After wasting most of Saturday feeling a little sorry for myself (don't worry it was due to a few too many drinks the night before) I decided we had to head out on Sunday to make the most of the beautiful weather. I've recently brought a 'Two travel together railcard' which gives me and Stuart about a third off rail travel, and will hopefully encourage us to leave London now and then. Today we decided to go to Cambridge. I'd never been before but it was only 50 minutes on the train and promised a nice mix of history and grandeur. As soon as we stepped off the train and headed into the town we were greeted with sunshine and dramatic buildings.
There were three things I wanted to do in Cambridge; Go Punting, visit the Round Church and have a cream tea. To get the first one on this list checked off we headed to the river Cam and joined a Punting tour. There were eleven of us squeezed onto one boat, and even though we were first in the queue some people bemoaned that they would get sick if the travelled backwards so with a scowl and a sigh we gave up the best seat at the front of the boat. Despite this it was a lovely tour with the sun beaming down on us and inexperienced Punters(?!) occasionally crashing into us.
The river was extremely busy but my favourite people we saw, in fact perhaps my favourite people of all time, were the guys who, defying the Cambridge stereotype, went past in a rubber dingy. My kind of people!
Our tour guide was great, giving us little snippets of facts about some of the colleges, chapels and bridges as we went past. My favourite was King's College Chapel, founded by Henry VI.
As we went under some of the many bridges it was lovely to get a very little bit of shade, if only for a few seconds, away from the blazing sun.
Apparently the swans have got very smart and realise many of the boats contain tasty picnic treats but unfortunately this guy went away empty handed.
As we returned to dry land I was glad to be able to stretch my legs and head into the shade, but the tour was a lot of fun. Now we know all about the colleges if we ever head back to Cambridge I think we'd hire our own boat and take our time messing about on the river.
Next stop was the Round Church. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of this as there was scaffolding all around the outside and inside was a little quiet so I wasn't sure if I allowed to take any snaps. However it was very interesting, and so refreshing to be away from the sunshine for short while. If you want to see what the church looks like head to this wiki page where you can learn a bit about it. I wanted to check it out as it dates all the way back to the Norman times and is one of about four medieval round churches still in existence. If you're in Cambridge I recommend you pop in to appreciate the history of the building.
Finally it was time for some refreshments. We stopped outside a very dramatic building for my cream tea, and a large waffle covered in ice cream for Stuart!
We finished the day by wandering aimlessly around the streets until we got to the other side of King's College chapel that we'd seen from the river.
Normally you can walk inside the grounds of the college but it was closed today due to examinations, so we just had time to say hello to my favourite monarch before heading back to the train station. It was a very lovely day and I think we'll definitely be heading back to Cambridge soon.
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