Going to Oxford

We caught the OxfordTube to Oxford yesterday. It's called the OxfordTube but it's not actually a train and it doesn't actually go underground. It's just a red double decker bus and it was about $20 return (student rate). It was a brilliantly bright blue sunny day and we caught the bus at around 9:30 just up the road at the Shepherds Bush Hilton (there's about a hundred Hiltons in London). The bus was packed and we managed to get two seats next to each other on the top deck at the very back. I was sitting next to some British couple and it was quite uncomfortable, not only because they were quite large, but they were making funny noises and moving around a bit. Gross. But we didn't have to sit next to them the whole trip as people vacated seats we changed seats as soon as we saw the other people getting up, and they got off soon anyway. The bus that is.We arrived at the Gloucester Green coach station around 11ish and located the Information Office up one of the main streets where we got a visitor guide and map.We were originally going to hire some bikes and ride them around checking out the sights, but the lady at the Info centre said that the bike shops and hire places don't open on Sundays. So we planned a walking tour around the town and set off. We checked out Oxford Castle (and the gigantic hill/mound next to it, which we thought was more impressive than the actual broken down castle), some colleges (Christ Church, Corpus Christi, Merton, University, The Queen's, New, All Soul's and Magdalen), the Examination Schools, the Covered Market (which was closed), the War Memorial Gardens, the Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden, the punting boats, Hertford Bridge (Bridge of Sighs), the Radcliffe Camera, and the History of Science Museum. A lot of the places there you have to pay to enter so we mostly just checked things out from the outside, or as far in you can go in without having to pay. we would have gone punting but a "chauffeured" ride was about $50 for half an hour, and I'm not brave enough to steer the punt with a 5m stick and try to keep my balance on an "unchauffeurred" $30 ride. We all know what would have happened if I tried... We'll just go on the ones in Venice. It's probably nicer and more romantic there anyway. A lot of the good stuff is free anyway. The town itself is quite pretty with the old buildings and cool gargoyles everywhere. Lots of fresh air, beautiful gardens, and blue skies.