Oxford (along with Cambridge) is a beautiful ancient University city that is famous around the world less than 2 hours from London. If you start early you can see most of the sights in one day. It is an ideal location for a day trip from London. What you will notice is that the Oxford buildings are a different colour to the light grey Portland Limestone used to construct the grand buildings of London after the great fire of 1666.

Oxford is in the Cotswolds. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty on a long stretch of sandstone that runs diagonally across England from Bristol to Peterborough. This warm yellow coloured sandstone was used by local crafts men as a building material. As a result all the grand buildings in Oxford are made of sandstone which gives the university, bridges and ecclesiastical buildings a distinctive look.

Look out for bikes. Many of Oxford's residents travel around the city by bicycle. As previously mentioned Oxford is not a car friendly place as there are not many places to park Using a bicycle is the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to get from A to B, especially as bikes can go where the cars and busses cannot.

It is the mode of transport for most of the Oxford University students. Some cyclists can be rather dangerous. Look out for those that ride on pavements and ignore red lights. When you cross the road, it's always a good idea to check bicycles, even if you have the right of way.

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