by Angela Lord

Created on: January 08, 2008

The city's golden glow, as the sunlight melts over the mellow, honey-colored Cotswold stone of its beautiful buildings, has been much admired and photographed for its picturesque qualities.

Yet, if you stop around to see the same sights in the rain, the cityscape shows an alternative facade, a more sombre and subtle, enigmatic, ethereal beauty, awash with greys and blues.

The changeable British weather paints two contrasting pictures, the light and shade of Oxford, the oldest-established university city in the UK.

The town first grew up in the tenth century, strategically sited at the confluence of the river Cherwell and the Thames. The university was established in the thirteenth century and the city now has around 650 buildings listed for historical or architectural interest.

Through this gold mine of intellectual curiosity and architectural excellence runs the blue-grey band of the river Isis. Floating gently along these stretches and bends, dallying a while in the backwaters, is a good way to drink in the atmosphere.

The leisurely pleasure of punting is a popular pastime although a little harder work for whoever is holding the pole a lazy, hazy glide along the river, with a few friends and a bottle of wine for company.

Now and then, an elegant swan glides past, ducks bob along by the banks, and then everyone in the boat ducks, to pass under a low bridge or avoid overhanging branches.

Those of a delicate constitution would do well to avert their eyes while punting past Parsons' Pleasure, where disrobed dons disport themselves with naked abandon.

From time to time, the punters are outpaced by the rowers, the mad dash and splash of oars slapping aside the water, moving as one to drive the boat on.

On May Day morning, the riverside becomes the scene of celebrations. A crowd gathers at dawn at Magdalen Bridge, and the choristers sing from atop the college tower, to officially mark the start of spring. This annual event has taken place since the tower was built in 1509.

In preference to getting up early in the morning, some students elect to stay up the night before, with colleges hosting all-night revelries, followed by a hearty breakfast for those of a strong constitution. (There are also all-night May Balls, something of a misnomer as they are held in June, at the end of the university term.)

One particularly grand gesture of Mayday madness, usually among those temporarily emboldened and anesthetized by the effects of alcohol, involves jumping off the bridge into the

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