Small Bears in Oxford

Earlier this month, Polar went to see her Dad in Southampton, who is now ninety years old.  We like visiting him, as his wife Pat gives us lots of hugs.

Polar and Grizzly decided to have a little holiday on the way there and booked in to pub near Oxford for two nights bed and breakfast, so we could visit that city. 

We bears had not been to Oxford before.  Polar explained that it was most famous for its university, founded in the Middle Ages, which is made up of many different colleges.  Because it was a bright, sunny day, we were going to have a walk around to see some of them while the sun was out, then visit a famous museum in the afternoon.

We found there was a very good park-and-ride bus service, which dropped us right in the city centre - after Grizzly had squeezed our little red car into the last space in the far corner of the car park!

We watched from our bear bag as Polar and Grizzly walked through Christ Church Meadows to the Botanic Gardens, beside the River Cherwell.  There were lots of little boats there, called punts, which are propelled using a long pole, but there were no students trying to steer them that day, because it was cold and the current in the river was quite strong.

Not far away, we found the oldest coffee shop in the whole of England and Polar and Grizzly decided it was time for a mid-morning drink and snack.

We bears climbed out of our bag and sat on the table, hoping for treats.  We were in luck!  Although Grizzly had coffee, which we don't like, Polar ordered hot chocolate, which is one of our favourite drinks, and Grizzly ordered some carrot cake, which we love.

We sipped all the froth off the top of Polar's drink and nibbled Grizzly's cake too!

 Polar and Grizzly's walk took them past some more of the Oxford Colleges and some famous buildings, including the Bridge of Sighs and the Radcliffe Camera.

'That doesn't look anything like Polar's camera!' I said to Hanley and Endon.  'How could you carry that about to take photographs?'

We decided it must be like Dr Who's Tardis, vanishing and materialising wherever it was needed, although it would need a big field or car park to land safely.

We also saw the original Oxfam Shop, a memorial to some humans called the Oxford Martyrs and a Christmas Market, where they were selling decorations made out of dried fruit.  We tried to stretch out of our basket to nibble some, but couldn't quite reach.

Then we got to the Ashmolean Museum.  Polar told us we had to be very good bears and not touch things and definitely not climb on them, as some of the exhibits were thousands of years old and came from ancient civilisations from all over the world.

There were statues, weapons and treasures, and even a whole tomb from ancient Egypt, but what impressed Hanley Bear most of all was how much pottery there was.

'Look at all those vases!' he said.  'They look like the ones Mr Wedgwood and his workers made.'

'These are much older than Mr Wedgwood's vases,' Polar explained, showing him vases from ancient Greece and Crete.  'Just think, Hanley - there have been potters for tens of thousands of years.  We know this, because pottery preserves very well, so archaeologists almost always find some when they dig up lost towns and cities.'

'So, in thousands of years from now, pots made in Stoke-on-Trent might be dug up by archaeologists?' asked Hanley.  Polar said that was right, which made Hanley very quiet and thoughtful, for a change.  

As he was so interested, we took Hanley to see a display of hundreds of pieces of fine china from the 17th and 18th centuries, although he spent most of the time looking for Stoke-made items.  

Finally, after our human guardians had looked at some paintings, we all went for afternoon tea in the rooftop restaurant, which was our favourite part of the whole day!  

We slept soundly in our bear bag on the bus ride back to the car and all the way back to our nice pub and, once we got there, we decided it was probably time for some more sleeps.