You just can't live in England and not go punting. Well, if you're living here as an expat and are a die hard traveler hellbent on doing everything, well.. then you can't live in England without punting.
There's something about the English and their water. It's all so very romantic.
So, Colin took the day off and we went to Cambridge (such a gorgeous city by the way) to hang out and just be with each other.
We have the luxury of having all 3 girlies in school for 2 days a week, so that means my first true "days off" in many, many years. The fact that my man took a day off just to spend time with me means a lot to me. :)
So, we drove to Cambridge which is about 45 minutes from us. As soon as we got into the pedestrian zone, we were greeted by guys on the street trying to sell us punt tours. Funny, that even though this was our one goal for the day, we still stood there and deliberated about it...like we really even had to think! ha! Just keeping the sales people on their toes, I guess!
This was the guide in the punt in front of us.
Our guide is a local and he talked nonstop about Cambridge and the history of the colleges. It was a really neat experience. We would have paid double, though, to have a punt all to ourselves. :)
This is our guide. Glad I wasn't sitting right in front of him as the poor girl who was was sprayed the entire time with water.
My favorite part was going under all of the bridges. It was really sunny but the temperature difference was drastic for just a few seconds under those bridges. Heavenly respite.
I also saw a baby bat clinging to the underside of this bridge. So sweet. :)
Heading down the river.
This is the chapel at Kings' College. We've been in and I have to say it really is gorgeous. The woodwork is phenomenal and the art is absolutely breathtaking.
This is the "Mathematical Bridge" at Queens' College. It was first built in the mid 18th century. Next to it is the oldest building on the Cam. (around 1460)
You can't see it here, but some of the windows have been bricked up. Our guide told us that a window tax had been imposed on the good people of England and to avoid it, many buildings had their windows permanently sealed up. Kinda sad...
Me and the hubs. :)
Below is St John's College. So beautiful hidden there among the trees. Our guide talked all about the rivalry between St John's and Trinity college. There was only allowance for 1 clock tower on the river and at the time these 2 colleges were both building clock towers. So the race was on. The first to finish got to put their clock up. Supposedly, Trinity college cheated by constructing the last bit of the tower out of wood instead of stone. So they won. And now the clock at Trinity College rings twice on the hour. Once to tell the time and twice to remind St' John's College that they lost. :)
All the punts lined up, ready for service.
After our tour, we headed into town to try and find somewhere to eat. Just across from Kings' College, there is the Cambridge Chophouse. The menu looked interesting so we decided to check it out. We were pleasantly surprised although Colin tried jellied eel...I don't think he'll be making that mistake again. I was a bit tamer in my choice and had trout. I'm no fool.
Just out the window from where we were sitting, there was this amazing clock.
We overheard our waiter explaining it to the couple next to us. The cricket actually moves and his creepy little legs actually pull the big disc around and around. See all the little slits? Behind them there are blue lights that light round and round the clock and either pulse or stop for a split second on the place they're supposed to be at. So you have to look at 3 different rings of light to figure out the hour, minute and second. The clock also stops randomly and will then speed up to catch up to the proper time. It's encased in bulletproof glass and cost 1 million pounds. Pretty crazy. But it really is beautiful to watch.
After lunch we took a stroll through the farmer's market that was going on and I bought some fresh cherries for Colin since they're one of his favorites. I got a fresh apple and ginger juice that had a bit too much ginger in it. I could barely drink it! :)
Before we headed back to the car, we strolled through the garden at King's College. It was so pretty and bright and cheerful.
I have no idea what this flowering tree was, but it smelled absolutely heavenly. We were walking through a tiny little courtyard and we were just hit full-on by the smell of it. Yum.
I was half tempted to move the sprinkler...hahahaha
This was one of the gates to the garden. I love that it's black metal, but so very modern compared to the rest of the metalwork throughout the colleges. We especially liked the glass disc in the center of the door. We will definitely have something like this in our dream house.
Preferably right in the front door so we can greet our visitors like this.
We're suckers for a good shrunken head.
Thanks for coming along with us! :)
I hope you are having a wonderful day!
