As a movie nerd, of course I had to visit Christ Church University while I was in Oxford! It was absolutely breathtaking with it’s green meadows and lawns, old historic buildings, beautiful architecture and wonderful athmosphere.
The place I wanted to see was closed until after lunch, so I had about an hour and a half to wander around and explore the place. You have to keep to the visitor’s route not to disturb the staff and students, but you get to see a lot of the university anyway. The on-site cathedral was huge and very impressive, and the guide by the door was very nice.

Believe it or not, this was taken in February. Here in Norway everything that’s not covered in snow is brown and dead at this time of year…

And for the billionth time this day, I wished I had a wide angle lens. This courtyard was HUGE!

Finally, lunchtime  was over and the university’s main attraction opened – their dining hall.
It seems that not many (Norwegians at least) know that the filming loctaion for the great hall seen in the Harry Potter movies is located here at Christ Church –  in the heart of Oxford city centre. And for just £7 you can actually walk among the dining tables yourself, wondering how on earth they made this hall seem so gigantic on screen. (The entrance fee is for the whole university tour of course, not just the hall)

I can’t call myself a huge Harry Potter fan to be honest, but I was really impressed by the movies when I finally got around to watch them all last year. Sadly, watching them all in a short period of time makes me a bit confused about what happened in which movie and some of the details are a bit unclear, so I had to google how this hall actually looked in the movies.
And it’s GI-NORMOUS! All hail CGI, as the hall is not actually that big in real life. And there’s no magic roof or visible ghosts (sadly).
But it’s a beautiful hall nonetheless, and it’s really worth a visit if you are ever in Oxford.

Yup, I was very fascinated by the endless rows of plates and cutlery..

And afterwards I found out that apparently, they used the staircase leading up to the hall too in the first HP movie. I didn’t know while I was there, but that was an impressive room too so luckily I took a photo.

Aaand a proof that I was actually there – my signature kind of selfie!