For our final day on our tour of London, we took a day trip with our friends Thomas, Alexis and Pete to Cambridge, the famous university town. It's a little over an hour's drive north of London. Because it was a sunny Saturday, everybody else in London seemed to have the same idea, and the city was packed. Still, that provided a very lively atmosphere, and the weather was fantastic (even a bit hot).
Cambridge has a lot of history. The area was populated as far back as the bronze age, and was ruled by both the Romans and the Vikings at different points in history. The city really began to develop around the year 1000, with the oldest existing building (St Benets church) completed by 1050. Cambridge University was founded in 1209, and the city continued to develop over the next few hundred years.
We were hungry when we arrived, so we started with lunch and drinks at
Pint Shop. The food was good and the selection of local and regional beers was excellent. Next we toured the main attraction in town - the
King's College Chapel. It was built in the 1400s, and features dramatic huge stained glass windows. The architecture is quite impressive for the time, and reminded us of a slightly less refined version of
Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Unfortunately the interior view was blocked a bit by renovations, but it was still impressive. After the chapel, we wandered around the core of the city, taking in the manicured scenery of the University and watching the crowds take boat rides on the river and canals. It's called "punting," and it was hard to hold in our laughter when a middle-aged man on his cell phone was walking past us on a bridge, glanced over and caught sight of the throngs of boats, and stopped mid-sentence to exclaim "I've never seen so many punts!"
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| The center of Cambridge, with the Saturday market. |
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| Great beer list at the Pint Shop. |
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| King's College Chapel. |
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| The soaring stained glass windows in the King's College Chapel. |
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| The University grounds. It was during exam period, so we weren't allowed to go much further than this. |
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| The River Cam winds through town. Look at the punters! |
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| Lounging on a lazy Saturday. |
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| Punting on the canals. |
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| Drinking tea the proper way! |
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| The full British Tea experience! It was complete with cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and chelsea buns. |
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| Another view of the well kempt University grounds. |
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| The Eagle, a very popular pub where Watson and Crick announced they'd discovered the double helix structure of DNA. |
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| The shopping streets of Cambridge. |
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| Spring was in full bloom in Cambridge! |
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| Beautiful brick University buildings. |
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| A view over the Gothic and renaissance spires and towers of Cambridge. |
We had a great day in Cambridge. It's a beautiful tourist-friendly town, and worth day trip from London. There are plenty of churches and university buildings to explore, but also plenty to eat and a lot of tourist-friendly shopping.
