The city of dreaming spires

Gavin and I left quite early this morning to drive to Oxford to collect Luke. It was an easy one and a quarter hours drive. He showed us around the college he has applied to (Pembroke), and quite honestly, what is there not to like about a stunningly beautiful set of buildings, built of Cotswold stone in 1624. We cannot however get too fond of the place until we get the results of his application in January, and at this stage we have to be realistic and know that he has a one in three chance of getting in. His other choices are Durham University or St Andrews, both excellent institutions (with Durham possibly offering the best course in modern languages as it is ranked number one in the country for his choice of languages)

We wandered around the city and Luke showed us many of the other colleges. This is All Souls College, formally known as the College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, and it was founded by Henry VI and Henry Chichele in 1438. Today the College is primarily an academic research institution, there are no undergraduate members.

Luke was very happy to get home again and relax with the family, as he leaves on Monday again to return to Strasbourg University to complete his exams, and will finally be home for Christmas on the 20th December.