Visit to Cambridge

We visited Cambridge at the end of October (yikes!). It was a beautiful sunny day and Cambridge looked golden and glowing on the old college buildings. We tagged along with our neighbors Magnus, Elin and Rebecka. They hadn't visited there yet either, and Magnus knew a past colleague living there and so wanted to visit.

We arrived just in time for lunch, so found a popular UK lunch eatery called Cornwall Pasties. (Pasties is pronounced like you would start to say pasta, but with an "e" sound at the end.) I was the only one who had eaten there before, and they are really tasty. Basically they are shaped like a calzone, but with a thick pastry surrounding some sort of meat filling. Typically it consists of pieces of beef, carrots, onions and potatoes. Yum for me! Brian tried the chicken one of course. Also, Brian and I had brought along a couple of PB&J sandwiches in case we needed as a snack. We also knew that Elin and Magnus had never had PB&J! (Not very common in the UK or Europe at all! One of those things you think every kid grows up on, but we've learned it's VERY American!) So we shared our PB&J with them and Rebecka so they could give it a good taste. It went over okay, but they said they wouldn't make it for themselves! A required taste for sure!

After lunch, we visited the main Cambridge sites, starting with King's College, founded by King Henry VI in 1441. King's Chapel has impressive gothic architecture with the largest fan vaulted ceiling in the UK. It's huge and was built in 3 stages over 100 years. It's known at the symbol of Cambridge, and probably the most photographed building in town. Alongside the backside of the College is a huge green grass area and then leads to the River Cam. Punting is a huge pastime in Cambridge (even more so that in Oxford) and many punters were out. It's also because the boats glide along the "Backs" as it's known, which is not only the backside to King's College, but about 4-5 other colleges as well. It's an easy way to see right into the college grounds.


After King's, we walked up the road to see other colleges. In front of Trinity College is a true descent of Isaac Newton's apple tree from which he sat beneath and formulated the laws of gravity! So of course we had to get a photo of physicist Dr. Brian in front of that one!







And at St. John's College, we found the Bridge of Sighs, named after the Venice, Italy one, but not the same architecturally. It's a covered bridge over the River Cam and in the middle of the college grounds.











In the evening, E, M & R went to have dinner with their friends, and Bri and I went off in search of "the" Cambridge pub. Supposedly we found it just around the corner, called The Eagle. Seemed pretty much like a popular and old school University pub! Also then went to find the infamous Cambridge physics building, the Cavendish Laboratory, where in 1953 the first accurate model of DNA was developed. Over 29 Nobel Prize winners had come from the Cavendish lab - so obviously it's pretty amazing in the physical science world.

I have to say, our planned dinner options of finding the best Indian restaurant in town didn't work out, so we settled for mediocre chinese. But we had an amazing day, so can't complain too much!