After a long night’s sleep (badly needed), we were ready to set out into Oxford. There’s a lot to do and see in town and it’s a fairly easy drive or bus ride from their house into the center of town. Or it would’ve been an easy drive if they hadn’t been digging up the road and re-routing several of the roundabouts, resulting in traffic congestion, delays and confusing “diversions.”  That’s one of those small usage differences between American usage and British.  We’d call them “detours.”

Anyway, once in Oxford, we made our way through the crowds of tourists to the museums. Here we split up for a while.  My daughter-in-law, grand-daughter and I headed for the Children’s Story Museum, while my husband and son went straight to the Ashmolean.

Steph and Freya post beside the Story Machine. Some of the costumes available for trying on are behind them.

The Children’s Story Museum (http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/) was doing a wonderfully imaginative exhibition of well-known UK writers dressed up and then photographed in costume as their favorite fictional characters. Each one was given a room or bit of space anyway that was set up as the setting for the character. Characters ranged from Badger to Mary Poppins, from Anansi the Spider to Long John Silver, and from Merlin to Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde.

Merlin’s Cave

The rooms were set up with minimal props and decoration, but clever lighting and arrangement of the props produced some amazing evocative settings. In one room, there’s an unassuming wardrobe in a corner. Had we not been warned by one of the docents, we might’ve ignored it, but instead we cautiously opened the door and walked in. Pushing through a couple of old coats hanging behind the door, we found ourselves in… Narnia, of course. Created by a windowless room with black walls and fake snow on the floor, some bare trees with lights strung between them, a sleigh in the corner and the lamppost next to it. The white witch glared at us from a life-size photo on the wall. Merlin’s cave was a converted closet at the end of a hall. The hallway had faux vegetation draping the walls and an ancient-looking book of spells rested on a low podium.

Narnia

One of the permanent features of the Children’s Story Museum is a room with a group of costumes that children (and adults, too) can dress in to become a variety of characters. There’s also a “talking throne” where families or children can have their picture taken. For me, the most fascinating piece of the exhibit was the Victorian Story Machine, a masterpiece of steampunk design and fantasy engineering. Supposedly a metal bonnet sat on a child’s head and, powered by the child’s imagination, the machine would then pour out a story.

The Story Museum made great use of a group of run-down buildings around a back-alley in Oxford. It’s still in development, but has wonderful potential and some creative minds behind it.

When we were done there, we joined the guys at the Ashmolean. We splurged on lunch at the museum’s upscale Dining room, and found ourselves confronted with a seasonal menu that befuddled all of us. I recognized almost nothing they offered, though a bit more explanation revealed mostly familiar ingredients. The food itself proved quite tasty, however, and we all left satisfied.

We had only a little time left for the museum, since we had a two-month-old baby with us, but the one must-see on the list was one of the most remarkable treasures of the museum, the Alfred Jewel, an amazingly beautiful piece of Anglo-Saxon jewelry.  The Wikipedia article here gives more on its background and is well worth reading.

The Alfred Jewel – By Geni (Photo by user:geni) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Following a stop at Sainsbury’s to pick up some cat food for the grandkitty, we headed back home.