A day trip to Oxford

Image from Pixabay

Last weekend was full on; cinema trips, shopping, eating out, celebrations, road-tripping and cake making! On Sunday, we decided to head to Oxford. We visited the University city in 2015 and you can see my post here but this time, we had a different agenda.

First we headed to the Ashmolean Museum, where we discovered arts of the Renaissance, incredible Greek sculptures and a marble staircase of dreams. I love exploring museums and learning more about different countries and cultures, especially when those countries are places that I dream of visiting. I think it's good to immerse yourself in the culture of countries you're interested in, it can really make you appreciate another place.

After exploring the Ashmolean, we headed to Jamie's Italian for a pasta fuelled lunch, complete with a gorgeous praline bomb and a few cocktails. Shopping in Oxford is really good but I only came away with a couple of items; I think online shopping is so much easier, stress free and actually allows you to look at the items you're buying.

We spent our last hour visiting the University colleges, parks and buildings. They're absolutely breath-taking; you really don't feel like you're in a city with the culture and architecture that surrounds you. Oxford is one of my favourite cities and heading there just for the day made my bank holiday weekend so much more exciting. 

If you love Oxford, are thinking of travelling there this year or have some great recommendations for the city, feel free to leave me a comment or tweet me @amie_journalist 

For now, here's just some of the pictures I took on my trip:

A day in Bristol

I've never been to Bristol. As silly as it sounds, I only live about an hour away and have heard some really good things about the shopping, eating out and nightlife, so I thought it was time to check it out for myself.

The train journey there was easy and quick; and a lot better than driving. It was a surprisingly nice day and the walk from the station to Cabot Circus was good, even better once we actually got there. There is so many shops in Cabot Circus and in the town, from Ark to Size, Zara to Boux Avenue, I was definitely happy to spend the day looking around and getting myself a few treats.

After a day of shopping, we were absolutely starving and realised we hadn't eaten all day. The choice of restaurants in the town was difficult, there must be at least 30 to choose from. We opted for a Zizzi's, I was really craving pasta after a week of eating burgers and pizza. Somehow I still wish we'd have picked Five Guys!

I'll definitely be heading back to Bristol soon - the range of shops was amazing and the layout of the town was so nice - I think I prefer it to Birmingham for a summer's day shopping. You can tell the nightlife wouldn't disappoint either!

Maybe I'll spot a few more of these next time too...

Summers day in Oxford

On Sunday, Ollie and I spent the day out in Oxford. Neither of us had ever been and we thought it would be a ideal day to just jump on a train and try somewhere new! We both absolutely loved it - the old buildings and cobbled streets were typically English and the city had a great atmosphere.

The shopping was pretty good too. A huge choice of shops - from high street brands to individual traders - made it seem a bit more varied compared to the usual shopping trips I take. We must have walked miles.

Taking a walk around the university grounds and park added a bit more variety to our day, and was only a minute's walk from the lively high-street. There was also opportunity to go on a selection of tours, but we thought we'd do a bit of adventuring ourselves!

There was more than enough choice when it came to food as well, with every restaurant chain you could possibly think of in addition to the many local pubs and restaurants. We ended up at Byron Proper Hamburgers and it definitely did not disappoint. I went for the 'Byron', a medium cooked burger with bacon, cheese, american sauce and salad - it is probably the best burger I have ever tasted. Oh, and their milkshakes are to die for! 

I would 100% recommend Oxford for a beautiful day out or weekend getaway.