Cambridge

After 2 days of much needed rest after a great trip through central Europe, I had a fun day today in Cambridge, England with other BC students for our final group outing. We had an early start to the day when we hopped on our coach at Liverpool Street Station and enjoyed a smooth hour and a half ride to Cambridge.

When we first arrived, we had a 2 hour walking tour with a certified Cambridge guide. We learned a lot about Cambridge history, which deals mostly with the infamous university. Our tour guide explained that within Cambridge University there are 31 autonomous colleges, which serve as student dormitories and maintain full autonomy. Though lectures and other educational instruction take place at the university, students apparently identify more with their specific colleges.

Cambridge has a beautiful river running through it called the River Cam. Unfortunately, the weather during our visit was extremely uncooperative. It couldn't make up its mind; when we arrived it was sunny, then it rained, then it became very windy, then sunny, then rain, and so on. This made for a somewhat stressful walking tour, but it was still enjoyable.

Queen's College front entrance

Kings College Chapel exterior 

Kings College front entrance

St. Botolph's Church, which is dedicated to St. Botolph of the 7th century, the patron saint of travelers. The most famous place named after him is Boston in Lincolnshire - "Botolph's Town" - which gave its name to Boston in Massachusetts! 

Courtyard of Trinity College

Courtyard of Trinity College

Kings College Chapel interior, which served as a great example of gothic architecture and incredible stonework and stained glass windows 

Kings College Courtyard

After we finished our walking tour, we had an hourlong break for lunch, where Eric, Dave and I grabbed a bite at a Cambridge pub called The Eagle. As we learned on our tour, this is the place where  the announcement about the discovery of the DNA strand was made. Fascinating stuff, I know. 

After lunch, we took to the River Cam and tried a Cambridge tradition: punting. Punting reminded me of gondolas. At first, I thought that we were going to sit in these boats and go for a lap around the river with one of the trained and experienced "punters." To everyone's surprise, however, we had the opportunity to punt ourselves! I didn't actually try my hand at punting, but Dave and Eric did, and both did a wonderful job. I helped steer by paddling, which I was surprisingly good at (growing up with family vacations to lakes in Minnesota and Maine really came in handy in England, apparently). Unfortunately, it started pouring when we first got onto the river (perfect timing), but after a few downpours the sun came out, and it was a beautiful day. 

Attempting not to run into the wall!

Eric punting, Dave hard at work paddling, and me trying to get some sun to dry off

The main punting dock

After our punting adventures we hopped back on the bus and headed back to London. Eric and I went out to a great dinner at Da Mario in Covent Garden, and I am now off to pack for my next trip: Marrakech and Barcelona. After a mid-afternoon flight out of Luton Airport tomorrow, Eric and I will spend 3 nights in each city before returning back to London for the final days of our semester abroad. It is supposed to be over 100 degrees in Marrakech, so I may be having flashbacks to my month in Kuwait last summer; wish me luck! Stayed tuned for blog posts about my final travel adventure in a week!