I took lots of pictures today!! Check them out here. :)
Today started off really early with a taxi and two buses to Cambridge. It took us a long time to figure out how to read the bus schedules but someone finally helped us and we were fine after that.
When we got to Cambridge, we just started walking around using a map in one of our travels books. I pretty much ran the map since I'm pretty good with directions. The first street we walked down we found a telephone booth so of course we had to get our picture with it. :)
After that we just walked around the beautiful city and took in all the architecture and our surroundings. We stopped at a coffee shop and got mochas and chocolate croissants. Our walking continued until we came across a few of the 38 colleges in Cambridge. Every college is beautiful and majestic. I would love to go to one of the schools. They remind me of Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Everything in England is made of brick which makes the cities look so sophisticated and historical.
During our walk we ran into someone giving punting tours. Punting is a little boat that is moved with a long stick being pushed into the water by someone. We had heard that punting was the best way to see the town so we decided to go. We were a little hesitant at first because they were on the street but we ended up paying student price and got a whole one hour guided tour. It was truly amazing. We were able to see the front of the colleges while walking and got to see the backs and all the grounds while punting. I have a lot of pictures from our tour. :)
We learned a lot about the history of the colleges and all the beautiful bridges that are over the river of cam. The Math Bridge for example is said to get stronger with the more weight that is on it. We also heard that one of the colleges, Kings Cross (below) was featured in the newspaper a few decades ago. It said that a boy that was going to the college had received low scores during his time there and didn't think it was accurate. When he confronted the dean, he wasn't going to do anything about it so the boy decided to play a prank. He climbed to the top of one of the turrets and placed a waste bin way at the top. The dean had to hire someone to get it down and it took three days to put up the scaffolding to climb up there. On the night before they were going to climb to get it, the boy climbed up and moved the waste bin to the other turret. The dean did not commend the student but instead congratulated him for his bravery. Quite a funny story. :)
We also saw the place where the filmed Harry Potter when he first learned how to ride a broom in the first movie. It was awesome to see it!!! :)
After the punting tour, we went to a little market in the city center and shopped around a bit before going to lunch. We went to a pub called The Eagle. It was built back in the 1500s and has a lot of history in it. There is a ceiling, that I couldn't get a good picture of, that has signatures from US Air Force men from World War 2. It also was the place that DNA was first discovery and announced. Quite interesting, and delicious food.
After lunch we finished walking around the center and head back to the bus. Since we had gotten up at 6 and into town around 10, we were ready to head back home. We took our 2 buses and taxi back to the base, On our second bus, a man keep telling us that we needed to get a taxi back to base since there were no buses running. Alix told him at least three times that we had already called and made taxi arrangements. He didn't seem to understand or hear us. lol. When we got back, we made a community dinner and watch a movie before heading off to bed.
We have another early day tomorrow as we head to Bury St. Edmund's to go to a street fair. We were told by our program director that is was a lot of fun and the town was also beautiful. So off to bed I go for yet another wonderful travel day.
Cheerio! :)
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