Oxford: Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland?

Harry Potter filmed here

 I was pleasantly surprised with Oxford! My naive mind thought we were simply going to tour an old college, but Oxford is beautiful and a very cute little town with lots of history. I got extremely excited on two occasions; the first was when I realized we were touring where Harry Potter was filmed (in the hall pictured to the left as well as other areas on the grounds), and the second was when I realized Lewis Carrol was an Oxford professor and created Alice from Alice in Wonderland right here, basing it of of his good friend's daughter.  The young girl was Alice Laddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church College, next to Oxford campus. There is a lot of "Pride in Place" for Oxford on both of those counts.  Walking around the town you will see numerous shops and tours capitalizing on the popularity of both Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland books and movies. "Artistic Expression" is further evidence of the "pride in place" inside the great hall's stained glass windows.  These windows have tiny, almost hidden, figures of characters from Alice in Wonderland at the base (See photo)  Without being pointed out by our lovely tour guide, Trudy (pictured above), I would have looked them over completely. 

<The stained glass windows in the dining hall (where Harry Potter was filmed), with hidden characters from Alice in Wonderland! (look closely!)




>To the right is a picture of a beautiful garden outside of the campus (and on a tour you can learn the exact spots where Lewis Carrol pulled elements from his surrounding for the story). Below that is the statue of the infamous "White Rabbit", who was always running late.  This is a statue of Alice Liddell's father in real life, who was inspiration for the little white rabbit in the story.  Both beautiful works of art. :)


After the tour we went shopping on the main drag and found a very different form of art; street performers.  This one in particular was a tight-rope-walking violinist! He would walk to and fro while playing a lovely melody for a bit, then just jump right off and stretch for the next round.  This was quite fascinating to watch but one question loomed in our minds, "Do you think he learned the violin first or the tight rope?" :D



Have a Lovely Day!
xoxo
-Abby