Day 20: Cambridge - here a boffin, there an egghead...

As usual this morning, we found the BBC TV weather report completely unfathomable but a quick peak out the window told us it was cold and very wet.  Bracing ourselves, we fired up the Mitsubishi Mirage headed off in the direction of Chesterton and the nearest laundromat.  Of course, it was a mistake to assume Chesterton was a genteel, outer Cambridge suburb - it was actually right in the heart of the CBD and we had yet another teeth-clenching joy ride along narrow streets in peak hour traffic, looking for somewhere to park. Eventually we found a spot, a handy three kilometres from the Clean-O-Rama laundrette, where our smalls were duly laundered and dried.

Then it was off to explore the more civilised part of Cambridge, across the river. Ah, what a feast for the eyes! (she said, and not for the first time).

 This is the Round Church, built in 1130 and described as "the second oldest building in Cambridge".  It had quite a fascinating display inside of the history of Cambridge from the Iron Age to the present.

 

  

     


Then we walked along St Johns Street and Kings Parade, full of beautiful, ornate architecture and many cycling students, and thankfully, car-free.  If not for all the ghastly tourists it would have been perfect, but I can't have everything.

This is the front of Trinity College, and if you're familiar with it you will probably agree it looks more spectacular in the flesh than in this pic.  And look, there's Henry VIII in the dead centre.  He founded (or at least funded) Trinity College.  

 

Then it was off to Kings College Chapel, also funded in part by Henry VIII but actually founded by Henry VI.  It was very ornate and quite beautiful inside.  

 

 

Kings College chapel still carries all the original stained glass windows from the 15th and early 16th centuries - one of the few not destroyed by the warty warmonger Oliver Cromwell(that's what our Lonely Planet guide calls him) during his reign of terror. Apparently, as a former Cambridge student, he was familiar with the stained glass, thought it beautiful,     and decreed it should remain unscathed.                                  I read somewhere today that the original Puritans were actually Presbyterians.  I was raised as a Presbyterian.  It certainly explains why I am so pious, wholesome and God-fearing.  

 

Yes, this pic on the right is shite - I blame the low lighting inside Kings Chapel.  I was trying to capture the beautifully ornate vaulted ceiling.

 

 

 

Pic on the left is the tradesmen's entrance to Kings College Chapel.  It was taken from 'the backs' - the grassy backyard of all the colleges that goes down to the river.

 

One of the treats of Cambridge is a a punt ride down the river, but not my idea of a good time in pouring rain. Still, it didn't stop this couple (near the bridge) with their brolly, galoshes and intrepid gondolier.   

Pic on left: More architecture in Helsinki Cambridge, plus that mysterious sheila in the red cap who pops up periodically in our blog pics.

 

  My reference to Presbyterians earlier reminds me that when we were in Cornwall we drove past a very plain, flinty building with etched signage above its portal: "Primitive Methodist Church. 1870".  I pictured the hell-fire preacher in Cold Comfort Farm - "ye're all doomed, ye worthless bunch of sodomites and fornicators!..." etc etc.  Not sure that people would still be stampeding their way to join the primitive Methodists these days.  I'd consider it myself of course, if only I wasn't a fully-fledged and practising Presbyterian. Dammit.

 

Tomorrow:  Norfolk - to pay homage to Boudicca, the Warrior Queen!