Wesley Pilgrimage - Part Three

Our third day of the trip was spent in Oxford, where John Wesley attended Christ Church College, part of the Oxford University system. It was also Sunday so we started off by going to morning worship in the Christ Church Cathedral - Christ Church is the only college in Oxford to have its own cathedral.

 

After worship we did a short walking tour of a couple of spots in Oxford before getting lunch. This is the main square in town.

And this building is a part of Lincoln College where John Wesley spent time as a fellow after graduating from Christ Church. 

 

We stopped in a busy market area to shop a bit and have some lunch. 

 

And then we went back to Christ Church for our official tour of the buildings and the cathedral with personal audio guides. Besides being the place where John and Charles Wesley were educated, other graduates of Christ Church have included the author of Alice in Wonderland. The buildings in Christ Church also served as the inspiration for Hogwart's in the Harry Potter series. 

This window highlights characters from Alice in Wonderland.

The Wesley brothers are honored on the floor near the pulpit in the cathedral.

The seven great virtues are illustrated in the floor tiles between the choir lofts

And then we took a quick walking tour of a few more sights in town.

A street carnival was set up getting ready to open.

Daryl and I visited this pub last time and I was sad to see it closed. It's never reopened after Covid. This was the site of the Inklings meetings - the name CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien gave to their group of literary friends.

This cross marks the spot where the Oxford Martyrs were actually killed.

This is the most famous and longest running bookseller in England. They are renovating and moved some into a glass storefront across the street.

 

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Part of the enormous Oxford Bodlein Library - this was for the divinity students. 

 

 

University of Oxford Chapel - John and his brother both preached here on occasion.

And no trip to Oxford is complete without a few stops related to the Chronicles of Narnia - this is the inspiration for the lamp post that marked the beginning of Narnia.

These carvings were inspiration for some of the Narnian characters.

And here is the door that was the inspirtation for the main character - Aslan the Lion. 

 

When we got back to the hotel they had dinner for us and they had made me a special dessert that I could actually eat. So delicious!