Oxford
 

Plan on spending a day in Oxford with to young teenage girls, 13 & 15yrs. Any recommendations on what they might enjoy?Will be in the UK 6/5 through 6/19. Colleges to visit? I know only certain colleges allow visiting. We will probably drive from Stanton in the Cotswolds.

If they enjoyed the Harry Potter movie, check out the Bodleian Library and other venues that were used in the film.

drive in on the A44 through Woodstock (a good chance to see Blenheim Palace) and park in the Park-and-ride lot at the large roundabout just as yo approach Oxford. parking and driving within Oxford is very difficult so even most of the loacal use the park/ride lots. Parking is free and the bus fare is very inexpensive and it drops you in the middle of the city.<BR><BR>Get to Woodstock by 10 AM, wander around the grounds and then enter when they open at 10:30. Spend a couple of hours ther and then drive on to the park/ride lot. You will be in Oxford by 1PM and have all afternoon. First go to the Tourist info office in Gloucester Green and take a walking tour. these are great, only cost &pound;4 and will get you into at least two colleges. The guides are moostly retired from the university and are very knowledgeable about the city.<BR><BR>After the walking tour, wander over to Christ Church College. it is one that is always open to visitors - but they do charge a small entrance fee. By now you will have seen three colleges and most of the major sites in Oxford and you can then just walk along the river or through the covered market or along the High to Magdalen College/Bridge.<BR><BR>There are almost 40 colleges - probably the most interesting sre All Souls, Magdalen, New, Merton, Corpus Christi, trinity, St John's, Christ Church, Lincoln, Queen's and a couple of others. Unfortunately, due to the hordes of visitors, most are now closed to the public most of the time. that is why the walking tours are so great.<BR><BR>If you do not decide to combine it with a visit to Blenheim spen the entire day in Oxford and go down to the Cherwell Boathouse and rent a punt to float down the river. great fun and they will give you a short lesson how to pole the punt without falling in the water.

If the day is not too dreary, as the above poster mentioned, the girls will have a great time punting.

The Cherwell Boathouse isn't the only place to hire a punt - you can also get them at Magdalen Bridge, by Magdalen College, which is a bit more central. I noticed this year that they also have paddle boats (like elegant pedallos) and something like a gondola for hire, if you aren't confident about punting.<BR><BR>The University Museum of Natural History(not the Ashmolean) is a great hit with younger children - e.g. dinosaur skeletons, live insects, and the model mammoth from BBC's "Walking with Beasts". And the Pitt Rivers museum (in the same building) is a Victorian treasure house of anthropological artefacts from all over the world. But maybe these wouldn't interest teenagers - you certainly see lots of young children there.