Day 20, Friday, July 25 - final day in Oxford

Today, Friday, is our last day in Oxford.   We started the morning off by going across the street from Brasenose to St. Mary’s Church.   We climbed to the top of the church tower and had a wonderful view of all of Oxford.  Followed by that, we went back to the classroom to catch up on some journal entries on the past couple of days.  After that, we touched up on some more code breaking, and Mr. Kendall gave us some codes that we could break on the plane if we ever got bored.  Once we were through with that, we read more newspapers to see what’s going on in Britain, (and the world).  After all of that, we discussed our plans for traveling and what we needed to do before we left Brasenose.  We all printed our boarding passes, got back our passports, and started to get all of our belongings together.   In the afternoon, we all were able to do our own thing.  Some people got presents for their family members, while others just relaxed in the part and did their thing.  For dinner, we had a banquet in the Medieval Dining Hall and it was bittersweet.  We are all now packing for our voyage back to the US, which is sad, yet happy, because we all have had a great time here.  

Evening view of St. Mary's Church tower from our dorm rooms.  

Climbing the narrow spiral staircase to the tower observation deck.

View Brasenose College New Quad lawn and of our dorm, stair case #11 (in center).

Final Gala in Medieval Kitchen. 

Day 19, Thursday, July 24 - final visit to London

On Thursday the 24^th we took our final trip to London. The day proved to be a great one with temperatures in the mid-70s and plenty of sunshine. We had the usual morning routine; wake up at 7:30, make our way down to breakfast, then off to the train station. We first went to the Museum of Natural History where we saw many different exhibits. Some of the exhibits included were ones of Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace, general biology, dinosaurs, and many other different fields of study. From there, we headed over to the Science Museum. At the science museum we got to experience many cool exhibits as well.  My favorite of them all was the 3-d printer exhibit.  After touring around the museum for sometime we decided to have lunch at one of the little restaurants inside the museum.  Afterwards we went back underground, to Piccadilly Station. From there we rode to Lambeth North Station, where we got off and started our walk to the Imperial War Museum, which had newly reopened the previous week. The museum was very cool, boasting all sorts of facts and machinery to go along with it. We left for Southbank, an area right along the Thames River with many different cool stores and restaurants. Southbank was great. It was packed with people, right along the water, and seemed to be a very fun place. We had our dinner, then went straight to the play we were seeing: “Small Family Business” at the National theatre. The play was funny in some areas but a bit dry in humor. All in all it was a very nice day and a great note to complete our final trip to London.

 Back on the Great Western Train headed to London Paddington.

Again with Charles Darwin, this time at the Museum of Natural History,London.

Mr. Reid with Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

London Museum of Natural History.

Development of steam engines exhibit.

Original model of DNA built by James Watson & Francis Crick in 1953.

Alex, Charles and William in front of V-2 rocket.

Lunch at the museum.

Back in the Tube.

Imperial War Museum.

Day 18 - Wednesday, July 23 - More code breaking, Tea Party and King Lear

On Wednesday, we spent our time in Oxford after Monday in London and Tuesday in Bletchely park. We started with an in class session about code breaking and ciphers. That was interesting, though the mathematical stuff made my eyes glaze over. The technology of code breaking me interests me more than codes and ciphers, to be honest.

We took a break for lunch, and Mr Alexander, who is study at Lincoln College this summer, joined us in the Brasenose dining hall.

Afterwards, we went out for a scavenger hunt. Charles, Dameron, Hunt, and I went first to New College and then to Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) College. Both were used in the filming of the Harry Potter franchise, and the grounds are impressive, especially the Deer Park.

That night we went to a production of King Lear put on by the Globe Theater. I enjoyed it, and I think that opinions of it were higher than that of the Staunton Shakespeare Company Othello. Afterwards we went back to Brasenose and got to bed, ready for the trip to London.

Chris Nance

Mr.Kendall describes various forms of journalism in the UK.

Students read and compare a variety of newspapers published in England.

Mr. Alexander joins us for lunch.

