I would be interested to hear your views after you've been.

Went a while ago and was a bit disappointed. The city itself wasn't bad but with all private traffic excluded the place was overrun with buses belching out diesel fumes and it wasn't very pleasant.

Haven't been to Oxford in about forty years, but when I did used to go I hated it!

City of dreaming spires? Yeah, and daydreaming drivers!

Never mind. Perhaps it's improved over the last forty years.

Also see Here:

City Guide

I know Oxford quite well. We have friends who live there, so we visit quite often, and when I was younger I spent a few years pretending to study there, but in reality I studied the pubs and the girls more than the books I should have been reading.

It's a lovely city,and there are some great pubs. The Bear Inn in Alfred street is the city's oldest (and most cramped) pub - over 700 years old. The Eagle and child in St. Giles is well worth a visit. It used to be Tolkien's local. The Head of the River is a must if you like riverside pubs full of students.

The Trout Inn at Wolvercote is very pretty, and beloved of students. Walk to it if the weather's nice, it's worth it.

Then there's the Turf Tavern in Bath Place, full of atmosphere, and another student haunt.

Can you see a pattern emerging? I told you I studied hard.

wee eddie

There's no 'run' as such at Oxford. The big (perhaps I should say 'biggest') drink-oriented event has always been the morning of 1st May.

The idea is that you get up at about five in the morning,hire a punt, and have a picnic on the river, under or near Magdalen bridge. The picnic is washed down with liberal quantities of alcohol, and that results in students falling into the river and generally making complete fools of themselves. The night before, there has been a dance, also accompanied by liberal amounts of alcohol, so you can imagine the state most people are in before they even get on the river.

At some point in the 1980s students decided it would be a great idea to jump off the bridge into the river as part of the festivities. The water is fairly shallow there, and needless to say there were accidents. So many accidents happened one year that the authorities decided to close the bridge on that day from then on. I don't know if it's still the case, but I imagine it is - people were badly hurt.

Students, eh? Some of them go on to run the country, and carry on making fools of themselves in other ways.