Cambridge

After the Broads, Cambridge was a bit of a shock. I thought it might be. Driving in the narrow streets weren't as hard as I expected - the little town driving paid off. And the apartment feels so spacious with so much water after the boat. 

We are staying on Mill St, and is it delightfully multicultural, with women in hijabs, a little boy in an Islamic robe, all colors of skin, and several ethnic groceries. We're in restaurant mecca, with Greek, Afghani, Thai, Japanese, pizza, tapas, Mexican, etc. And ... it's LOUD. We're staying over the NIP-In Supermarket Worldwide foods, up on the third floor. It was hot and I wanted the windows open, but finally I had to shut them so I could sleep. 

This morning we went on a walk around Cambridge. Mom wanted to "see the colleges". This town is FULL of colleges, so I had trouble figuring out what she meant, but I think we found them. We walked along the river, passing some cows, and then a bunch of punting boats. These pictures are from the "Mathematical Bridge", first built in 1749. It's wood - so it's been rebuilt multiple times. Wikipedia says "the arrangement of timbers is a series of tangents that describe the arc of the bridge, with radial members to tie the tangents together and triangulate the structure, making it rigid and self-supporting." If you're interested - look it up! Pretty cool stuff. 

We ran into a Japanese tour group, who looked happy enough, but when we passed a guy asking if we'd like to sign up for a walking tour, and I said "not a chance" - he laughed. I was feeling a little puny this morning, and my feet were killing me already. It's harder to walk on stone than dirt! But the sights were good :)

This is near the city center, and is one of the few pictures I took that shows how crowded it was.

Here's King's College. I could see a lot of influences on Harry Potter from the old town of Cambridge.

Bicycles are a thing here. They're EVERYWHERE. All kinds. Old ones, new, electric, tandem, stretch, tricycles, bicycle carts, child seats, cargo bikes, front child cargo bikes with 2 wheels, with three wheels, with one seat, with two. Scooters. Electric scooters. Prams. People walk or bike, so if you have a kid, you walk or bike with them until they're old enough to ride on their own. 

Look closely. The childseat holds the dog, the kid is on the main seat, and the adult is pushing it all. 

I guess they've been storing and locking up bikes for awhile! I've never seen grooves in stone for bikes before. But ... don't they have problems with people stealing the bicycle and leaving the tire?

On our second walk, we explored the green space near our apartment and found that it was a cemetery - but not like any cemetery I've ever seen! I guess this one got full around 1900, so they let it grow up. The grave stones are still there - among the trees and bushes and vines. There are formal paths, and little paths to different graves. It was pretty cool. And nice to be away from the bustle of the main streets. 

 Well, that's about it for this trip. Tonight we're planning to re-watch the first episode of Ludwig, which is set here in Cambridge. We head home first thing in the morning - we should be in Saint Paul by 4 pm. 

The Broads by Car

After checking out, we had a day to "kill" before our Airbnb would be ready in Cambridge. So we headed back along the road to see some of the places we'd seen - but from the road. 

First we stopped in Horning. A picturesque village right on the water, there are only a few free moorings, and they were full both times we passed. This time, we parked at the village hall and walked down to the river. We found a park and a bench by the river. Mom bought stamps, and I ran into the guy with the small binoculars we'd seen the day before. I helped him tie up. We had a long chat with a woman about her boat, which they bought in Brighton (on the south coast) before bringing back to the Broads. That's odd because it's a Broads boat. 

Here's the waterfront with an empty space! 

This is an Egyptian Goose! 

And a cute village street in Horning.

Next we stopped at the Ludham bridge public toilets (third visit), drove through Ludham, through Potter Heigham and headed for Hinkling Broad. All of this went SO fast in a car! Hinkling can't be reached with a boat like ours because the bridge at Potter Heigham is too short. It's very old, and then it sunk (the ground is very marshy). So only day boats, sailboats, and very short holiday boats can go through it now. 

A ranger at Hinkling Broad had posted a picture of a Cuckoo the previous week, so I thought it would be a good place for birds. We took a medium sized road (narrow but center line and side lines), then a smaller road (no lines), then a single wide road, and finally arrived at the Visitor Center and a huge parking lot. We weren't the only people who had found our way here! They had walking trails, nature, and a ton of birders. 

We haven't seen many mammals this trip, but these rats were right below the bird feeders. They're pretty cute for rats. 

This is the front door of a hide. They're very cute buildings, and on a hot sunny day, it was amazing to site down in the cool and gaze out through little slits at the wetlands and wildlife

We had a great view of several of these - Northern Shovelers. 

In the distance on the broad, we saw all sorts of sailboats. It looked like fun!

