Make It A Weekend

Oxford is a beautiful town and a popular tourist destination.

Since you'll be here already, why not book a hotel or hostel and spend Sunday exploring the museums, University, parklands, city and surrounding area?

Activities

Walking Tours

Tour One: Walking Amongst The Spires
2010 March 28 10:30 - 13:30

Come and join Nomad to spend three hours exploring the winding paths and historic buildings that make up the City of Dreaming Spires! Oxford is home to the oldest institution of higher learning in the English speaking world, with teaching going on in our modest city since at least 1096. In that time, quite a lot has happened here! Take a stroll down Beaumont Street, once home to the palace where King Henry II lived and where his sons -- the famous King Richard the Lionheart and the notorious King John -- were born! Visit the site where the Oxford Martyrs were burned at the stake for heresy by the Catholic Queen, Bloody Mary! See where King Charles I held court and Parliament after being exiled from London! Like the Lord of the Rings? Then come view the majestic Radcliffe Camera... which served as J.R.R. Tolkien's inspiration for Sauron's dark temple! Like Harry Potter? Join us for a peek into the Bodleian Library Divinity School and a glimpse of Christ Church, where many of the movie scenes were filmed! Like The Chronicles of Narnia or Alice in Wonderland? These, too, have their origins in Oxford! Oxford is filled with architectural wonders and centuries of stories all its own! Why is the Magdalen Bridge closed on May Morning? What practical joke have students played to extract money from gullible tourists? Learn all this and more whilst walking amongst the spires!

Tour departs at 10:30 from the University Club, returning at 13:30.

Tour Two: Museum Crawl
2010 March 28 14:00 - 17:00

Oxford is home to a wealth of museums; on this whirlwind tour, Nomad will be your guide through some of the very best that they have to offer. Departing from the University Club, we will first stop at the Museum of Natural History. In addition to the impressive collection on display -- including dinosaur bones, a crocodile, and a giant spider-crab -- the building itself boasts an impressive history. Mere months after Charles Darwin published his famous book, On The Origin Of Species, a fierce debate raged within these walls. The triumph of Thomas Huxley over Bishop Samuel Wilberforce is regarded as a turning point in the general acceptance of the history of evolution. Next, pop into the Pitt Rivers Museum and search in this dimly lit space until you find the shrunken heads and the mummies! A short walk brings us to the Ashmolean Museum, the oldest surviving museum that is open to the public. Originally the private collection of Elias Ashmole, the newly-remodeled halls of the Ashmolean contain countless treasures. We will zip through, focusing on a few of the highlights, before making our way to the Museum of the History of Science. This fascinating building -- the original home of Ashmole's collection -- now houses astrolabes, telescopes, microscopes, and more. Here you can find a camera used by Lewis Carroll, and a blackboard with writing by Albert Einstein! Finally, we wind down the tour by taking in the exhibition of Steampunk art currently on display in the museums special exhibition room.

Tour departs at 14:00 from the University Club, returning at 17:00.

* All tours are offered, free of charge, as an unofficial addition to attendees of Oxford BiFest. Pre-registration is not necessary. However, all participants join the tours at the own risk. Neither Oxford BiFest nor any member of the organising team, will be liable for any mishaps that occur on these tours. All participants will be required, at the start of the tour, to sign a disclaimer to this effect.

Oxford Literary Festival

The 2010 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival from Saturday 20th to Sunday 28th March offers a wonderful range of talks, discussions, debates, readings, Literary Lunches and Dinners in the exceptional and beautiful surroundings of Christ Church and Corpus Christi College - with many major events staged in The Sheldonian Theatre, The Bodleian Library and other prestigious venues.

The Festival reflects the great literary traditions of The University of Oxford, and its historic Colleges, as well as the contemporary reputation of its Departments and Institutes in every field of scholarship, research and enquiry.