Description
An Oxford walking tour with Christ Church included is a long, packed walk in the company of a current student. The group is small, the tour lasts about three hours, and the route covers places that the same operator's other tours skip. Entry to Christ Church is guaranteed, along with entrance to several other colleges and libraries.
It opens in the centre with a short introduction, then moves through a college known for its lawns and a dispute with its neighbour over the supposed theft of the college tortoise. The Sheldonian Theatre, setting of the university's most iconic ceremony, comes next, followed by a museum that keeps a chalkboard Einstein used, and the Weston Library.
- the Bridge of Sighs, England's first round library and All Souls College
- Oriel College, Merton College and the Bodleian Library
- a hidden door carved with Narnia characters, then Christ Church Meadow
The finish is Christ Church itself. The guide explains its history outside, and you go in on your own with a multimedia headset, past the dining hall that inspired Hogwarts. Along the way come colleges tied to C. S. Lewis, Tolkien and Oscar Wilde. Sites can close without notice, in which case the guide offers an alternative, and in summer a college may replace the Divinity School.