OMG - Magdalen College With Jan The Fan

Greeting on our second day with Jan the Fan, where Nigel just couldn't help double checking that we really were still in Oxford, taking in the academic air, to make sure we weren't actually in a Dallas shower dream type scenario ........

...... before meeting up with the aforementioned Jan the Fan, in the very lovely Love Coffee Co for breakfast. 

It was the cakes that drew most of Nigel's attention, they were quite magnificent, however rather than look like a culinary philistine in front of our beloved friend ...........

...... opted for much more cultured and suitable (for that time in the morning) Croque Monsieur with an orange juice, while Darrell and I availed ourselves of a very ample full English.

Then it was back on the "Hop on Hop off" bus to visit Magdalen College, participant of many a University Challenge and attended by the likes of Louis Theroux, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Oscar Wilde, to name just a few.

However, it has also now become obvious that in our state of total overwhelmness upon entering Magdalen's hallowed portals that our usual vim and vigour for capturing such moments on camera, had left us, we just wanted to experience everything through our own eyes, in real life and not through the lens of a camera, we were soooooooo truly captivated.

..... especially by the chapel, our first port of call. It's not often we're speechless, but let's just say never have we been soooooooo rendered!!!  To be honest, it was more like a cathedral with its stunning reredos (?) behind the alter. 

Picture:- https://www.patrickcomerford.com/2023/09/visiting-chapel-in-magdalene-college.html

We couldn't help but stroke the beautiful choir stalls, the awe and wonder of all the history charging through our veins.  As you know we love a Greek church but this was something else and if we could have lit a candle, as often is our want, we would done so, but unfortunately we couldn't find a devotional stand, which was such a pity as we'd have set the place ablaze with our homage!

We visited the great Dining Hall next .........

......  where students and guests have all their meals, not quite Hogwarts as Darrell wasn't that keen on the tables and chairs, if he was brutally honest, but reckoned they had much older and traditional spare set squirrelled away for more formal affairs, but whatever you ate in these most exulted and salubrious of surroundings would sing on your tongue, even curly fries, he mused!

And then onto the cloisters to find a full on wedding in swing, can you imagine?

One of the lovely, young ladies in the ticket office told us that students could marry in the chapel and have their receptions in the quad, but it was awfully, awfully expensive, they couldn't get it for free, even if they got top marks in everything.  However, we all made a note that should we ever return to Magdalen, we need to bring Alice with us.........

Then, would you believe while walking through the grounds, we found that the college has it's very own flock of fallow deer ........

...... how romantic must that be at Christmas, even if most of the students would be enjoying the festivities at home at that time.

We went on to explore the grounds a little more, following the River Cherwell, each very much lost in our own thoughts as we walked along ........

...... before stumbling upon the boat house ..........

...... and real life punters, punting, in real life punts and poles  .........

It was ALL too impossibly romantic for words and all this in a place where you came to study and hopefully gain a degree. How could you fail?  I'll tell you, it fair blew our minds.

It was hard to drag ourselves away, but drag we must, as our tummies were by this time rumbling a tad, so we availed ourselves at the Queens Lane Coffee House, the oldest established coffee house in Europe (and we're sorry, for another sad lack of photos, but we were hungry!) https://www.qlcoffeehouse.com/

Nigel was at first quite pleased with his lunch time selection of koftas, however, when he laid eyes on Jan the Fan's considered menu choice he suffered a severe attack of food envy!

What is he like?  To be continued ......... our adventures not Nigel's food envy!