Cambridge

Today, since it was another pretty day, I decided not to let the day go to waste and I headed about an hour east of here to Cambridge University.  I took the wonderful Rick Steve's advice and paid for a walking tour of the city.  There were only six of us with a wonderful guide who patiently answered all of our questions and excitedly told us about all the ins and outs of the town she calls home.

These are punting boats on the river Cam.  Punting involves a relatively flat boat and a long pole.  The experienced drivers know that it is actually easiest to punt in the middle of the river where an old road used to be rather than sticking the pole in the mud along the sides.

The boats are sponsored by the different colleges in town (I'll get to that in a minute!).  These boats are sponsored by Trinity, so the names are things that come in threes.

Cambridge is one of the top universities in England.  That does not mean that it costs any more than other universities, as all the universities in the UK cost the same amount, although room and board may vary.  However, as they only accept very clever people, quite often these students came from schools where they were educated in extremely small class sizes, which means they are coming from wealthy families.  However clever these pupils may be, they still act like dumb college kids whenever they get the chance.  For instance, there used to be a game to see who could jump from the window in the turret to the left in the photo above to the roof of the Senate House across the narrow road.  Not all too clever, eh?

One of the best known chapels in Cambridge, King's College Chapel, started by Henry VI and finished by Henry VIII.  It has an incredibly ornate ceiling supported by decorative columns and surrounded by detailed stained glass.

These are the grounds of King's College.  Now, when I first arrived today, I saw signs to "Trinity College," "King's College," "Corpus Christi College," and several others.  I kept looking around for Cambridge University, but I didn't see it anywhere.  Thankfully, my tour guide was able to easily explain it all.  Cambridge University is made up of thirty-so-odd colleges.  These colleges are not what we might thing of such as majors, but rather similar to the houses in Harry Potter.  The University provides for the education of the pupil while the college provides for the room and board aspects.  Each college varies in size from 150 to near 1,000.  Each college has its own grounds, such as the one you see above where there is a chapel, student housing, a library and a hall for eating.  When applying, you actually apply to a college and if you are accepted, you are therefore accepted to the university.  Our guide said that people choose the particular colleges for a variety of reasons, everything from their parents went there to the color of the wallpaper in the housing.

Our tour guide had pointed out Great St. Mary's in the center of town and suggested that if we had time, to climb the tower.  Climb a tower?  Well, of course.  I climbed the near 200 steps to the top for a nice view of the city.  University policy says that all pupils must live within three miles of this very bell tower so that they can hear the bells.  Behind the church was a wonderful market with fresh baked goods, home-grown vegetables and artists selling their crafts.  

This is a view of the King's College Chapel from a top the tower.

Herman really appreciates that many cities here have Herman-size cities as well.

Here, you can actually see several colleges as they are sort of in squares encompassing a courtyard of sorts in the middle.

This is Trinity College, one of the larger colleges and I believe that this courtyard was in Chariots of Fire.

I was thrilled to take a day to visit a beautiful small town steeped in history, tradition and an appreciation of education.