CAMBRIDGE

Welcome to Cambridge!

Yesterday seems many miles and even more days away. The plane and car rental made for an easy journey and we were walking the fabled streets of Cambridge in what seemed like no time. I was transported again and England shared her magic. 

My trip starts here, with George in Cambridge then on to London. 

The town is smaller than I thought it would be, which is a relief. It’s easy to get around. Medieval towns were human scaled then and still are. I love their simple connection to the buildings. Everyone here rides bicycles! Its quiet, it's fun, its cheap. No cars are allowed in the pedestrian town center. It's a place to slow down. I can see the past, things haven't changed so much in the imagination.

Room 416 The Noisiest Room in the World

The Varsity Hotel is homey and clean, it has all one could want, except Internet, which to me is a hardship and inexcusable. They never did get it working. Being out of touch with news, people, information is difficult. But the location was perfect, right within walking distance of everything. I accepted the situation.  I had tea , a heated towel bar and a view.
But the NOISE! Recycling trucks dumping bottles, beeping, trash trucks, delivery vans, people screaming, laughing, slamming doors, fire alarms. It's an acoustic nightmare. 

We took a wandering walk following passages and streets to get the lay of the land. As I write this a church clock chimes 6 times, someone is practicing their flute, the sound travels up to the fourth floor where we have all the windows open. The town is subdued, students are away until October. 

A little History (and I do love history!) : During the time of the Saxons, Cambridge was called  Grantabrycge or Cantebrigge - The Great Bridge . The same bridge is now named Magdalene Bridge (pronounced Maudlin) and may have been built by King Offa (756-793AD). The one there today is a narrow vehicle bridge made of iron. There are 20 bridges crossing the little river now.  The river is called the Cam ( like ham) in Cambridge but the Granta in Grantchester. 

The Normans built a castle on Castle Hill in 1068, all that is left of the castle is a mound called.... Castle Mound. Get it?  King John granted a charter to Cambridge in 1201. And now there's us!  Kings College Chapel Guess Who? Walking around the town you can really see the old streets and the marvelous architecture of the buildings. I came away with an understanding of the history of the colleges and how the town evolved around them. There was a lot of power mongering and wealth, position, fame. The University is a confederation of 31 Schools, Faculties, Departments and Colleges. The Colleges are governed by their own statutes and regulations, but are integral to the make-up of the University of Cambridge. Peterhouse, the first college, was founded in 1284, with monks as the first teachers. Henry VIII removed control of the university colleges from the religious bodies which had previously controlled them. The most stupendous of the colleges by design is Kings, founded in 1441 by King Henry VI . It took 4 kings to finish, ending with Himself, Henry VIII,  who gave the magnificent windows. But not to be outdone and share the fame, the largest and  richest college was founded by Henry in 1546. The main entrance is the crenelated Great Gate with two castle like towers and a statue of Henry and his proud calves topping the doorway that leads to the Great Court - later from 1608.  Imposing Brick Gateway Dating From 1535. Above the entry is a formidable statue of Henry VIII, regally holding a chair leg! It seems that students kept removing the original scepter held by the statue, so college porters replaced it with a chair leg. Henry's Statue on the Trinity Gate With Chair Leg Trinity Lane Walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest minds and where so much history took place is humbling. I had to look up what it took to get into a college here. HA! I won't even think!   Tuition fees per term are £9,250  or about $12K plus living costs. Within the walls of Trinity College is the Trinity Library and its spectacular collection of original works I wish I'd paid to see - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sir Issac Newtons journal, the First Folio of Shakespeare, Carl Marx. This Street is 500 Years Old One thing I learned was each of these colleges were separated and secured from the town by fortified gates. The college community, or "members" would live safely in their scholastic world closed off from the poverty and squalor of the townspeople. These gates still are in use today with a Porter checking everyone. The colleges are open to the public for a crazy fee so we didn't go in. Just peeked.  TRINITY ALUM: Sir Francis Walsingham (d. 1590), secretary of state and organised of Elizabeth I's spy service, Sir John Harington (d. 1612), translator of Ariosto, friend of Shakespeare, inventor of the water-closet A. M. Turing (d. 1954), mathematician, one of the originators of the computer, wartime cryptographer Writers and Poets Rupert Brooke poet Douglas Adams "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" PD James mystery writer extraordinaire Lord Byron romantic - BTW Lord Byron was not allowed to keep a dog in his rooms at Trinity College Cambridge, so instead, he kept a bear. Byron resented the rules that would not let him keep his beloved dog Boatswain with him at the college, and as the college had no rules about bears in their statutes, they didn’t have a legal basis to tell him to get rid of it. AA Milne, of Winnie the Pooh, fame  Tennyson - I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.  and If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever. SNORE...... and Christopher Marlowe,  Shakespeare's competition. As Cambridge always had two sides, we saw the other  at night when the tourists and shoppers are gone. Then it's time for the  drunks and sports fans ,walking the streets, the homeless are sunken in doorways, the sidewalks are being littered with beer cans, paper,  pint glasses. Everyone is smoking, the Japanese are milling ,blocking the sidewalks in groups. People in England are big litterers. I don't get it. It's been a long day and I'm not a pavement kind of girl....  I'll end the day with AE Housman Give me a land of boughs in leaf A land of trees that stand; Where trees are fallen there is grief; I love no leafless land.”  ― A.E. Housman