Photo 1: Uptown Cambridge
Photo 1: Uptown Cambridge |
On Sunday morning, after a fine English breakfast of beans, stewed tomato and runny eggs, we took the Underground over to King's Cross Station to catch the train to Cambridge. When we attempted to buy our tickets, we were told that we should go to St. Pancras' Station, because it has the regular service to Cambridge. After an hour's wait for the next train, the trip to Cambridge was uneventful but included many lovely views (through the broken fog) of the English countryside. |
 Photo 2: Downtown Cambridge (its' not a big town!) |
In the roundabout at the Cambridge railway station entrance was a "Guide Friday" double deck tour bus which promised a guided tour of the city and university. As good tourists, we took the bus and learned about the history and sights of this famous town. We learned how the Cambridge University was formed in the ninth century by students escaping riots in "that other university town". We got off the tour bus halfway through to have lunch at a conveniently located Pizza Hut, and then resumed the tour out to the American Cemetery (from WW2) and back into town past most of the university colleges from the original Jesus College to the latest Charles Darwin College (an ironic parallel of British philosophical evolution!) |
 Photo 3: Great St. Mary's Church, (just across the street from King's College Chapel) |
While Lacy stayed on the bus to go to the Fitzwilliam Museum, I got off to try to find out where Duxford was and how I could get there. Duxford is the site of Europe's largest collection of historic aircraft and is the last preserved Battle of Britain airfield. Unfortunately, Duxford was 10 miles away, and the bus went out there only every two hours, so I couldn't make it out there and get back in time. Instead, I wandered around the town and happened upon a strange sale being held in the city guildhall. The sight of the stuff on sale made me feel very much out of time and place. They were selling 60s through 80s American rock music recordings, posters, and clothing (with lots of Curt Cobain and Marilyn Monroe thrown in for good measure.) After shaking off this apparition, I made my way west through town towards Kings College. |
 Photo 4: Punting on the Cam River, (just behind King's College Chapel) |
The weekend we were there turned out to be "moving in day" (I'm sure they have a much more colorful term for it!) There were lots of students hauling in boxes and bundles of clothes, and there were lots of proud parents looking around the university where their kid had been admitted. There was a notable number of students (and their parents) who were not of traditional white Anglo-Saxon heritage. |