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There are 36 colleges at Oxford and most of them are located in the centre of town within easy walking distance of each other, so with the help of a city map we set out to see as many as we could, including the largest and most famous, Christ Church ( top right picture ) which was the birthplace of Alice in Wonderland and Hogwarts Hall in the Harry Potter films.

We visited the Bridge of Sighs ( top left ) which was built in 1913, between two buildings of Hertford college. It is named after the 'Bridge of sighs', or 'Ponte dei Sospiri' in Venice, but in fact looks nothing like it. We found a great pub near here. Under the bridge we went down a small lane and then turned into a small alley called St Helen's Passage, which was originally named Hell passage. This leads to the Turf Tavern ( below right ). The tavern dates originally from the 13th century and lies snugly alongside city wall. It is very small, with a low beamed ceiling and is the only pub in central Oxford with a beer garden.

After lunch we rented a boat and rowed around the canals. We decided against a 'punt' ( above right ) as it looked far too complicated to steer and none of us felt like swimming. As it was we had a hard enough time navigating a little row boat! One of the most amazing things we saw on our boat journey was a cricket field on an island ( above left ), and there was a game on that day too.