Article written by two HEIP students spending their first semester on the London campus: Diane RIELLAND and Eva STOJANOVIC
Oxford
Saturday, October 8, 2022,
It’s 8.30am and the students of the OMNES Education group form a colony on the sidewalk of Marylebone High Street as they wait for the bus to Oxford.
At 9am, we settle into the vehicle. Some share breakfast, while others finish their night. Two hours later, we meet up at the Ashmolean Museum with our tour guides for an hour-and-a-half tour of the city center. Mary – our guide – takes us past the famous Blackwell Bookshop, under the Bridge of Sighs and reveals the secrets of Magdalen College (filming location for the Harry Potter saga).
The city was home to the first English university in the 12th century, and since then has been home to numerous libraries, including the Bodleian Library. The architecture here is highly distinctive, with monuments ranging from medieval to classical and modern, each more impressive than the last.
Strongly religious, Oxford has a beautiful church: St Mary’s Church, and each university has its own chapel.
12:30, stomachs growling: time for lunch. The visit over, we thank Mary before dispersing to eat. Some of us head for typical restaurants, but my friends and I find ourselves picnicking near the Oxford University Botanical Gardens, and what’s more, in the sunshine!
With the afternoon free, we decided to end the day by getting lost in the city, to get a better feel for it. We wander under the covered market and other gift shops, get lost in the labyrinth of bookshops and enjoy the 360° view from the rooftop of the city’s shopping mall.
At the end of the day, legs feeling tired, we take a seat in front of the sculptures at the Ashmolean Museum before catching the coach back to London.
Cambridge
On Saturday October 22, London students from the OMNES Education group had the opportunity to visit the university city of Cambridge. Located an hour and a half’s drive north of London, Cambridge is renowned for its colleges (King’s, Trinity, St John’s), its Anglican heritage and the River Cam.
On arrival, the students were divided into small groups for a guided tour led by locals. This gave them the opportunity to discover the city’s secrets, hidden paths and history. After this cultural highlight, everyone was free to stroll through the pretty medieval streets and enjoy the English sunshine, which isn’t as rare as you might think!
“For my part, I picnicked with friends, visited a few souvenir stores and ate an ice cream while watching the new graduates of King’s College parade by, who were holding a ceremony for the occasion. I was very surprised to see that Cambridge is a green city where the majority of people get around by bike, so the atmosphere was very pleasant although I nearly got hit by a bike more than once!” – Eva, HEIP student
In the late afternoon, some students visited the Fitzwilliam museum (an exhibition of classical art and artefacts), while others took advantage of this escape from the capital to take a boat trip on the river running through the city.
We won’t hide the fact that a nap was the order of the day on the return journey. The bus dropped the students off in central London in the early evening, where everyone wished each other a happy vacation.