Cambridgeshire 3 - Cambridge - a countdown to 2015 and our first holiday abroad; our first trip of the year to a seat of academic learning; colleges galore and the chance to use our bus passes

---

Along the path , the gaze of the moon follows you . The tangled branches. there on the snow mark out the signs of your thoughts - Francois Cheng. What makes me write this ? And who is Francoise Cheng ? French poet and philosopher with a chinese background perhaps - not sure I care who he is as the poetry is rather thought provoking and apt as we are deep in the throes of a British winter. Sprinkles of snow fell gently last night initially covering the earth and the trees with a dusting reminiscent of icing sugar almost 4" deep . Through all of this though there are sings of Spring as we have seen the first daffodils in the park and the first of the early lilac flowering crocii. Crocii or Crocuses - one of those funny words where the plural sounds wrong whichever way you write it but such a pretty delicate flower looking hardly capable of withstanding everything Winter throws at it.

The snow continued falling into the dark night and on rising we woke to see Suzy hidden under a shroud of snow. Her wheels hidden . As she is predominately white she blended into the snow. Camoflaged completely apart from her red go faster stripes. The world had been transformed to a winter wonderland of white. We spent an hour clearing a path and a strip to drive cars down.

The first job of the new year came round . Those jobs that Suzy needs to keep her on the road . She needed new boots . We have 2000 miles left on the fronts but our trip to Spain/Portugal in April/May will see us driving over 4000 miles so by the time we would get home we would be illegal. Typically for us we probably would be stopped by the local police if we decide to risk driving her to Spain/Portugal and back . Most people drive their tyres to our limits we are perhaps a little cautious. We had ordered the new boots and should have picked them up Monday. Sadly the weather remained poor and Suzy moved not one inch off the drive. In the end it took four days for the snow to clear before we were able to take her to have her new tyres fitted. None of the scaremongering stories of tyres being difficult to obtain. We had read blogs from motorhomers who said that they had to wait months for tyres to arrive. We had none of that trouble nor was the cost that high. And so she is fitted up and ready to go.

It is coming up to that time of year when we start to think of all the jobs needed to keep her on the road. Her habitation check needed each year to ensure that the warranty is maintained in case of damp; her first MOT which hopefully she will sail through and service due end of February. At last we will get rid of the flashing oil light at the same time. That is only 8 weeks to go and we have booked her in at a new service centre just up the road from where we live. For the first time we won't need to take her to the Fiat garage for her service and MOT and then to Derby for her habitation check. All will be done at one place. She will need taxing beginning of March but in the mean time we need to get on the road again. Insurance due as well so the end of February will be an expensive time - oh yes and travel insurance. Like a merry go round it all comes round again quickly.

And so to on the road again . This meant looking at the map and making a decision of where to go.

January is not the best month to be away. It is guaranteed to be cold or wet or both. There might be risk of sleet, snow, rain or any combination of those weather systems. So we need a city. What came up? London - been before and last time it was terribly cold in November. Lots to see but we fancied something a bit more accessible. . Oxford - possibility - always wanted to go there .. Edinburgh - too far up north for this time of year guarentee of colder weather and snow that far north. . It has to be down south - Devon and Cornwall too far away for a few days - so how about Cambridge? A bit of research done - there is a good site Cherry Hinton on the doorstep which we have used before and a bus running frequently into town. We should be able to use our bus passes for the trip from the site into Cambridge. That will be a first. . And there should be plenty to do. That will do nicely for a couple of days. Plenty to see with all the university buildings, a couple of museums and a train or bus to Ely. After that we can move to Peterborough and stay near to the Nene Railway which will take us into town for the day. And on the way home - something different Duxford Imperial War Museum. Sounds like a good break to me. I am sure it will as always change along the way. But then that is the beauty of motorhoming it can and does change.

Booked the nights out via the net on the Camping Club sites. Easy to do - one click and you are booked. Opening times and prices checked. All that is left is to start that long drive down the M1.

