Tuesday, April 29, 2025

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. 

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