Cambridge. Home of Cambridge University, which was this year voted number one in the world beating out Oxford and Harvard. As with a lot of the places I had been to, Cambridge bought with it many expectations of quaint little rivers, beautiful old college buildings and little men steering punts with long sticks and those ugly boat shoes.
Well fortunately (although unfortunately for the boat shoes) I was lucky enough to experience it all.
The morning of the Cambridge trip arrived and I felt – not amazing at all. In the space of half and hr I had convinced myself that I should stay and get better because it was a long way to Cambridge and then changed my mind again because I so desperately did not want to miss out. Luckily, my somewhat jealous streaked reared its ugly head, and it was the thought that everyone else was going to have a great day and have so many good photos that got me on that bus!
It was a long (3 hr) bus ride to Cambridge (well long for English standards anyway…I virtually spanned the nation!) However, once we arrived at the beautiful little town, all thoughts of being cramped and cold on the bus were forgotten.
We began at Kings College, the most visited and well known in all of Cambridge. The buildings were amazing and the Kings College Abbey towered over them all. Being the nosy children that we are, we took a sneak peek into a couple of the rooms on the ground floor – it was so crazy to think that students actually stay in this place! We also saw some people having lunch in the dining hall… a dining hall that looked like something from Harry Potter….can you say jealous!
Just a note here: I also found out that tuition fees at Cambridge (and I’m assuming Oxford as well) are not anymore expensive then what you would pay elsewhere in England. Yes, you have to be the best of the best to get in but I was very surprised to learn the fees are very equal. Made Louise and I wonder why Adelaide doesn’t do an exchange with Cambridge?!?! And why we didn’t do it?!?
The rest of the morning we spent wandering around looking at the buildings, ducking into cute little shops and perusing the Saturday markets. All I wanted to do in Cambridge was go punting on the river and our prayers were answered by the most handsome punter alive: a.k.a Tom.
Tom took us on a tour down the river, past all of the colleges and the historical buildings and monuments. Everything was so nice and the sun came out just for us. The boat was a little unstable with 6 of us in it but Tom assures us it is actually quite difficult to capsize. And if he said it, it must be right. Louise and I got some really good photos (of the view and Tom of course) and we bid our punter adieu as he collected a new group. Sigh.
Afterwards we climbed the main tower in the square to see the view from the top. Little did we know it was what felt like hundreds of steps to the top in a staircase that you would not have fit in if you had eaten too many donuts that day. And don’t even get me started on the way down, it was so steep! But the view was amazing, as we were there just as the sun was beginning to go down and the girls got some great shots (remember people that the sun starts going down at about 3 here!)
Ate high tea and scones at a nice little café (with terrible service but that’s ANOTHER story) with all the girls and sat back basking in the Cambridge air. Got on the wrong bus to go home and were promptly redirected to our bus where EVERYONE was waiting for us (ooopppssss) and headed back to Leeds.
If you were going to go to any University would it be Cambridge?
DEFINITELY
Was the fudge from the Saturday markets one of the best I’ve had?
MAYBE
Will Cambridge still be Louise’s ‘favourite place ever’ once we go somewhere new? (keeping in mind her ‘favourite place ever’ was the Lake District. And then Bath. And then Cambridge….)
PROBABLY NOT!
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