The First Day

I'm backtracking here a bit--these are pictures from the first afternoon in Cambridge, when I was completely ancy to get out of the flat and go see things.

Matthew gave us a tour of his college, Pembroke. It's the third oldest college in the university, I believe. Nathan and I had our picture taken in one of the quadrangles.

The Pembroke Chapel, which was designed by Christopher Wren. It was his first completed project, and it's quite lovely.

There are carvings--old carvings--in the desks.

Isn't it cool that you can look at something trivial that someone did nearly 300 years ago? It's one thing to see the remains of something of significance, but I love that in old cities you run across the insignificant things, too--the remnants of real people's daily lives.

Matthew and Papa B. (who is also a member of Pembroke) in the college library.

After touring the college, we headed up--and up and up and up--to Matthew and Emily's flat. It is right in the middle of the city and has wonderful views.

I think I could live with that view!

The original Cavendish Lab, where DNA was discovered, among many other things. Matthew and Papa B. work at the newer Cavendish.

Anyone notice anything funny about this building? That front door, in particular, must have required some craftsmanship!

St. Benet's Church, the oldest in Cambridge.

Double Decker Bus Tour

After wandering in the Fellows' Garden, Deb, Nathan and I meandered around town towards Auntie's Tea Shop, where we met Matthew and Emily for lunch. Traditional English breakfasts and cream teas. Pretty delicious.

As we were making our way to lunch, I took a couple of pictures.

Just your normal view while walking down the street.

A really cool puzzle of the map of Cambridge as it has changed through the centuries. The puzzle has four layers. Nifty!

There's been a bookstore on this site for 800 years.

After lunch, we headed off to do the most touristy thing possible: the double decker bus tour.

Jesus Lock, where Deb fell in when she was a preschooler.

Twins.

The Round Church, which is the second oldest church in Cambridge (built in the 1130). It was built by men returning from the Crusades.

I took a quick picture of this street sign, Belmont Place, because it reminded us of our old home in Belmont, MA.

See those little brown houses down on the left? They were built at least a couple hundred years ago for servants. They're very small, have no upstairs, and have only one or two bedrooms. And one sold a couple of years ago for something like 300,000 pounds.

Emmanuel College, where John Harvard was a student.

There's an American Memorial Cemetery in Cambridge, which honors the airmen who died in WWII, many of whom were based in England.

A view of King's College Chapel from The Backs.

As I mentioned before, the bus tour was fun (how can it not be when you ride on top?--a circumstance of which Noah is jealous), but the most interesting info came from the people who have lived in Cambridge a long time. I'm sure that some of those fun tidbits will pop up in subsequent posts.

Clare College Bridge and Fellows' Garden

Later that same day, Nathan, Deb, and I wandered around and ended up walking through Clare College and across its bridge.

Punters!

This bridge has spheres on it, and a childhood memory of Nathan's is finding the sphere with a missing wedge.

"Where the heck is the wedge?!"

After crossing the bridge, we happened upon the Clare Fellows' Garden, which Nathan's dad later told us is one of the nicest gardens in Cambridge. We thought it was lovely, and there were surprises around every bend. It runs along the river, as you can see below.
Actually, as we were leaving, there was a punter who had gotten caught up against the bank. We offered to give him a push, but he declined, saying, "This is half the fun!"

Us.
There were two Welshmen in their 60's or so who asked us to take their picture at this same spot. They were a hoot. The first one said, "Can you take a picture of me and my da', please?" To which the other one laughed and later said, "Didn't you know this is Billy Elliot's da'?" They were fun.

Nathan being Nathan.

Deb being cute.

A gnarly tree.

I love these stairs. Very picturesque.


If I ever have an extensive garden, I'd love to plan it so that it, too, has lots of surprises, depending on your perspective. I like that these hedges, for example, give you a peek of what's inside, but that you have no inkling that . . .

. . . it opens up into something like this.

Thanks for the loveliness, Clare College!

Pictures!

Here are the pictures that would have gone in that last post:

The family on a walk to Grantchester the first evening we were in town.
Emily, Matthew, Papa B., Mama B., Deb, Nathan, and me.

The walk to Grantchester is idyllic. It's basically a two-mile walk through pastures and meadows along the Granta River (same as the Cam, but it changes names). It's very green and feels very English. One thing Nathan noticed right away was the birdsong. Do you remember the opening scene to the new Pride and Prejudice movie, when the sun rises over some trees and a field and the birds are singing? That's pretty much what the walk to Grantchester is like.

Nate the Tree Climber had to give this one a shot. Check out that crazy neon algae in the water!

Dusk in Grantchester.

The following pictures are from my solitary walk the next morning. It was early (about 7am), before most of the city was awake and about, which meant there weren't throngs of tourists.

This is along the 10-minute walk from our flat to the city center.

This is also along that walk.

The Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College.

St. Catherine's College, where I stayed when I studied at Cambridge one summer.

A shot of King's Parade, the main street in the city center where many of the most impressive buildings line up.

King's College Chapel, which is probably our favorite building in Cambridge. It's beautiful and imposing.

The summer I was last there, this walled church garden caught my interest. It was always so quiet and secluded and pretty, and to add to my fascination, I couldn't get in because it was always gated shut. So on this day, I stuck my arm in and took a picture. :)

A look down the street along the wall of that garden. I believe Matthew and Emily's building backs up on this street.

If there is one thing I wish I'd done more of on this trip, it's spending some time by myself. It happens so infrequently at home that it feels very restorative when I get to do it. So this morning out on my own was very nice.

