 2012 Olympics, now is the time to start planning.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games has just released the competition schedule and ticket prices. The race is on for tickets, hotel reservations, and flights. Personally I'm avoiding the whole thing. London's transport system is chaotic at the best of times, and an ...The burqa and niqab: can travelers get used to anything? Should they?
Jan 31st, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Travel broadens the mind, at least for most people. As we explore different cultures and beliefs we see that for the most part they're OK. While there are always local customs we just can't follow, in general the more we travel, the more accepting we become.
But how accepting should we get? I've traveled extensively in the Muslim world and I've yet to figure out exactly how I feel about the ...Two sublime day trips from London
Dec 25th, 2010 at 11:00AM:
A few days into a recent 8-day trip to London I was spent. This followed Portobello Road and Covent Garden shopping sprees, a delicious Guinness-oyster pie at Borough Market, a night of clubbing in Shoreditch (the masterful DJ Carl Craig spun at Plastic People), and a day of intensive art immersion (including Christian Marclay's excellent film "The Time" at the White Cube gallery). The ...A Single Square of Christmas
Dec 23rd, 2010 at 10:00AM:
"Here," she gestured. "Try this," and I opened my mouth. The chocolate landed on my tongue and began to melt. It was unlike anything I'd ever tasted. It reminded me of the carob chips foisted upon me during my mother's hippy stage. It was also a bit like the Hershey's Special Dark miniatures I always traded for my sister's Mr. Goodbars at Halloween. But this chocolate was definitely a ...Ghost Forest brings attention to rainforest threat
Jul 12th, 2010 at 4:30PM:
A Ghost Forest is stalking Europe.
Giant trees from Ghana have appeared in Copenhagen, Trafalgar Square in London, and now Oxford. It's called the Ghost Forest Art Project, and it's an innovative way to bring the plight of the world's rainforests to public attention.
Artist Angela Palmer wanted to share her concern with the public about tropical rainforests, which are disappearing fast. An ...Abercrombie & Kent: Five cinema-cations around the world
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:00AM: You may not have that look that Hollywood craves, but you still want to get close to the action, right? You want to touch the greatness that comes with being splashed across screens from coast to coast. Thanks to the latest concept from luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent, you don't need talent. The latest "cinema-cation" packages send you to the locations where some of the hottest movies ...The Sunday roast: British cooking at its best
Apr 4th, 2010 at 3:00PM: Who says the British can't cook?
Every Sunday all across this green and pleasant land pubs serve up a fine roast. The Sunday roast is an old tradition here. It generally includes chicken, beef, pork, or lamb, along with vegetables, potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding, all washed down with a pint or two of real ale. Some pubs even serve vegetarian roasts.
The quality of the pub roast varies ...
