Almost exactly a year ago, I was in Cambridge, England, with my mom and my best friend, Shae. We were in London for four days and decided to go up to Cambridge for one of the days. I had visited Oxford while studying abroad, and Shae had been to Cambridge, so we were a bit divided; we ultimately chose Cambridge so that we could go punting, perfect for a summer day.
Armed with coffee and breakfast, we hopped on a morning train from Kings Cross and arrived with plenty of time to explore. We had been unfortunate enough to be greeted by heatwave in London, and had an incredibly hot, record-breaking temperature the day before our Cambridge day trip. Luckily, the heatwave started to break this day, so it was much more pleasant to walk around from the moment we got there.
The train station isn’t too far from the center of the university, so we started over and then booked a punting tour for the later in the day. Our first real stop was the famous Fitzbillies, a cafe and bakery on Trumpington Street in the midst of several colleges and university buildings. I tried a Chelsea bun, of course. After a snack and coffee for Shae, we ducked into Pembroke College across the street, one of the colleges that is open to the public without a fee, to take a little walk around.
We took our time walking over to the tour starting point, crossing a couple of bridges and passing by a few more colleges. Punting was definitely the way to go for our day trip. It felt really nice to meander down the River Cam and check out the beautiful university from that vantage point. We had a wonderful tour with a great guide who told stories about the famous colleges and landmarks we passed by. It also nice to not be the ones trying to steer a punt, as we watched other groups trying to do….
After our tour ended, we wandered around Cambridge more until we stopped to eat. Many of the colleges were closed to visitor or had such limited open hours that we couldn’t fully visit the more famous colleges, though we poked out heads into some of them or walked around their open grounds. Places like Cambridge and Oxford are gorgeous and fascinating, and and an especially different experience for me as an alumna of New York University, a completely big city-based school that feels far more modern than even the standard American university with a pretty traditional campus.
The Eagle is the pub where Watson and Crick announced their discovery of the structure of DNA, a must-visit for my biologist mother.
Our last stop was Great St. Mary’s Church, where we climbed up a narrow, claustrophobic spiral staircase to the top of the tower. The view of the Cambridge is worth it - I always love to see a city from above, and it was so interesting to see the architecture and university layout from this viewpoint. After climbing
We took another winding walk back to the train station, where we hopped on a train and, despite some cancelled and delayed trains, got back to London in time for a show. It was a perfect day trip, more relaxed after a couple of very tiring and hot days, though we did walk 10 miles in Cambridge and London that night! Cambridge is also an ideal place for film photography - the old buildings and atmosphere felt very well-suited to film.
Shae