A day at Cambridge

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Wednesday 17th October

It looked a little bleak when we woke up this morning but we decided to continue with our plan to go to Cambridge. What a great decision! The weather improved and we had beautiful blue skies for the first time in days. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that we lost the sun but even then it was fine even if a little cool.

We stopped just outside of Cambridge at Babraham where there was a “Park & Ride” and for £2 each we had return tickets by bus into the centre of town - no parking or traffic problems.

Both of us fell in love with the town, lovely old buildings, plenty of history, and a relaxed feel about the place with all the young students around. After a visit to the Tourist Information place we set off on one of their walking tours seeing the churches and different educational institutions we had heard of in the past. Some of the colleges, such as King College, were absolutely mind-blowing with their magnificence; the photos don’t do them justice.

In one street we were accosted by a personable young man, dreadlocks and all, and he sold us a tour by punt along the Cam River. The sale was made easier as we had earlier decided we were going to take one!
We were accompanied by an American couple and we think a Dutchman with his 2 daughters. Because of earlier rain there was quite a current flowing and Liam, the puntman, had a difficult task in keeping the craft moving forward & in the right direction. Later, on the return journey, he was rewarded by not having to put in much effort.

The scenery was well worth the trip, with many of the colleges backing onto the river. Liam gave a running commentary on them with a few humorous asides such as the story of Prince Charles at Trinity wanting to be treated as any other student and having a whole floor, with 24 rooms, of the college allocated to him. Also, that his bodyguard attended the same lectures as the prince and was given permission to sit the final exams with him. The bodyguard finished with better grades!

The route home was through Haverhill, and this was a great choice, few delays, and little traffic, unlike other routes we heard of as we listened to traffic reports on the radio.

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