Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon September 22, 2026

Today our actual bus tour started. We met our guide, Oshan, who seems like he will be very good! That's definitely a plus.

Our first stop was Oxford where the famous university is located, first established in 1096. It actually consists of 39 colleges where students get a very individualized education.  The buildings are all very old and impressive. Parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed in some of them. Many famous people have gone to school here including kings, prime ministers, Stephen Hawking, Dr. Seuss and Bill Clinton.

Trinity College, founded in 1555

Reading rooms

The Bodleian Libraries, a group of 23 libraries, were founded in 1602 and are one  of the oldest libraries in Europe with over 13 million printed items. 

Main library 

More old buildings. 

Christ Church is another one of the colleges as well as a cathedral. 

The Martyrs' Memorial in Oxford honors three protestant leaders who were burned at the stake in 1555. 

We got to visit the Ashmolean Museum, one of the oldest museums in Europe with millions of artifacts. 

Stradivari violin 1600s

The tapestries were also 1600s and covered the entire wall, wow!

J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were both professors at Oxford. They met weekly from 1940 into the 1960s at a local pub. Their books are now for sale at the Oxford book store.

Our second stop of the day was Stratford-upon-Avon to see where William Shakespeare was born and lived most of his life. It's a very quaint village. 

Much of the area we drove through today was in the Cotswolds, a beautiful part of England with rolling hills, farms, meadows, grazing sheep, quaint villages and cute houses.

Shakespeare birth house

The house in the picture above was Anne Hathaway's (not the actress) family home. Shakespeare married her when he was 18 and she was 26 because she was pregnant. They had 3 children. Notice the thatched roof. Some houses still have them for historical authenticity. They are expensive to maintain. 

Jester statue with Shakespeare quotes

Shakespeare statue 

Royal Shakespeare theater 

Tonight we are staying at a very nice Holiday Inn in Coventry, England. Coventry was completely annihilated by bombs during WWII, so the entire city was rebuilt in the 1960s and 70s. No history to see here, so tomorrow we continue on to York.