A Word from the Anglophile

Well, vacations have monopolized the blog for long enough, and it's time to get back to real life. But before I do, I wanted to write a bit to wrap up our trip to Cambridge.

As I mentioned before we left, this particular trip was a long time in coming. In addition to our six-year vacation hiatus, we had not been to the UK in nine years and had always agreed that we love it there and would like to go back "soon." Well, "soon" took nearly a decade to take place, but it was worth it. We love so much about England, and Cambridge in particular, and we feel a bit connected to the UK, for some reason.

One interesting thing about us is that Nathan and I are different enough, by and large, to like and prefer and feel affection for different types of places. I loved the New England landscape, but Nathan didn't enjoy or appreciate it as much as I did. Alternatively, when we were in the Texas Hill Country, Nathan just soaked up the rugged beauty and loved every bit of scrubby brush and sand and rock, but I was not nearly as enthralled by it. However, we both feel invigorated by the English countryside. To both of us, it's beautiful and refreshing, and we love spending time in it. In fact, it'd probably be true to say that the only places we could live with mutual satisfaction are the mountains and England.

The highs in Cambridge were about 70F every day we were there. Now, I know that the people who live there year round are probably ready for it to feel more like summer, thank you very much. But as for me, it was sweet relief. In fact, when we returned to Houston, one of the first things I thought--with a great big dose of dismay--was, "I am just not built for this heat!" The hundred-degree temps really do drain me from time to time, so being in a place where I occasionally needed a jacket was wonderful. In fact, on our first day in England, as the train door slid open on our trip across London from the airport towards King's Cross Station, a breeze of cool, gray, rainy air blew inside the train, and I looked at Nathan and said, "Oh, it feels so good!"

We both realized right away that one of the things we liked a lot about Cambridge is that it's a walking city. I realized how much I missed that about Cambridge, Massachusetts. When you live in a city like Houston--which is so very spread out that a car is absolutely necessary, and which is so hot that it would be really, really unpleasant to have to walk everywhere year round, anyway--it feels wonderful to stretch your legs a bit and make walking a part of your day again. We probably walked upwards of four or five miles every day, and I loved it. It also made our daily snacks of scones, clotted cream, and loads of jam a little more justifiable!

At the end of our trip, along the train ride to the airport to come home, I watched the patches of purple flowers near the tracks blur into an impressionist painting and thought about the fact that I would have been happy to stay a while longer. Days after we got home, Nathan said he wished we were still in Cambridge. Now, granted, some of this has to do with the contrast between relaxed vacation mode and full throttle work and parenting mode. But I think we also have a connection to the UK somehow; that we feel a little like we belong there, as if we fit, just a little bit. As Nathan put it, it's just familiar enough to be comfortable and just foreign enough to be an adventure. Perhaps, if the opportunity ever arises, we'll move there for a couple of years; I know I haven't seen enough of the British Isles yet to be satisfied!

The Day We Saw the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

One of the iconic Cambridge activities is punting: boating in a flat-bottomed boat called a punt. Punts are propelled by taking a long pole and pushing along the bottom of the shallow river.

In Cambridge, you can either punt one way along the river and go down towards Grantchester, or you can punt the other direction, along The Backs, where you pass many of the colleges that back up to the river. Since we had walked to Grantchester several times already, we decided to punt along The Backs. It was very lovely and relaxing, and we enjoyed ourselves a lot, although Nathan wished he would have had time to punt down to Grantchester, too (given the chance, he'll always choose the option with the most nature). Next time, we'd like to do what we saw some other people doing--punt down to Grantchester with some strawberries and champagne, bread and cheese, or even a whole picnic.

Now, all throughout the city center are punt touts, young people who stand on every street corner and ask every tourist who passes if they'd like to go punting. (They drive Emily crazy on her walk to work the summer!) The term "punt tout" comes from the activity of touting how great they are at being a punt chauffeur. When I was in Cambridge before, I went on a chauffeured punt tour with a group, and it was actually great. I loved how they gave you lots of interesting info about all the colleges we were passing. But half the fun of punting is trying it out yourself (or watching your husband try it), and since our group knew most of the nifty fun facts already, we opted to punt ourselves down the river and back.

Me, waiting for the rest of the family to catch up.

Nathan found a nice perch near the river.

And off we go!
Papa B. started off punting our boat, and Nathan switched off with him later. Matthew punted the other boat, with Emily, Aunt Traci, and Barrett.

That's the Mathematical Bridge of Queens' College in the background. There is a story that Sir Isaac Newton designed the bridge, which was originally built with no nails. Then, a bunch of students took it apart one night to try to figure out how he did it, and they couldn't reconstruct it, so ever since then, it's had nails. But that story is completely invented. Ha! It'd be a great yarn, if it were true!

Well, hello there, Emily.

