Oxford & The Cotswold's:
I took a London Walk Tour to Oxford and the Cotswold's, with a great guide called Chris. The train ride takes about two hours.
The train station in Oxford was built only in 1855, as the people of Oxford opposed tourism. The station was built then, to enable the people of Oxford to go to London and see the great exhibition. From the train station we took a buss to see one of the Cotswold's villages. "Cots" -- meaning sheep enclosures, and "Wolds" are hills.
The first village we saw was a nice village called Minster Level, near the River Windrush. The village was built of small houses with thatched or slate roofs. The village reminded me of "The Shire" in "The Lord of the Rings". Because of the heavy rail all through the week, all the fields were flooded with water. In the Village we saw the church of St. Kelem, who was a King of this area in the 8th century when he was 8 years old and his older sister plotted with his tutor to kill him after he took her dolls. The tutor beheaded him, and the Pope dreamt about him, and that's how he became a saint (or something like that).
Then we went to Bedford to eat lunch - I had a lovely lunch at the Huffkin's Tea House - a nice vegetables soup, toast and for desert a great Christmas cake from the bakery shop at the entrance to the teahouse.
We passed along the Thames that overflowed and flooded the nearby fields, over a toll bridge in which the fee hadn't changed since the 14th century when it was half a crown (the coin doesn't exist any more) - now it is 14 pens per a full bus.
Then we returned to Oxford. The guide tolled us about the arguments in the past between the Town and the Gown - between the people who lived in the city of Oxford, and the scholars in the collages of Oxford. One such argument in 1209 led to many wounded and another in 1346 left two students dead. The city of Oxford was then punished, and up to this day - every February the mayor of Oxford has to go to the University Church and pay compensation - two silver pens.
Hitler didn't bomb Oxford during the Badeker Raids (when he bombed the tourist cities of England according to the listing in the Baideker Tourist Guidebook) - which led to the belief that he planned Oxford to be his capital, once he conquered England. We saw the pub called "Eagle & Child", to which the locals refer as "Bird & Baby" in which Tolkin used to sit, we saw the Sheldonian Theatre and the Bodleian Library, The Radclif Camera (part of the library) and the collages - All Souls Collage, Trinity Collage, and we entered into Brazenose Collage -- a collage named after a doorknocker which hangs over the teacher's table in the dining hall.
Later I went to see Christ Church Collage in which I saw the great dining hall -- which was seen in the film Harry Potter. I also so Tom's Quad -- the great court of the collage.
Links: London Walks
Start: Paddington Railway Station (Circle or District Line)
End: Same.