Blogs from Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 38

With our passports at the Swedish embassy and vacations that we have to use up, last Saturday was ‘be an English tourist’ day. The options were many - Marlow, Oxford, Bath, York but we zeroed in on Cambridge. Often regarded as one of the most beautiful universities in the world, with an interesting history to boot, we took the train from Kings Cross (a la Harry Potter) down to Cambridge. London is well connected to Cambridge with trains from Kings Cross as well as Liverpool Street. The fast train will get you there in 45 minutes and the normal one in 90. A cheap day return ticket will cost £17. For train timings refer to http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/time_table/journey_requirements.asp?&T2ID=3052_2005725173028. From the Cambridge railway station you can either hire a bike or hop onto the Sightseeing tour bus (£8 a ... read more

This blog I'm afraid will be a bit of a mixed bag, as it is a bit reliant on being able to download camera pics. After leaving the Osaka area, we flew to Tokoyo and stayed in the central bussiness area. We visited Tokoyo Tower, Imperial Palace, Toyota display centre, the Giza area (major department store shopping area) and Electric City. Didn't realise there was so much variety in computers, MP3s, Ipods, toasters and toilet seats!!!:) Yes the Japs have auto toilet seats that do almost everything for you, including wiping your bum. The best part of Tokoyo of course was catching up with Maimai and Aki (you remember cute little Maimai, she was our first exchange student) We went out to dinner at Shinigawa the night before we left Japan. Aki is still at uni ... read more

Evan came to visit this week. He got in Monday morning and we were just lazy all week (a truly relaxing week). Thursday we went punting with Matt, and then Saturday we spent in London wandering around Notting Hill and ate dinner in China town. I headed back to Cambridge that night and Evan stayed in London Saturday night to get to Gatwick early Sunday morning.... read more

Mom & Dad made it here in one piece, but its been one heck of a long day. I left here at 6:15 to catch the train to London, then the tube (which was having delays) to another station to get to Gatwick. I was a little late thanks to the tube delays, but so was their flight. An hour after they landed they finally got through customs, and then we had to do the fun ride back to Cambridge. However there were all kinds of train issued due to the snow, so the train we were on was terminated about 3 stops from cambridge and we had to get on a different one later; our hour train ride ended up being 2.5 hrs with all the delays. We finally got back, dropped off the luggage, ... read more

It was quite a lazy weekend, which was exactly what I/we needed. Thursday there was a group of 7 of us that walked to Madingley which is a small town just outside of Cambridge which houses the only American Cemetary in the British Isles. There are almost 4000 graves in the cemetary and over 5000 names on the wall of the missing. The engraving over the wall says, "The Americans whose names here appear were part of the price that free men for a second time in this century have been forced to pay to defend human liberty and rights - all who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with greatful rememberance of their sacrifice and with the high resolve ... read more