N and N's New Adventure: Day 40: July 3rd Cambridge

Day 40, Tuesday.....July 3

It is Cambridge.

We went downstairs to use the wifi which works only once in awhile. Sainsbury provided supplies for breakfast which we ate in our room. The room remains hot with the fan making it tolerable. The shower
has such an awful leak that the only option is to use the tub. They do have nice bath towels.

We took the car into city center. We parked in a parking garage that had a spiral ramp for getting the cars up and down. The radius was quite small. I am not sure that American cars would fit.

With the car parked we started our exploration. We found a huge ball shaped stone with geometric drawings. I am not sure what symbolism was meant or if it was a tribute to anyone, but the stone was rather unique. Shortly thereafter we came upon an outdoor market. The vendors were selling everything from fruit smoothies to used books to fresh vegys to handbags to scarves to underwear and socks. It was rather fun looking around the market. Neil found a bag he thought would be nice, but it was 49 pounds. He couldn't decide if he wanted to part with the money.

If you want to see old buildings, Cambridge is certainly the place to be. Block after block is filled with impressive and very old buildings. We walked through some of the shop areas, found a coffee shop and got hot drinks. We walked on and found a toy store with amazing Legos and PlayMobile where we could have easily spent a fortune and exceeded our one bag carry-on for EasyJet. Neil by this time had once again drunk all but two swallows of the mocha. I told him I wasn't sharing mochas with him again. We checked out a few shops and eventually found King's College and King's College Church. We paid for the admission to the Chapel....we were given concession rates and, Pete was given a student concession. The gentleman taking tickets looked at Jess and said "Ah, you are the normal one in the group." ( She had to pay full adult fare.) We, especially Jess, have had some fun with that one.

The chapel was started in 1446 by King Henry the VI. It took over a century to finish. It has the largest fan vault roof in the world. The building is considered Gothic architecture. It also has some of the finest existing Medieval stained glass in the world. The church seems massive. It is built in the shape of a cross. The wood carvings in the church are amazing. We spent quite a lot of time in the Chapel reading the descriptions of how it was built. The sheer process of cutting and shaping the stones is unbelievable. We walked around the courtyard of King's College being totally impressed with the place.

After King's we continued our walk and found Trinity College and its Chapel. Like King's College, it is old and impressive. Another similarity between the two colleges is that visitors are not allowed on the grass of the central area. This college was founded by King Henry VIII in 1546. It boasts more Nobel prize winners than any of the other colleges at Cambridge. The famous Christopher Wren Library is located in the college; however, it cannot be seen from the main courtyard. The courtyard is also the scene of the races that were depicted in the movie Chariots of Fire. Trinity, however, did not allow the filming in that spot. Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, and Lord Byron were graduates of Trinity.

We roamed from there with the intent of finding lunch, but instead found the Round Church of Cambridge. This church was built around 1130 AD. That makes it the oldest standing building in Cambridge. Across the street from the Round Church was the old fashioned candy store where you could buy candies from jars, red wax lips, and all sorts of candies from yesterday that are still apparently made for niche markets today. As we continued our walk towards food, Pete found a big bookstore with a special children's bookstore in the back. It was a great bookstore with all sorts of wonderful books. Joey's parents bought her a few books.

We found a pub with lunch specials for 5 pounds each. The food and the atmosphere was quite pleasant. After eating and resting, we started walking again. We found the punting boats which are small flat bottom boats that are moved through the use of a long pole by a person standing on the front. Punting tours are quite expensive...around 80 Pounds. After watching, we decided that the self-punting was not for us either. We followed Magdalene Street and found a few more colleges and a bead store. We walked along the back sides of several of the colleges and were able to get a good view of Wren's Library.

We eventually cut back through the private gardens...as in no admittance except for members of St. John's College. We were not alone. It took us to the Bridge of Sighs which was built in 1831 connecting two parts of St. John's. The name supposedly comes from the sighs of students preparing for exams.

We walked on and found Queen's College which led us to another famous bridge...Mathematical Bridge which connects two parts of Queen's College. It was first built in 1749 and has been rebuilt twice.

From there we found Corpus Christi College. The whole reason for finding it was to look at the clock at one corner of the College. The clock was completed in 2008 at a cost of 1 million pounds--$1.8 million-- is gold. It has not hands and no numbers. It shows the time through the use of LED lights. However, the clock slows up and speeds up at inconsistent intervals. The clock movement is advanced by a creepy looking cricket/grasshopper that sits at the top. Apparently the symbolism of the slowing and speeding is to show the irregularities of life. See Google---Corpus Christi Clock Cambridge.

On our way back to the car we managed to get sidetracked by a fabric store, an ice cream store, and a stamp store. We ended our almost 5 mile walk around Cambridge by paying a grand total of 24 Pounds for parking the car for about 8 hours...that is around $38 or $39. That is worse than Chicago.

We made our way back to our really awful hotel where we heard another story about why the air conditioning didn't work. We bought sandwiches, crisps (chips), and drinks at Sainsbury's and had a picnic dinner in our bad room.

Steps: 21,297 ....approximately five miles

Kings College