I've seen Sandhill Cranes. Now I've seen Common Cranes too. They are bigger than the Grey Herons and fly differently. They make an amazing sound we heard later. 

Some other visitors showed us this bee burrow. I didn't know that bees lived in burrows!  

And finally, the crown of the day, was seeing this Bittern poke it's head up. The Bittern is a shy bird that makes a booming call. We'd heard the call in the reeds, but hadn't come close to seeing the bird. But several sets of serious bird watchers with amazing lenses and binoculars (including another set of boat people we'd talked to the day before) showed us where to look, and I got this picture. Not bad for such a small thing so far away. 

We still had a little time before we had to be in Cambridge, and I wanted to see the Sea once more, so we drove to Sea Palling. It's an odd beach with big barrier reefs offshore. Even right at the beach, visitors have to climb up and over a big levee to reach the beach. Those are testament to how brutal the sea has been to this little village, which almost washed away several times. 

For me, it was finally a good moment to wade in the water, and the get a "whippy". 

Last Days on the Boat

 For me, the Broads got better and better. We moved the boat less and hung out and walked more. Our cheerful tulips lasted the whole week (you can see behind the tulips how the mooring is just outside the window). 

Womack Dyke mooring. We were almost alone outside Ludham here. 

Really the best spot to hang out during travel, if you're not driving the boat. 

"No - you cannot com in!" Opening up the canopy on the boat was lovely in nice weather - it brought the outside into our living room, and gave me more visibility as I was driving. But the ducks felt free to land on our roof - or to peer right inside. I didn't mind - as long as they stayed OUTSIDE. No ducks in the boat, please. 

There were two long moorings along Fleet Dyke, near South Walsham. We got a spot easily early in the day, but in the end, the whole area was parked up pretty tight. Still - the trail along the dyke went one way into the village of South Walsham, and the other way out toward St. Benet's. Lovely trail. 

We sat on the bank across from St. Benets for a long time on Sunday, watching boat after boat pass by, including the Albion, one of the last wherries left on the broads. Wherries were long flat sail boats used to haul goods around the Broads before the railways came in. 

Our last day, we drove the boat almost straight back to Wroxham, 2 1/2 hours. The hire boat company had encouraged us to come back the night before and moor in their yard, to make it easier to pack up an check out by 9 am. 

What they hadn't said was that the almost all of the spaces in their yard were stern-on, parked tight with other boats. I'm not rated for that! And, being Sunday, the office was closed and no workers were around to help. So we arrived tired at 5:30 pm, tied up at a space half the size we needed and couldn't figure out what to do. Luckily, some guys from another boat were willing to come help. The did an amazing job backing our boat down a narrow channel and parking between two other boats. 

Spending the night on the boat was not bad. The boats on either side were very close, but not occupied. There were lights, and I missed the quiet and dark of the river. But it was OK. We walked into town for dinner - it's a sweet town. 

St. Benet's Abby and Ludham

Last night at Howe Hill was fantastic. The stars were so bright - and reflected in the water. We took a walk after dinner and heard a "coo koo" bird call. Apparently that really was from a Common Cuckoo! We also heard the strange low umh sound that was probably a Bittern, a shy bird with a low call. Both are quite rare. We didn't actually spot either one. 

This morning we visited with kayakers, and I was jealous until I heard their description of climbing down a ladder to enter their kayaks, and having to haul the kayaks up several feet to the staithe when they wanted to stop. 

For lunch, we stopped at St. Benet's Abby. It was founded in the 9th century, and at one point was quite a big complex. In 1536, it was the only abby saved from dissolution - by King Henry VIII. It was instead wrapped in to the Church of England. Today, the Bishop of Norwich comes to St. Benet's by water once a year do a service. 

For us, it's an odd ruin. Only a tiny part of the Abby remains, which was used to stabilize the circular tower of one of the many windmills used to drain this land. 

We also stopped for water again, and this time I took a picture of the blue hose filling the tank. A guy with his hiking poles stopped and asked us and another set of boaters if it was worth it. After hearing us all talk both about the challenges and the rewards, he declared that he'd rather stay in his RV. I think he's missing out. 

We aren't going through water as often as the hire company predicted - or gas or power or sewage. But we are being VERY careful. It's kind of relief to stop at public toilets with all that water available for flushing and washing!

Here are some more sights from along the Broads:

Tonight we're near Ludham, a cute little town with not much else to recommend it. 

We're outside of town and there's only one other boat moored (even though it's Friday night) but we're not seeing as much wildlife (so far) as Howe Hill. We're off to have an after dinner walk and see who else might be out there tonight. Perhaps we'll see another Gray Heron in flight!