We walked from his house to city center (about a mile or so). It is always interesting to be at street level in a foreign country. Everything is so different than in the States. Cambridge is a huge mixture of old and new...things dating from the dawn of time, to construction cranes erecting new buildings as we watched.
We wandered down to the Cam River. It's a really beautiful waterway, and Cambridge takes advantage of it. We eventually arrived at a spot where you can rent a punt. A punt is a flat-bottomed boat that is poled up and down the river, originally as work boats, now as tourist transports. We rented one, Mark poled. I watched the other punts and the college buildings and grounds that line both sides of the river.
Afterwards, we walked up the only hill in Cambridge, to the top of the old castle mound. Cambridge Castle was first built by William the Conqueror in 1068, and the site has served as the center of government ever since, the Council building adjacent to it is built with stone from the last iteration of the castle and gaol.
Lunch was at the appropriately named Castle Inn (it is located in the shadow of the mound). Then we headed over to Cambridge University and toured several of the colleges there. The buildings are beautiful. The mixture of old and new(er) can be quite subtle at times, and quite jarring at others. We made our way back to Mark's house, relaxed a bit, then had dinner at The Cambridge Blue pub again. Now the sun is finally going down at about 9:45PM, though there will be light in the sky until as late as 11:00PM!
Here are some pictures from today:
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| OOOOOKAY! |
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| Public artwork...this was a LONG mural along a pedestrian walkway under a major roundabout. |
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| A swan in the river. They have Canada geese, too. |
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| The Cambridge Castle Mound |
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| Me on top of the mound. There's a panoramic video below. |
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| Punting on the river. |
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| Moving right along! |
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| You just gotta love Rising Bollards! |
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| See, I told you there were warnings like this! |
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| The Tomb of Dr. Hugh Ashton, died 1522, and buried here in St. John's College Chapel |
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| Big Brother is watching! These things are EVERYWHERE!!! BOLLOCKS! |
This is the panorama from the top of the Castle Mound.
This is the St. John's College Choir rehearsing.
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