Everyone needs a little help to find this famous pub on their first visit. Walk underneath the Bridge of Sighs, down New College Lane and on your left you’ll see a narrow alley called St Helen’s Passage. It doesn’t look as if it leads anywhere but follow it as it winds to the long, low Turf Tavern, named for earlier associations with horse racing. The pub originally a malthouse, lies alongside the old city wall walls and has medieval origins, although most of what you see now is 16th century. The rambling rooms are low-ceilinged and there’s a beer garden with braziers to keep you warm at night.*

*From the Pitkin City Guide to Oxford

Breakfast was cooked to order and very tasty, although it was a little odd that we had two rounds of toast for three people. When we had finished the two pieces we asked for a bit more. After breakfast we set off towards Christ Church College and walked through the memorial garden and water meadows before joining the queue to enter the college. I say joining the queue, in fact there were only two people in front of us but by the time the doors opened, ten minutes late there was a large queue behind us.

We enjoyed the college and the Cathedral, where in the shop I found the Pitkin Guide to Oxford. It shows the best of Oxford via two walking tours. As luck would have it we were part way through the route of one of them. We carried on along the route to the science museum and stopped for a brief visit before carrying on past the Bodleian Library to a nearby pub for lunch. The pub was a bit chaotic but we managed to find ourselves a quiet corner to sit.

After lunch we returned to the Bodleian Library but opted out from rushing to join the last tour of the day. We visited the library hall, with the intention to return the library for a tour the following day. We then carried on along the walking route passing under ‘The Bridge of Sighs’, which is so named due to the apparent resemblance to its Venetian namesake. Just past the bridge we took a slight detour down a narrow alley to find The Turf Tavern where allegedly Bill Clinton imbibed in some ‘pot’. We then continued along the walking route passing many historic buildings, stopping off in a Viennese cake shop to indulge in tea and cake…

We then made our way back to the hotel to freshen up before our evening meal in The Quod Brasserie. On our walk to the brasserie it was lovely to see young ladies in long dresses and young gentlemen in suits and ties queuing up for a function in the college. After dinner we returned to the hotel for a nightcap before retiring to bed.