Day 17: All Around Cambridge

We had a full, fun, and enlightening day exploring Cambridge: it was actually fortunate that a couple of the museums we planned to go to were closed, as we wouldn't have had enough time to visit everything anyway!

We started the morning with a delicious Chelsea Bun from Fitzbillie's, a local bakery institution. Then we explored around town a bit, viewing the Corpus Clock, Newton's Apple Tree outside of Trinity College.

After a little exploring, we hopped on a punting boat and very much enjoyed our punting tour down the River Cam. Our guide/punter, Matt, had an excellent knowledge of the Cambridge area and was even able to answer all of Dad's tough questions :) The views from the river were beautiful in the morning sun, and it was quite a treat to get to see "The Backs" of many of the colleges, as most are not currently open to visitors.

The Mathematical Bridge, which looks curved even though every piece of wood used is straight.

St. John's College, which was the inspiration for Hogwarts (note the large willow tree on the left...)

The Bridge of Sighs

Our next stop was the incomparable King's College Chapel. It's hard to describe its grandeur, but "massive yet ornate" was the best line I could think of. The smaller chapels that lined the main chapel provided a large amount of history about the building process, which was supposed to take 4 years, but ended up taking 97. Even so, I think it was worth the wait.

The East window: The top portion depicts Christ's crucificiton, the bottom depicts the Passion of Christ

Museums were the name of the game in the afternoon: We visited the Whipple Museum of The History of Science followed by the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. The former Dad actually stumbled upon last night doing some last-minute research, and it was a real treat. Highlights included numerous French models of horse teeth used for aging and for discovereing when teeth had been "manipulated" to make horses look younger than they were. It was a bit hard to decipher the French, but they were very entertaining nonetheless and I would love to have a set for my own purposes!

There were, very appropriately, some amazingly realistic wax apple models right next to the horse teeth exhibit. Props to the curator on that placement!

The Museum of Earth Sciences was overwhelming with the sheer number of specimens it held: from shark teeth to dinosaurs to gemstones and absotlutely everything in between, this one could have taken up an entire day on its own if we let it. My personal highlight was the skeleton of the "Megaloceros giganteus", a now-extinct giant great-horned deer. It lived from 9,500 to 400,000 years ago, and was found in the peat bogs of Ireland. These giant deer would have weighed between 1,100 and 1,400 lbs when full grown!

After some museuming, naturally we needed to stop at a pub. The Eagle, another Cambridge institution, was the natural choice. it has two claims to fame: First, it was the place where Watson and Crick first announced their discovery of DNA, and second, it is home to the famous RAF bar, the ceiling of which was "signed" by members of the RAF and US Air Force during World War two. Their signatures on the ceiling were made with lipstick and candle-lighters, making for a very interesting appearance. The tradition continues today with Sharpies on the wall, which is nearly full now.

We had a great Italian dinner followed by gelato (which was actually the second gelato of the day, but who's counting!?) and started our final packing for tomorrow's big travel day. Cambridge was a lovely town to visit, and a great intellectual foil to our two weeks of physical exertion (although we still managed over 20,000 steps today!).

My hope is to do a recap post of the hike tomorrow, as long as our travel plans and internet connection allow.

Until tomorrow!

Kelsey and Brian