When Narnia meets Middle Earth in Wonderland (and I almost die of joy)

***This post refers to Tuesday, July 10th 2012!!!***

Time stood still yesterday when I stepped into the world that the creators of my favorite fantasy lands once lived in, worked in, and walked through as close companions.

The university town of Oxford, England is, in a word, paradise for lovers of C.S Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only that, but for me it fostered a new interest in and appreciation for the author of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.

And did I mention that walking through the courtyards and between the walls of the many universities in this esteemed city felt like walking through Hogwarts? Of course there will be more to come on that later ;)

Oxford is filled with literary treasures and with the aura of brilliant, English legacies. My IQ may have raised a couple of points just by breathing the same air as the men who went (and still go) through Oxford University, Magdalen College, and Christ Church College.

After a stressful morning of attempting to get our entire 16 person class safely from point A to point B, we were finally boarding our train to Oxford at Paddington Station and pulled into the city around 10:30a.m. The city has managed to hold onto its medieval beauty as it has been blended over the years with Christopher Wren's architecture and pieces from the Victorian era. As we came upon the ornate and glorious Oxford University I was spellbound by the intellect it’s great, stone walls merely seemed to emanate. Because our train had been delayed by 15 minutes we were rushing into the Divinity School so I didn't get a very good opportunity to drink in the atmosphere of the town quite yet, but I would certainly have the chance to later.

Once inside the Divinity School classroom I was transported back to the 14th century by our tour guide who talked to us as though we were young, male students about to embark on the three most challenging years of our academic careers. She told us about our studies and informed us that at the end of our time at the school we would be expected to give an at least three hour oral examination before the professors, our fellow classmates, our families and our patrons. Of course every question had to be answered in Latin, and with direct scripture quotes from the Bible.

Good thing I wasn't really a young male in the 14th century or I may have had a heart attack.

But on the brighter side, this classroom was the same space used in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Infirmary, and Bodleian Library, which was directly above our heads, was the "forbidden section" of Hogwarts library. So we all got to lay in the same spot Harry Potter's bed had lain for the popular films, which of course is super cool :)

We were swept away to lunch at the pub The King's Arms as soon as our tour of the college and visit to the gift shop was over, and I filled my empty belly with a large bowl of hot chili at the same pub C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their literary group known as The Inklings sometimes met!

The afternoon was my favorite part of our Oxford excursion. Once we had all satisfied our growling stomachs we trekked down the beautiful streets to Magdalen College where C.S. Lewis lived, taught, and wrote. We spotted the building where his office overlooked a charming deer park and walked down a gravel path through the woods behind the college where Tolkein and Lewis often ventured together. It was certainly clear to see where Middle Earth came from and to imagine what Lewis’s real vision of Narnia in springtime must have looked like!

And it was positively magical to tread the same path these two imaginative men used to retreat to. I could almost picture them walking together somewhere far ahead of me deeply engrossed in some incredible theological discussion...if only they had slowed down to let me listen in! ;)

Eventually Lewis’s tromping grounds had to be left behind as we headed to Christ Church College where Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, better known as Lewis Carroll, taught mathematics and first spun his popular tale Alice in Wonderland. We got a fantastic tour through three of the gardens, saw a large, century old tree that, with its bare branches on a winter night, had inspired Lewis’s Jaberwocky, and I got to peep through the same key hole into the magic garden that the real Alice (daughter to the Dean of Christ Church) had often looked longingly through.

We got to bypass the enormous que up the Great Staircase featured in the Harry Potter films and into the Great Hall where tears unexpectedly filled my eyes as it felt as though I truly was walking into the Hogwarts dining hall. Warner Brothers had filmed in this exact location for a few weeks before deciding it was too small and building an exact replica of it (only larger) to finish their filming. We got to stand at the front of the hall with our tour guide and hear about Henry VII’s visits to the college and Elizabeth I’s connections to it. We saw the stain glass window where small Alice in Wonderland characters peek out of the corners and got a close up view of Carroll’s portrait.

Once our tours through the exquisite universities were over we dispersed to check out the stores in Oxford before they closed and I found a couple of quaint bookshops. One of them was like the Dollar Tree for books; every single one was only 2 pounds! I picked up several I was tempted to buy but only walked away with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, since I was determined to have a manuscript of the first Shakespeare play I ever saw in London.

At 5:30 the class rejoined to go to the Eagle and Child pub; a pub where Tolkien and Lewis’s literary group The Inklings met on a regular basis to discuss their reading and writing!!! Sadly the pub was COMPLETELY packed so we couldn’t eat there :( Instead we ended up at a crowded, noisy, overpriced Italian chain-restaurant and I ordered a bowl of mushroom soup—the cheapest thing on the menu. As a consequence I had to sit for the next two hours and watch everyone else leisurely make their way through large platters of REAL food, topped off with desert.

By 8:30p.m. we were back on the train out of Oxford, and I settled down with a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea, Jane Austen’s book Persuasion (which I had bought for 2 pounds at the phenomenal five level book store Foyles the day before), and let the English countryside consume my peripheral vision on the hour long ride back to London. Happiness was indeed most certainly mine :)

The Divinity School classroom; aka Hogwarts Infirmary :)

WHERE HARRY POTTER (ok, Daniel Radcliffe) WAS ;)

Some of the ladies enjoying lunch at the King's Arms pub!

Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis was professor :D

THAT'S WHERE C.S LEWIS'S OFFICE WAS :D :D

The path once tread by Lewis and Tolkien :) :)

See that building behind me?!! THAT'S C.S. LEWIS'S OFFICE AGAIN! ;)

A view of Christ Church College!

The Jabberwocky Tree :)

The upper window on the far left was Lewis Carrol's office, the door is the one the real Alice peeped through, and her naughty (smiling) cat would often get stuck in that tree ;)

This, my friends, is the Great Hall. Hogwarts, anyone? ;D

The pub of the Inklings :) :)