The miles drag. The journey should only take 3 hours or so in Suzy. We quickly drove through Derbyshire to Nottinghamshire and then back into Derbyshire again. As we hit Leicestershire we stopped off at Leicester Forest Services for a well earned cup of tea and a bacon butty. Not the best I have ever tasted perhaps the KFC would have been a better choice. And then on the road again heading in an easterly direction or so Selina the new Sat Nav told us through the counties until we reached Cambridgeshire.

The site was pretty empty which shocked us. When we first started Motorhoming three years ago all the sites seemed full all year. There were spaces galore we cocould pick anywhere. Some hard standing plots were closed due to heavy rain and slight flooding but we found a nice dry one and hunkered down as the wind had now picked up and was buffetting us and Suzy. We slept well despite all the rattling and rumblings from the high winds and the torrential rain. Typical January day then . Enough said .

We woke early, breakfasted and showered before walking down to the bus stop to catch the bus into town. Having been given a list of instructions we knew that the stop was only 10 minutes walk away, the bus number was number 1 or 3 and passed by every 10 minutes and was close to the Robin Hood Pub. However, there was no mention of which side of the road the bus went from nor any clue how close it was to the pub. Having asked I got a vague response; no idea we have only been here a couple of days but it goes from the left of the pub. Ok then so off we set walking slowly to the end of the road where we were told to turn right and then go across the road into Cherry Hinton Road. After 10 minutes with no sign of the pub we found the bus stop and saw the bus sailing by. Luckily we only had to wait another 5 minutes before another turned up. We gingerly got out our bus passes. And asked what to do with them. We were told politely to put them on top of the reader and if accepted the light would change to green. We waited in anticipation and it did go green. We were like two silly little kids who had gone on the bus without paying our fare. It did save us £4 each on the journeys in and out of Cambridge so a good little saving.

Arriving in town our first stop the Round Church which we had read was Norman and dated back to the Knights Templars. The church was built around 1130, its shape apparently being inspired by the rotunda in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem . It was built by the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre, who were probably a group of canons and consisted of an unusual with a chancel. Not the usual type of church and one of the only remaining of its type in Britain . So well worth a visit at a cost of £2 each . Initially it was a wayfarers' chapel on the Roman road known as Via Devana . By the middle of the 13th century it had become a parish church and was used for this purpose until fairly recently. The church was typically norman with wonderful rounded arches and great big thick columns. It had a nice peaceful atmosphere and running all the time were films telling the history of the building.

From here we passed college after college all built of mellow stone and the odd one in brick. All invited you in through archways and doorways. Giving a little glimpse of what was beyond in the courtyards. Sadly each charge an entrance fee and they can add up if you chose to visit each college. I think it is a case of once you have seen one you have seen all of them and you need to be quite strong willed to pick just one or two and not bother with the rest of them. We had decided beforehand to visit Kings and that was going to be our next stop after coffee and crepes for breakfast. Our coffee and crepes were bought from a small cafe opposite Kings, Everywhere was heaving with students on their bikes. I felt that I was taking my life in my own hands every time I tried to cross the road. Bikers were riding on the pavements and on the roads and it was like a manic day on the busy M1. It rather spoiled the day having to avoid being run over all the time .

We ate our crepes and drank our coffee. Not the best crepes by any means . I asked for lemon only and got sugar without the lemon. I ate them dry as they were without complaining. Perhaps we don't complain enough. And so it was on to our next stop Kings College just across the road.

---

Photos

Cambridge
The Round Church

Cambridge
Round Church Norman architecture

Cambridge
Medieval clock

Cambridge
Another sun dial on a corner of a building

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Clocks
Does anyone really know what time it is. I'm always attracted to clocks on these amazing structures.

[JenGog]

clocks
I am the clock lover . I find them fascinating and find I have to take photos of them