Joyous Raptures, Solitude, and Clotted Cream

Last night, we all had dinner at Nathan's parents' flat. It was a lot of fun for all of us to be together, and the conversation was lively. My favorite moment of the evening was when Emily got so excited about the Pop Tarts I brought her. As Austen would say, she went into joyous raptures. So cute.

After dinner, because Nathan and I were fading and wanting to sleep yet had a couple of hours to go before bedtime, we all headed out for a walk to revive us. We ended up walking most of the way to Grantchester, which is a fantastically lovely walk through meadows along the river. We ended up walking around three miles, I'd say, and it felt great to stretch our legs after traveling for so long. Along the way, we watched a bit of a cricket game and talked about the quaint but ridiculously expensive houses in the area. And Nathan tried to find some nettles the hard way, by sticking his hand into every plant that looked like it might be a strain of the bull nettle that stung him badly in Waco recently. Why did he do this, you ask? Just for fun and experimentation's sake, friends. He is funny.

This morning, I was awakened by a car roaring past our window at 6am. This was pretty early to wake up, considering that we'd flown in the day before and were quite jet lagged, especially since I did not sleep well or for long on the plane. As I laid there trying to go back to sleep, I discovered that I was not sleepy at all. On the contrary, I was eager to get up and start my day, and I realized that since no one else was up, this was a good opportunity for me to get out and walk around on my own. So I got dressed, had some oatmeal with golden syrup, and headed out.

I walked through a couple of greens (parks), crossed the river, and walked into the city center. It was only about 7am, so nothing was open and there were no tourists. Everything was quiet. It was exactly what I was hoping for, and I got to take some pictures of the buildings I love without throngs of people in them. I also revisited some of the places I remembered from when I studied here. After picking up some hot tea from a cafe that opened early, I strolled back towards our flat in a leisurely way, continuing to enjoy the quiet, solitude, and idyll of the deserted river and meadows.

After returning to our flat and a sleeping Nathan, I had a piece of sourdough (okay, two) with some of the best cheddar in the world and leaned back in a chair to read Pride and Prejudice (which, by the way, is still so good!).

After a while, we headed out to meet Deborah, who was staying at Matthew and Emily's flat. We wandered around Cambridge for a while, window shopping. Then, we headed into Clare College to see a bridge Nathan and Deborah remember from their childhood and ended up wandering into a Fellows' Garden on the grounds. It was awesome. English gardens are so wonderful, and this one was no exception. I'll post the pictures later, but for now I'll just say that it was my favorite thing we did this morning.

For lunch, we met Matthew and Emily at Auntie's Tea Shop. Nathan, Deb, and Emily got the cream tea, which came with tea, an egg and cress sandwich, and two scones with clotted cream and jam. Tempting, yes. But I couldn't take my eyes off of the full English breakfast that a man next to us was eating, so I ordered that, and when Matthew saw mine, he chose it, too: sausage, ham, an egg, toast, potato cakes, and the quintessential English additions of baked beans and broiled tomatoes. I could do without the beans for breakfast (or in this case, lunch), but everything else was wonderful.

After lunch, our little group (sans Emily, who had to go back to work) took a double-decker bus tour, which drove us all around Cambridge. It was nice to see everything in one fell swoop, but we've been getting more interesting tidbits from our longtime Cambridge residents (Matthew, Emily, and Mama & Papa B.).

We're now resting a bit before cooking dinner. I'll take up my book again and enjoy the quiet, lack of a schedule, and once I put down this borrowed laptop, the fact that I'm almost completely unplugged.

Until later, Cheers!

Cambridge!

Cambridge, we heard your siren call, and here we are!

Nathan and I are in England, folks. We have been looking forward to this trip for so long! The last time we were here was nine years ago: I studied Shakespeare, Nathan visited his old elementary school and his old neighbors, and we both enjoyed the general splendor of the place. I loved it so much here that I have been saying ever since that I'd be happy to live in Cambridge.

And here we are! We've done lots of walking already and have seen a whole lot of the city, even though we've only been here for 24 hours. When I originally made out our plans, I wanted to go make a day trip out to Jane Austen's house and Epsom, but now we have decided that we may just stay in Cambridge for our entire trip rather than taking time away for other outings. We love it here, and we're hopeful that we'll have other opportunities to see all the other things we'd love to visit in England. Perhaps one day we'll move here for a while.

Nathan's dad pointed out that there are more Beneshes in Cambridge right now than ever before: Nathan's parents, Nathan and me, Deborah, Matthew and Emily (who live here), and Nathan's Aunt Traci and cousin Barrett. It has been lovely to see everyone in a vacation spot that we all love.

The weather here has been perfectly splendid (for a girl from 100-degree Houston, the 70-degree highs have been heaven) the setting is beautiful, there's lots to see and do and learn, and the company is wonderful. What more can we ask for?

I'm taking pictures galore, but I committed a fatal error and forgot the cord that connects it to a computer, which means that I will have none of my own pictures to show you until we get back home. But in the meantime, I leave you with this one:

Where To?

We leave pretty soon for our second vacation destination. Several of you probably already know where we're going, but in the event that you don't, why not take a guess? Here are some clues:

• This one is not within driving distance.
• Nathan was born here.
• I studied Shakespeare at the university here one summer, one of Nathan's brothers is doing his Ph.D. here, and his dad still does research here sometimes.
• It's about 30 degrees cooler here than in Houston.
• Key words: punt, Ely, evensong, Cavendish, The Eagle, round church, The Backs.

Any guesses?