Guardian
Sleeping beauty
PhilSen
Dreaming spires and ivory towers, there's nowhere else that quite matches the mystique of Oxford. Except maybe Cambridge, but that's by the by. This is the way a university town should be, a sleepy paradise of golden stone where you can touch history at every step. Take Oxford's alumni just for a start. At Magdalen College, you can imagine yourself conversing with CS Lewis in the magical shadowlands of the cloisters and deer park. University College gave birth to PB Shelley - and Bill Clinton too. Biggest and grandest of all there's Christchurch: where Lewis Carroll came up with Alice in Wonderland and where many of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers were made. Oh, and it's where they film Harry Potter. Add to the mix some of the nation's finest museums - and cosiest pubs - and you have one of England's most beautiful corners for a slow, lazy weekend.
