Cambridge

On Saturday we took a day trip to Cambridge, which is famous for its university, scientific discovery, and Pink Floyd. We decided to do something a little different with this excursion and joined a guided walking tour to and from London. The company is called London Walks, and they are pretty well-known for their tours in the city of London, and on the weekends they go to various destinations in the English countryside. The nice thing about London Walks is that you don't book in advance--if you want to go, you just show up, so it is very convenient for last-minute decisions or if you're not 100% sure if you want to go (and don't want to risk paying and then having to cancel).

We began our journey at the Kings Cross train station, which is a bit of a tourist destination in itself, at least for Harry Potter fans. Having never read the books or seen the movies, I don't know what the significance of Platform 9 3/4 is, but there were a ton of people taking pictures of the sign (which is fake--there aren't any trains nearby, and it's actually been moved to a random corner of the station due to all the construction taking place there).

We found our tour guide, Simon, as well as 40-odd other tourists, handed over our money, and after some problem with the ticket-selling man (Simon assured us that in the "umpteen years" he's been doing this that this sort of thing has never happened), we weren't able to get on the train we were supposed to get on, but got on another one that arrived in Cambridge about 30 minutes later.

When we arrived at the Cambridge train station, we were met by a coach bus that drove us out to the American Cemetery and Memorial. Who knew there was an American Cemetery here? Not me. What an unexpected delight! (Not that dead Americans are a delight, but it was nice to visit a WWII cemetery while we were in Europe, especially since we didn't have time to go to Normandy). We only got to spend about 10 minutes here, and I really wish it could have been longer. It was so peaceful and beautiful, if a cemetery can ever be beautiful, and I could have spent an hour lingering here, walking among the graves, analyzing the huge map in the chapel, and taking pictures.

Our guide pointed out two names engraved on the "Wall of the Missing" that would be familiar to most Americans. The first was Joseph P. Kennedy of Massachusetts, older brother of John F. Kennedy. The second was the name of Alton G. Miller, who is more commonly known as Glenn Miller. Glenn Miller was a famous band leader and recording artist from the early 1940s. He joined the Army Air Force Band in 1942 to help the war effort by providing morale to the troops. In December of 1944, he got on a plane bound from England to Paris which disappeared over the Channel, and no trace of it has ever been found. I grew up listening to Glenn Miller's music (in fact, whenever I hear "Moonlight Serenade," I am transported back to my grandparents' farmhouse where it was always on their record player), so it was really neat to see his name engraved here.

Trees in the reflecting pool; Graves of U.S. servicemen

After our brief stop at the cemetery, the bus drove us back to Cambridge and dropped us off on the outskirts of town, where we began the walking part of the walking tour.

One of the first things Simon told us was that Cambridge is a town of about 100,000 people, but it has 30,000 bicycles. This is because students at Cambridge University are not allowed to have cars. Even Prince Charles, who was a student at Cambridge several decades ago, rode a bike here. Simon also told us to try to stay out of the road or else risk being run down by a bicycle (I initially scoffed at this, but it is so totally true--I nearly got hit a couple times).

The whole university system is still a bit confusing to me. Everyone who attends Cambridge University is admitted through one of its 31 colleges, which provide housing, meals, etc., but it is different than the US system. I don't fully understand the relationship, so I can't explain it. For wikipedia info, look here and here.

Simon gave us lots of information on the history of the area going back to the Romans, the creation of Cambridge University, the founding of many of its colleges (mostly by rich people who wanted their names to live on), famous people who have studied at Cambridge (Charles Darwin, John Harvard, Sacha Baron Cohen), and the many scientific breakthroughs that were made here (discovery of the electron, discovery of DNA, the EDSAC computer). Crick & Watson announced their discovery of the double helix structure of DNA at the Eagle Pub in Cambridge. We took a picture but didn't pop in for a pint.

We didn't go inside many buildings, with the exception of several churches, the largest (by far) being King's College Chapel (and calling it a chapel is silly--it's the size of a cathedral). Inside the chapel, our tour split in half, and our half was led by Jane, a Cambridge resident, who gave us lots of information about the chapel with the voice of a soothing English grandmother telling her grandchildren a story at bedtime. The interior is just breathtaking, especially the stone work, the stained glass windows, the wood carving on the altar, and the dramatic fanned stone ceiling, the largest of its kind in the world.

King's College Chapel Exterior; Chapel Interior and fanned stone ceiling

We didn't go "punting" on the river, but we enjoyed standing on one of the many bridges watching the boats go by. We might have done it had it been warmer outside. It was a long day (9:15 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.), but we enjoyed it, and we were glad we went on the guided tour, because it took the decision-making out of our hands, and we learned more than we ever could have just going on our own. The only downside was that our tour was a little too big to navigate the narrow streets & sidewalks of Cambridge efficiently. It's hard to keep a group of 40 people together! A group half that size or smaller would have been more ideal, but that's the price you pay for the convenience of not having to book in advance.

A punt on the river; Courtyard at King's College

Edit: I almost forgot! To see more pictures of Cambridge, go here.