We stayed with friends who lived nearby Oxford (they had their first-born only 1 month after we had ours, so we could compare notes..), so a visit to this sublime city was inevitable.

The prestige of Oxford is seen in the fact that it received a charter from King Henry II, granting its citizens the same privileges and exemptions as those enjoyed by the capital of the kingdom; and various important religious houses were founded in or near the city.
A grandson of King John established Rewley Abbey for the Cistercian Order; and friars of various orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and Trinitarians), all had houses at Oxford of varying importance. Parliaments were often held in the city during the thirteenth century.
The Provisions of Oxford were installed by a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort; these documents are often regarded as England's first written constitution. [Wikipedia]

You may recognize this gate from scenes in the tv-series Inspector Morse...

Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse is a fictional character in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33 episode television series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000, in which he was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID (Criminal Investigation Department) officer with the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England.
The Inspector Morse novels have been successful in both book and television serial form. The stories are set primarily in Oxford. With an old Mark 2 Jaguar car (originally a Lancia), a thirst for beer, intellectual snobbery and a penchant for Wagner, Morse presents a likeable persona, despite his sullen temperament. [Wikipedia]
How we enjoyed that series (or for that matter, the series which followed; Lewis, which was also situated in Oxford).