Liverpool to Oxford
As mentioned, I booked our trains using a voucher for TrainGift - it was super easy to book our tickets, and I just paid the difference myself. Then disaster struck as we remember it was the final race of the F1 season the day we were travelling, and our train would get us into Oxford midway through the race. My wife is a big Lando fan, so this simply wouldn't do. I was a bit unclear as to whether the tickets I'd booked would allow us to travel on the earlier train, as the ticket split showing for the prior route was different - but the customer service team at TrainGift were really helpful and very friendly, and we got it all sorted.
Watching the F1 in Oxford
We arrived around 45 minutes prior to lights out, and legged it through the rain to one of a few places in Oxford that show the F1 - O'Neills on George Street. It's a chain, it's nothing special, and we'd been unable to reserve a table, but we did manage to squeeze onto some stools in between two other tables and got chatting to some locals before the race started. The drinks were around the price I expected - it was just over £11 for a pint of Coors and a bottle of non-alcoholic cider, of which they promptly ran out after I'd only had one. Never mind. Anyway, we watched the race and I left O'Neills with one very happy wife, ready to properly start our 24 hours in Oxford!
Premier Inn, Oxford City Centre
While there are plenty of lovely boutique hotels in Oxford, we were booking quite last minute and a lot of places were either booked up or way out of our budget. We opted for the Premier Inn, which is right opposite Westgate shopping centre and around an 11 minute walk from the train station. I booked us a Premier Plus room, which was really fresh, clean and well decorated with some extra features you don't see in their standard rooms...
- Choice of pillows
- Rainfall shower
- Luxury toiletries (Baylis & Harding 'Goodness' range)
- USB ports next to the bed
- Comfy chair
- Coffee machine and mini fridge
- Sweet treats
- Iron & ironing board
- Ultimate Wi-Fi
We were really impressed, and we added breakfast to our stay as we had a busy full day on the Monday so it was definitely the convenient option.
Sunday in Oxford
Anyway, back to Sunday. After checking in, we went for a wander through town - we visited the famous Covered Market, which was really nice, and popped to see the Christmas market too. The latter was much smaller than we expected and quite disappointing in all honesty, but hey it's festive! We also had a quick look at some of the colleges, but this was our main plan for Monday so we didn't want to spoil it for ourselves too much. By this point it was raining and miserable, so we went back to the hotel (via a mooch in a Japanese supermarket) to chill, read and freshen up for dinner.
The Ivy, Oxford
For dinner I thought we would be spoilt for choice, but again this was a last minute trip so most places were completely booked up! We opted to eat at The Ivy, having never been there before together. We had a 7pm booking on the Sunday night and it was fairly quiet, so we were served really quickly and everything was very positive. The restaurant is beautifully decorated during the festive season, and they had some excellent Christmas drinks on the menu.
I opted for the Wild Berries mocktail, which has spiced berries, passion fruit, and Wild Idol sparkling white. It was honestly delicious, even at £10.50! For my dinner I had the The Ivy Truffle Burger and my wife opted for Traditional Fish and Chips. We honestly couldn't fault the food or service at all, and we really enjoyed the whole experience.
Monday in Oxford
We got up, got ready and headed down for our Premier Inn breakfast, then it was off out into the cold (but thankfully dry) weather to explore.
We had a little wander around the castle area before heading into town to meet our guide as we had booked a "free" Oxford walking tour. Our guide was hilarious, such a dry sense of humour, and of course really knowledgable about the city. Some of the highlights we got to see were:
- The Sheldonian Theatre
- The Bodleian Library
- The Bridge of Sighs
- A tree and a window both featured in the Harry Potter films
- The Radcliffe Camera
- All Souls College (from the outside)
- The door that allegedly inspired The Chronicles of Narnia
- The house where Edmond Halley lived
- The Turf Tavern
- Mansfield College grounds
So all in all a great list of famous places, with some great stories to go along with them. The tour was around 1.5 hours, and we did end up paying £10 each - you're not exactly forced into paying, but we did feel like we had to!
After the tour we visited Blackwell's, a huge bookshop where I bravely bought NOTHING, then visited the spot where three martyrs were burnt at the stake in the 1500s. We headed round to the Ashmolean as I really wanted to stop for a mocktail in the rooftop restaurant, but they put us in dreadful seats where we couldn't soak in any of the view - presumably because we weren't eating! Instead, we headed to the gorgeous Morse Bar at the Randolph Hotel. I had an utterly delightful mocktail here by the fire.
From here we headed back round to visit University Church of St Mary the Virgin, and then popped into the grounds of All Souls College for a peek in the chapel and to catch some lovely views. Our last stop before heading back to the train was St. Phillips, a secondhand bookshop, where I picked up a very old copy of Tom Sawyer.
I'd say our 24 hours in Oxford was a roaring success; it's a very pretty city with plenty of gorgeous architecture to see, lots of filming locations and some great history. We really enjoyed this last minute staycation and I'd definitely recommend a visit!
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