Brasenose College hosts a "Mad Hatter's Tea Party"

Intermission during King Lear in the Bodleian Old School's Quadrangle.

Day 17, Tuesday, July 22 - Visit to Bletchley Park

After a later start to the day (breakfast at 8:30) our driver Paul took us to Bletchley Park. This was the top secret site where German codes were broken during World War II.  There were many different sites to go to at Bletchley Park; we went to the mansion and huts 3, 6, and 8.  This park is where some of the earliest types of computers were installed and operated helping the employees decipher the codes.  It is said that the work and progress made at this code breaking center took two whole years off the war against the Axis powers.  This facility was not limited to the British; there were personel from France, Poland, and the United States.  We stood in the rooms in which the well known/seemingly unbreakable Engima Code was deciphered.  Amazingly, the Mansion and farm initially had only a few dozen code breakers.  Within six years later nearly 10,000 employees worked at this top secret location.  After the war the facility was shut-down, many of the code breaking machines were destroyed and the actual role of Bletchley Park in the war effort was not even disclosed and published until the 1970's.  While viewing all of the exhibits in this museum we learned how the Enigma machine worked and how Allies decoded the messages.  Towards the end of the visit we got to see the famous and first computer on this planet, the Colossus.  The machine displayed the latest technology of the era.  Overall it was a great trip and I think we all learned a lot about how we defeated the Germans in World War II. 

Robin Moriarty

The mansion at Bletchley park.

One of the coded message analysis rooms.

Breaking the German Naval coded messages was particularly significant for the allies.

Colossus, an enormous code breaking machine utilizing early computer technology.

Day 16, Monday, July 21 - Another great day in London.

Monday was our second trip to London. We got up bright and early so we could catch the 9:30 AM train from Oxford to Paddington station in the heart of London. We then took the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and switched to the District line to get to St. Paul Station. Our first stop of the day was the world famous St. Paul’s Cathedral designed by Christopher Wren in the English Baroque style.  The highest dome reaches well over 300 feet into the air and we waked 528 steps to the upper Golden Gallery.  St. Paul’s is located right off of the bank of the Thames and from the top we got a view of London that extended for miles. Unfortunately our time at St. Paul’s got cut short due to a false fire alarm, but I think we all got to see what we wanted.  After St. Paul’s we made our way across the Millennium Bridge to the other side of the river to see Matisse’s cutout collection. Matisse really focused on his cutouts in his latter stages of life. This was a once in a lifetime chance to see the work of a modern art genius. When Matisse was in his late sixties he was unable to paint because of his bad health conditions, so he switched to making paper cutout pieces. The museum had pieces ranging from snow flowers to dancers to a famous abstract of a snail. After the Tate Exhibit we visited the Churchill War Rooms; the site where Churchill, and his war cabinet and military advisers oversaw England’s WWII operations.  The rooms were preserved so that they mimicked what they would have looked like during the war, and the Churchill museum was full of cool facts and quotes of Winston Churchill. One thing that stuck out to me was that he smoked eight cigars a day.  We were lucky enough to come across a Chipotle restaurant where we enjoyed dinner before going to see the musical “Pajama Game.” The play was about a 1920’s pajama factory owner fighting against labor unions to keep his wages down, and somehow this plot was used to make a romantic comedy.  The play was entertaining and full of good music.  We got back to Paddington easily for the 10:40 train back to Oxford and we were all happy to rest after a long and exciting day in London.

Edward Miller

Morning train ride to London's Paddington Station.

Back in the Tube on the Bakerloo Line.

View of St. Paul's Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge.

Lower observation deck of St. Paul's Cathedral Dome.

View of London skyline toward's the financial district.

Chris, Mr. Reid and William on lower observation deck.

Chris and William climbing long spiral staircase to upper observation deck of dome.

Up river view of River Thames.

Visiting the Matisse Exhibit at the Tate Modern Museum on Southbank.

Tour through Churchill's underground command and control center.

Hike through Trafalgar Square.

Dinning at Chipotle, Covent Garden.

An evening at the Shaftesbury Theater.