Cruising the Oxford to the End

Oxford is only a short cruise from Thrupp so no need to get too excited about an early start. We pulled up our mooring pins around 10 o'clock and cruised off towards the Oxford Canal terminus expecting a relatively easy day with four locks and four lift bridges to negotiate along the way.

The day turned out to be as planned, which makes a nice change. The crowds at the locks seemed to have petered out at Thrupp, no more queues at the locks or the bridges, it was just a nice day for cruising.

We negotiated Duke's Lock and continued along the Oxford rather than take Duke's Cut on to the River Thames. There was no shortage of moorings along the canal if you could call them that! Many of the designated moorings were overgrown with tall weeds and not a mooring ring in sight! We cruised on, mainly at tick over, due to the high number of permanently moored boats, many unlicensed, many without names or numbers. In fact, many were in such poor repair they looked abandoned. We had little trouble finding a mooring right before the terminus, just across from College Cruisers. These moorings were the closest you could moor to the city, while on the canal and were in by far the best shape of any of moorings we had seen today.

It was early afternoon by the time we arrived so, once moored, we locked up the boats and headed into the city to take a look around. A ten minute walk and we were in the centre of a very overcrowded Oxford.

We have been to university cities before, Cambridge included, so it was no surprise to see lots of young people of university age and lots of bikes. I guess what we weren't expecting was the number of school tour groups both from the UK and Europe. The malls were shoulder to shoulder and the streets with road traffic had people spilling out on to roads.

Rachael had a shopping list to complete so we managed to hit all the right spots to strike things off the list. After the shopping was done there was plenty of time to wander the streets to have a look at the many beautiful old buildings. Oxford Castle was our starting point, a large portion of which has been taken over by a hotel chain.

Oxford University was next on the list but we weren't going to wander all over Oxford for all the campus'. The main entrance, quadrangle and green were beautiful buildings.

Christ Church meadow with Christ Church in the background.

Another shot of Christ Church.

The entrance to Christ Church from the meadow.

 
Rachael managed a few interesting nick knacks for the grandkids at Lewis Carroll's Alice's Shop.

After quite a few hours walking around and in and out of shops, Kevin knew a nice pub by the River Thames. A few pints and a snack at The Head of the River were in order. An outside table at this pub also gave us a view of what we were getting into tomorrow when we go down through the lock on to the River Thames. Several narrow boats passed at a fair clip as they cruised down the Thames with the current.

No need to stay any longer, tomorrow it is down Isis Lock and on to the Thames.