Oxford 
Arguably
the world's most famous university town, Oxford is graced by superb college
architecture and oozes questing youthfulness, scholarship and bizarre high
jinks. The views across the meadows to the city's golden spires are guaranteed
to appear in three out of 10 English period dramas, but they manage to
remain one of the most beautiful and inspiring of sights. Back in the real
world, Oxford is not just the turf of toffs and boffs, it was a major car-manufacturing
centre until the terminal decline of the British car industry and is now
a thriving centre of service industries. The pick of the colleges are Christ
Church, Merton and Magdalen, but nearly all the colleges are drenched in
atmosphere, history, privilege and tradition. Don't kid yourself, you wouldn't
have studied any harder in such august surroundings.
