Travel Journal - Oxford, pt. 1

Oh, Oxford. One week was not enough time with you. I want to have time to sit there, as in days to sit there, and soak it all in; to just wander, and tour all the colleges, and walk all the green spaces, and move in at the Bird & Baby, and get permission to hug the Tolkien Tree. One week is not nearly enough.
Day Six - Got to Oxford on Wednesday, sadly just missing Blackwell's bookshop's Inklings tour, which is said to be wonderful. Of course it's only once a week, and I left just before it the following Wednesday. Clearly a sign I must go back. I did get to wander the 3 miles of books at the store, though, and who doesn't love 3 miles of books?
Day Seven - Ashmolean Museum. Another with too much to see, but it was interesting. For lunch I went to the Eagle & Child. I purposely went at 2:30 so I could sit in the Rabbit Room, where the Inklings sat, and try to imagine them there. And goodness I could. It was wonderful. And the lamb meatballs were delicious. In the evening I went to Trinity Church, C.S. Lewis's church, for a church tour and talk on Lewis. They were having a Lewis celebration service in honor of the 50th anniversary of his death, so there was stuff there all weekend. Oxonmoot started the next day, so I wouldn't be able to go to anything else, but this was the thing that most interested me anyway. So naturally, since I missed the Inkling Tour, there was a sign saying the talk was sold out. I was disappointed. But I saw the church and graveyard anyway, which was something. And then I saw the booth outside where people would be picking up their tickets. And I figured, if you don't ask, the answer's no. So I went up to the man and said, 'So I hear you're all sold out.' 'Actually, we just, not 5 minutes ago, had a cancellation. There's one ticket left, if you'd like it.' And here I'd like to pause a moment and mention that I spent a lot of time on this trip stopping and thanking GOD for wonderful things like this. Had I asked 10 minutes earlier there would not have been a ticket, and I sadly would have gone home without hearing the lecture. But instead I got to hear it. It was given by Alister McGrath, a Lewis scholar and author and Oxford don with a melodious voice. I didn't feel that I necessarily learned anything new, but I was so thankful for the opportunity. Getting to be in that church, attending a lecture on Lewis, getting out in the evening and doing something intelligent was all wonderful. My favorite thing he said was that Lewis believed that, "Something that's not engaging the imagination is not telling the whole truth." So true.