Day 16: Traveling and Cambridge

Greetings friends!

We started off the day with a bus and three trains as we traveled from Robin Hood's Bay to Scarborough to York to Petersborough to Cambridge! Fortunately all connections were made and we arrived in Cambridge early in the afternoon. Having grabbed a pasty for lunch in Petersborough, we had plenty of energy to explore the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens.

The Fitzwilliam is a very old and ornate museum that features a floor of antiquities and a floor of art.

We spent most of our 3 hours there browsing the antiquities section. From ancient urns to more modern British and German porcelain figurines, the pottery section was by far my favorite.

We also enjoyed the art section, which featured a couple of beautiful Monet pieces and an absolutely spectacular statue hall.

After exploring the museum, we headed on to the University of Cambridge Botanical Gardens. While many of the plants were understandably past their prime, the greenhouses (or glass houses, as they are called here) had many fun and exotic plants to examine. The glass houses were wooden-framed, which was kind of neat and likely speaks to the fact that, like many things in this town, they were very, very old.

This seemed like a bit of a flex coming from a garden in England...a country where it rains all. the. time.

We were craving something a little different for dinner tonight, and Little Petra, a Jordanian restaurant, truly delivered! From the appetizers (which I remembered to get a picture of) to the mains (which I did not: a lamb and okra stew for me, and a lamb moussaka dish for Dad) it was a delicious meal all around.

Tomorrow is a day packed full of punting down the river, exploring the university and its many chapels and museums, and hopefully doing a tad bit of shopping before we hit the road bright and early Tuesday morning.

Until tomorrow!

Kelsey and Brian