Sunday morning on the Thames

There are two rivers in Oxford: the Cherwell, which is small and sedate, suitable for punts and kayaks and paddleboats, and the Thames. This part of the Thames is supposedly “really” called the Isis, only acquiring the more famous name when it merges with a river called the Thame (singular) south of Oxford. But all the signs in the city refer to the river as the Thames, and the paths along it as the Thames walk, so much as I like the idea of a River Isis flowing past the dreaming spires of Oxford, there seems to be a consensus that this is the Thames, no matter what the guidebooks say.

The two rivers merge just below Christ Church Meadow. The buildings in the background of this picture are some of the boat houses of the various colleges at the point where the two rivers meet, and the conjoined river leaves all the frivolous punts and paddleboats behind. This is a serious river, full of serious rowers (and the occasional tour boat.)

I had no idea that Oxford was so full of waterways—there's a canal in addition to the rivers, and tributaries and channels and small inlets branching off of all of them. The walkways along the Thames are full of small arched Venetian bridges spanning all the small bodies of water feeding the larger ones. It's completely charming, and I particularly like that I can take the Thames Walk from my hotel to the Folly Bridge when I'm going to the city center, instead of walking on the street the whole way.