Just Like Harry Potter

My cousin Chris just started “freshers week” at Oriel College at Oxford. He kindly did a campus walk-about for me, shooting pictures to share with you. Oriel is one of the colleges at Oxford University, a system that’s different from most US universities. As beautiful as schools like the University of Virginia and Princeton are, nothing really compares to some of the UK schools like Oxford, Cambridge, or even my own Atlantic College.

Even Chris’s dorm room is pretty nice – I was in a room this size that I shared! {Hi, Ellen!}He certainly seems set with both a tea pot and a French press. And I love the old beam running along the left wall. Seems like quite a cozy spaces.

Here’s the college’s dining room – I am sure it’s quite different from your university! Chris’s taken photos from both ends.

That’s HM QEII on the center painting in the image on the right – apparently, the biggest ever – along with some of the old provosts.

So all of Chris’s needs are cared for, here’s Oriel Chapel. To me, there’s nothing quite like a church in the UK. Most are just amazingly gorgeous.

Oriel College is set in a large quad, with amazing buildings on all sides.  This side of the quad is called “The Doll’s House” for reasons unknown.

This is the Senior Library in the 2nd Quad.

Here’s the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford, a pretty imposing place.

Magdelen College is one of the more well-known colleges, but you might not know that it’s pronounced “Mawdlin”. This is the chapel,and the dining room, (Chris says their chairs are nicer than those at Oriel),and here’s Magdelen Bridge.

Another of the famous buildings at Oxford is Radcliffe Camera or Rad Cam. Camera is an Italian word for room.

As I was looking through some of my old photographs – and I mean ones printed on paper – I found some of the same images as Chris took. Here’s my Rad Cam from March of 1999.

We also both took pictures of the “Bridge of Sighs” at Oxford, modeled after the Rialto Bridge in Venice.  Chris’s…

and mine…

Here are a few more of my photographs. Clearly no one’s paying attention!

Someone’s in the window.

And one of my favourite pictures that I’ve taken.

And a few more of Chris’s images. Two views of one of the Oxford Chapels.

And two “St. Something-or-Another” quads.

I can’t wait to go and visit Chris and have a proper tour! Thanks for taking the pictures to share, Chris!