While preparing for my upcoming trip to England, my mind wandered back to my first trip in 2011.

I’d always wanted to slip, ‘when I was at Oxford’, into the conversation, and so I booked myself into Balliol College, the oldest university in the city.

Balliol turned out to be right in the centre of town, two minutes walk from the tourist icons of Radcliffe Camera, Sheldonian Theatre and Hertford Bridge, known as the Bridge of Sighs.

It was also an easy walk to the river and the Botanic Gardens.

My student accommodation was completely adequate, in fact, larger than most of the rooms I’d had up until then and twice the size of the broom cupboard I ended up in, in London.

To get to it, I passed through a small quadrangle, surrounded by fairytale buildings, complete with a tower in one corner.

Through an archway was what looked like parkland but was actually a larger quad. It was here I spent my rest time, reading and watching the squirrels skittering from tree to tree.

Breakfast was served in the Dining Hall. Text to my daughter: you’ll never believe it am having breakfast with Harry Potter

On this trip, I’m starting in Cambridge. I’ve always wanted to compare Cambridge with Oxford, having seen them both in so many movies and television shows. I’m staying at St. Catharine’s College.  I wonder how it will measure up to gorgeous Balliol.