I'll preface this next part with the fact that I will probably make my mother extremely proud. She loves taking tourist photos. LOVES IT. She doesn't care how ridiculous we look, she does it. So, in honor of her, I went a little tourist happy in Cambridge. Monday was probably our favorite day during my trip. We took the train from King's Cross to Cambridge, home of the best university in the world. This was much more my seen than the hustle and bustle of London. It was quiet, green, and relaxing. It reminded me of that time when Jess, Mom and I explored Harvard and you looked at the students and went, "Oh. Got it." They just look smarter than the average human being.
Cambridge was hilarious, mostly because we purchased a map for a "quick" 30. Apparently, I messed up the slang for the word "buck" .. it's something like quid, not quick. The map included a walking tour of the city where the one and only tour guide Jess had us explore. We learned all about the history of the universities, cool places to see, and old school buildings. We were thoroughly entertained. Not to mention, if Jess never finds a job, she could dress up like a pilgrim and tour Americans around England. Seriously, it could work for her.
Photoblog time:
One of the beautiful buildings you may have class in if you're smart enough to get into Cambridge.
There was a little bit of Iowa in Cambridge. The "Corn Exchange" is a theatre apparently.
St. Bene't's Church. Oldest building in Cambridge. Founded in check it, 1025!!
Our trusty map informed us that this clock, called the Corpus Clock, cost 1 million dollars to produce. It also told us that it is only correct every 5th minute. WTF. If you spend 1 million dollars to create a weird looking clock with some deranged creature on top of it, it better tell me the correct time.
The map then led us to a church where we Americans could relate! Apparently, George Washington's uncle was buried here. Look at the coat of arms.. it looks SO similar to the US Flag and an American eagle. It's said that our country's flag was based on this man's coat of arms. WE WERE SO PROUD TO BE AMERICAN AT THAT MOMENT.
And then we went "punting" .. another term for boating. There is a river that runs behind all of the uni's (universities). Our punter must have cracked at least 5 jokes about the state of NJ. He was also convinced I couldn't swim. He made us laugh the entire time. I picked the wrong spot on the boat (closest to him so I could hear him) and ended up getting soaked. He used a long pole to push us down the river. Very relaxing and nice to finally sit down!
One of the places used to film the Harry Potter movies. Obligatory picture, of course.
And then we did the unthinkable. We broke into Queen's College. Our punting adventure ended right around 5pm. Now, if you are closed BUT you leave the door open, it's totally fair game. I wasn't carrying my passport on me so it's not like they were going to deport me.
Now, does this next picture look familiar? DEERING LIBRARY WAS DESIGNED BASED ON THIS UNIVERSITY. One of my most favorite places in Evanston!
Jess and I were trying to figure out what type of people taught at Cambridge. If I was lucky enough to be a professor there, this is what I would look like.
As you can see, we LOVED Cambridge!
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