Oxford University???

Ok, we've all heard of Oxford University, right? But while traveling to Oxford last weekend, once again I discovered that, like Cambridge, there is no Oxford U. campus - Just a collection of random buildings in town which are actually individual "colleges". I know my American roots are showing here, but the whole concept just really confuses me. Each college recruits and teaches their own students. The largest college has 450 students and the smallest has 100 students, so they actually attend fairly small schools. Lectures are optional and the only thing required are specific sessions with a tutor. 3 terms of 8 weeks per year and it sounds like they write a paper and argue it for each class (I'm a little confused about that fact) - then at the end of their learning, they collectively graduate from Oxford U - having never attended school at "Oxford". very unusual and not at all what I was expecting. Maybe the thought is that they actually attended tutoring sessions in the city of Oxford, yeah, that's it! All joking aside, I realize they learn lots and are very educated at a place steeped in history and tradition. Regardless of my English university confusion, the city of Oxford is very interesting to walk around and look through all the colleges. Each one is a beautiful, picturesque old, old, old building with a fabulous courtyard. We toured Christ Church college and the kids were happy to see places from the Harry Potter movies, including the dining hall. We thought we might go punting down the river, but due to unexpected high winds, there was NO WAY we would have been able to get back up stream. oh well (as the dad's wiped their brow in relief).

One major, major drawback to our time in Oxford - the horrible 100 GBP parking ticket we got for being 25 min late back to our car after our pay and display parking ticket expired. what a bummer. Never the less, it didn't dim our excitement of getting to tour around Oxford.