I
think everywhere in the world no matter what, when you visit a town with a
national or international renowned university, first thing you feel that the
town is alive. Unfortunately, Charlie was not there with me again this
time so I had to live up this fully alive town alone with couple local friends.
Ok
everyone, I have to say I did not expect too much from this town since it was
not a touristic visit but thanks to my dear local friends John and Mel it
turned out extraordinarily well and worth writing. My journey began with
arriving to the train station and after seeing York Station and all the train
museum vibes around, Cambridge Station did not look something special to my
eyes. It does the job though. John greeted me at the station and we went to his
car to drive their house. This was the first time I have been on front left
seat without driving the car. I must admit it gave me some weird reflexes that
I usually do when Charlie is driving but after a while, it went away. Being with
a local friends and staying with them gives you many ideas about the local
culture and habits actually, which made me amazed. First, I always knew English’s
passion about tea and as a Turkish; this is something of my interest to see how
they are doing with it. Oh my! Oh my! There is constant tea cooking in the
house. You actually never ran out of tea as long as the hosts are awake. Maybe
this is only for John & Mel’s hospitality alone but I still felt like it is
a common thing around. After full of nice tea chatting we already knew what we
can or what we aim to do next day.
Cambridge
might seem like a big town but it actually is not. You can practically bike the
most of the town in 20 minutes. Of course, that does not mean you can finish
the town in 20 minutes of bike riding but from one point to another is very
reachable. With that idea, you do not really need a car or public transport in
Cambridge to see the town or attraction points, which is very well located
close to each other like a beautiful ring. We started our day by riding the
bikes to the town centre and had a few stops to shop for an event we were
planning to do for the same evening. As I said we are not just travellers to
blog, we are travellers to dance tango and if we have more than enough time to
see around for blogging J
I
think I should come back to traffic flow again at this point. I always thought
driving on the left is completely weird and I do not think I would try it even
I love driving. One thing I have not calculated was biking could also be
horrible with navigating in the traffic. What a horrible bike driving was that
on first day for me. I was just following John and obviously, he realized that
I am not a regular biker. After all biking is something but biking on the left,
another level of experience. I was still too pro to hide my concern from John
and was perfectly fine being a rookie biker J
Before
the event, I was telling John that I am a Turkish man who is coming from
Belgium and so far, English pubs did not impress me with their beers. Yes, I
had some good beers but I come from Belgium so standards are quite high! That
is when John opened a new chapter of my life and took me to Pint Shop. I have
to say everyone who appreciate beers, this place alone can make you move to
Cambridge. Oh my god, such a nice concept along with crowded yet not
overwhelmed atmosphere and many beers to try. Their cask beers were explicitly
good and strongly recommended by me. I was so happy with the taste I could
already write a blog about it alone. Since we had the event that day I did not
want to rush myself seeing around anymore and returned house immediately to
prepare for the event. After all, I was responsible with the musical selection
and my first time being a DJ for Cambridge tango community.
After
a lovely night full of good vibes, I have wake up to a beautiful day and this
time I could be the tourist. I was located north part of the town so when I bike
down to centrum, the first college that greets me was Magdalene College. This
college is famous with his Pepys Library named after Samuel Pepys who is famous
with his diary in between 1660-1669, which gave a lot of first-hand information
and enlightened next generations about many of the major events including The
Great Fire of London. College is almost 600 years old and full of historical sites
like every other colleges of Cambridge University. Once you passed River Cam
through the centrum, colleges start to appear one by one. Next stop was St. John’s
College. It was founded in 1511 and one of the biggest colleges of Cambridge.
It has a great court and the famous Bridge of Sighs.
Just
next to St. John’s College, you will find The Round Church. It is a small church
and out of ordinary with its unique architecture. You will find this funny
maybe but The Round Church is the only common thing between Bill Gates, Dalai
Lama and Queen Victoria. Obviously, they all visited this place. J For me it was already lunchtime
after I finished with the church and found another jewel for my taste just
across the street. It is Crepeaffaire. I must admit they found a way to mix
French crepes with English tastes. I suggest you to try The Londoner. It might
be hard to find a place to sit but it is worth to wait for it.
After
I filled myself with a nice mixture of taste, I took the St. John’s Street and
arrived Trinity College. Apart from being one of the other big college, it has
the famous Newton’s Apple Tree that you all might heard of by now. Visiting
colleges is a great thing but there are more than 30 of them in town so it
might take time. I mostly visited the courts and major points of them and
proceeded to next. At this point, you have two choice. One, you can take the
little street called Rose Cres which is full of interesting shops or continue
on Trinity street and arrive at Gonville and Caius College , the oldest college
of Cambridge. (Founded 1348) One of the main remarks of this college is Professor
Stephen Hawking who passed away today. He joined Caius in 1966 and carried the
flag for 52 years. R.I.P.
Caius
College has a Sundial (Sun Clock) in its small street between King’s Colleges.
I advise you to see it.
Finally,
here you are at the famous, well-known symbol of Cambridge. The King’s College.
Apart from great courts and sites, it has a famous chapel that you cannot miss
even just by walking around it. If you
keep going on the Trumpington Street, you will see The Corpus Clock on the
corner. Another reason to come to Cambridge after Pint Shop. Ok, Pint Shop was
a good reason to move here but Corpus Clock is a good reason to visit this
town. It is simply amazing. Make sure to see it at day and at night.
I
had a small tip from John before I started my trip around town about The
Fitzwilliam Museum. It was already around 3 pm in the afternoon so I decided to
see Mathematical Bridge quickly before I head towards to the museum. It is
located between Queen’s College and St. Catharine’s College. Very close to Corpus
Clock. James Essex built The Mathematical Bridge in 1749 with straight timbers
that shows the arc of the bridge with series of tangents designed by William Etheridge.
Time
was passing and I wanted to see the museum before I finish my Cambridge trip.
As I get close, the museum building started to grew larger and larger. It is
free entry and huge museum full of many historical and monumental pieces from
different civilizations. From 14th century up to 18th
century pieces, it takes around 4 hours if you want to stop and look every
single piece. For my case I had to finish it in 2.5 hours because of closing,
enjoyed every part of it. This is `a must see` place in Cambridge.
For
my last dinner in town John & Mel took me to my dear (sorry theirL ) Pint Shop. Guess what?
This place is not just about beers but also about food.
There
we are again getting close to the end of our blog. As usual, here are some pros
and cons.
·
The town is small enough to walk or bike by and big enough to
challenge your athletic skills J
·
It is alive by every part of it. University and its fellows and
students along with many corporation headquarters turned the town to a very
lively and also great to visit town
·
Countless places and history to be seen and may great tastes to
experience with local food shops
·
Multi-cultural population, diversity and humane people all around.
·
Only con I can make up is left side traffic J
Thank
you Cambridge for such a lovely experience. Thank you John & Mel for making
it possible for me.
Hope
you enjoy reading it. Stay in the loop. See you on the next one.
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| River Cam |