The guys generally looked quite serious when they were punting. Evidently, as simple as it looks, it takes some concentration to ensure that you don't dump your easygoing cargo into the river or, more likely, crash into another punt.

Check out that serious face!

Actually, we did see several crashes. Of course, you're moving so slowly that nothing bad really happens except that you might have to do some deft maneuvering to get around the punt you just bumped into. Thankfully, we didn't crash into anyone, but we did have a couple of close calls. There was a major traffic jam when we were trying to go under a bridge to the main part of the river from the area where you get into your punt. Thankfully, we weren't in it, but we did witness it and had to get around it. Nathan's mom said it was like watching a car accident in really, really slow motion.

Nathan turned out to be a pretty excellent punter, considering it was his first try.

Me and Deborah.

King's College from The Backs.

There were nice views everywhere you looked--beautiful old buildings, bridges, trees, water, and my husband isn't bad, either. ;)

The bridge at Clare College; the one with the spheres.

There's the one with the missing wedge!

Matthew and company.

Deb cultivated a friendship with some ducks and geese--she had an easy hand with the bread.

The Wren Library at Trinity College.
The last time I was there, I saw a Shakespeare folio, the only known sample of John Milton's handwriting, and a lock of Sir Isaac Newton's hair.

Navigating the bend in the river, around to St. John's College.

The Bridge of Sighs at St. John's.



"The Wedding Cake" at St. John's. It's rumored that Hitler wanted Cambridge and would have considered it a prize to set up a Nazi stronghold in that building, which has an eagle on top.

Wonder where that door goes.

Cool pic.

Very cool vine.

Beautiful in the summer; can you imagine how pretty it'd be in the autumn?

The original site of the bridge on the River Cam ("Cam-bridge").

We saw the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge while we were punting. ;)

Deb and Nathan.

A view of the Bridge of Sighs again on the return trip.

I like this picture of Matthew punting past King's.



Just at the very, very end, we had a little accident.

Nathan's pole stuck in the mud and he lost it!

Here we are, paddling back towards the other punt, which picked up our pole for us.

Emily to the rescue!

Punting our way back to the dock.

We had a great time!

King's College Chapel

King's College Chapel is probably our favorite building in Cambridge, and I am sure we are not unique in that. It's probably the most grand and imposing building in the city, and it shows up in pretty much every sketch of Cambridge.
The building has an interesting history. The first stone was laid in 1441--I love that a building that I can visit was built long before my country even existed. You simply can't find anything like that here, and, as an American, it increases my sense of wonder.

Side note: they had this armoire from 1480 just out in the common area, where anyone can touch it. The nonchalance of Europeans towards their antiques feels so ridiculous to me that it makes me want to laugh.

Anyway, back to the chapel.
This is just inside, above the door through which we entered. The older part of the chapel (the other end, near the painting) has less adornment, but much of the chapel has a whole lot of political imagery. This picture is a good example of that: the portcullis and greyhound are emblems of the Beauforts (of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII), the dragon represents the Tudor family of Henry VII's father, then there's the Tudor rose, as well as the Fleur de Lys (representative of the fact that the English monarch at the time was also monarch of France), etc.
It struck me at the time that this chapel is far more political than Ely Cathedral.

A picture of the grand fan vaulted ceiling. It's the largest vault of its kind in the world.
This picture cannot possibly convey the feeling of grandeur in this building, and the ceiling certainly is a very great part of that.

The choir stalls, so ornate.

A view from the other side of the screen. The highly carved organ screen was a gift from Henry VIII and his queen (at the time), Anne Boleyn. Their initials are all over it.

Henry VIII also commissioned much of the stained glass in the building. The upper windows are illustrations from the Old Testament, and the lower windows are of the New Testament. What's more, if I'm remembering correctly, each New Testament window portrays the fulfillment or the counterpart of the subject in the Old Testament window above it. For example, the temptation of Eve is above the annunciation of Mary.
I believe this is a picture of Christ being carried off the cross.

"The Adoration of the Magi."
This picture does not do justice to how huge this painting is.

King's is a must-see if you ever travel to Cambridge. Just the architecture alone takes your breath away, but the history and the sacred aspects of the chapel are worthy of a visit, too.

Tea in Grantchester

One afternoon, we all headed out to Grantchester again to have tea at The Orchard. Of course, the walk was as lovely as ever.

We wanted to see what the town was like, so rather than going straight to the tea garden, we wandered past a few houses before turning into The Orchard. Grantchester is a quaint little town. I think it'd be lovely to live there and bike--or punt!--to Cambridge every day for work. (Okay, so maybe that wouldn't be practical with kids, but still.)

The Orchard has a wonderful literary history. Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and other writers used to gather there.

Our spread: a plethora of tea, scones, and cake.

On our walk back.

What a lovely way to spend the afternoon!