Day 52 7 July 2023 Cambridge

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We had a special day today, we were shown around Cambridge by Deb’s first cousin once removed, Eleanor. Eleanor did her Law degree at Cambridge, and graduated last year. She came up here especially for us from London. It was so good to get here insight into the University and to see where she lived and studied during her time here.

But I get ahead of myself. Earlier in the morning I went for a walk around “town”. I managed to get a little bit of video of The Corpus Clock, a strange looking device gifted to the Corpus Christi College by its creator Dr John C Taylor OBE.

The clock has no hands and the time is given by the position of lights on its metallic disks, it is gold plated and has a “grasshopper escapement mechanism. It’s so interesting to watch. I then walked down to and through the town markets. They sell everything from jewellery to kebabs, they had some great looking fruit and veg on one stall and the biggest figs I have ever seen. I enjoyed my morning walk.

Eleanor arrived up here around 10:30am and we met her in the foyer of our hotel. As it turned out, her old college, Downing, was literally across the road from our hotel, so that’s where we started. We got to see her old study areas, the grounds, the College Chapel (not a patch on Kings College), the College dining room and two places she lived, a dorm building and a house.

We then walked down through town to Scudamore‘s Mill Lane Punting Station. We booked a half boat Punt Tour of Cambridge on the River Cam. It was a really interesting tour, A mile down river and a mile back. We got a really interesting continuous commentary, giving us an idea of how the University came to Cambridge and how it grew, the way the 31 Colleges of the University came about, some quirky stories of past alumni, such as Isaac Newton (measuring the speed of sound), Stephen Hawkins (and his time travel party), Lord Byron (and his pet bear), Alan Turning (and WWII code breaking and first computer), and stories of “Night Climbers” and witches hats on the spires of the Kings College Chapel. While we are takings College Chapel, we were told it is the largest chapel in the world by volume. The history of the University is intertwined with Kings and Queens of England, many of its bridges were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell during the British Civil War, an original copy of the book “Winnie the Poo” is held in Wren Library (named after its designer Christopher Wren) as are Isaac Newton’s original workbooks.It was all so interesting and done at a gentle pace on the river. If you get the chance we highly recommend this experience.
After that we had lunch before walking the streets and lanes, with Eleanor giving us insights into what goes on where. We learnt of an interesting tradition where the names of all the residents in College houses are painted onto the wall near the front door of each house. We passed a pub where pioneering research into DNA was discussed over refreshing ales by Watson and Crick. We saw a theatre where Eleanor performed and walked through the oldest College in the University, Peter house (1284). As we wound up our tour with Eleanor we went to a shop that was renowned as having the best Chelsea Buns in town, Fitzbillies. The buns were first made here in the 1920’s after their “invention” in Chelsea. The buns became very popular at the end of WWII, and have linked to Cambridge and the Fitzbillies ever since. We got a regular and chocolate Chelsea Bun to go. They were both delicious.

We walked up past the front of Eleanor’s old house and then back to our hotel. We said good bye to our brilliant guide, it was so good to spend the day with her. Hopefully she might come out to Australia again in the near future.

And that finished our day of exploration of Cambridge. What a good day. We leave for London tomorrow and our last hotel for our holiday.