Tuesday, March 24, 2009

More England Travels :)

Hello all. . .no rants this time! Just a little note about our day away :)
So, I finally had a day off work and we took advantage of it by going with Mel and Mike to Cambridge for the day. Mel and Mike have a friend, David, who attends college in Cambridge (side note about that, The University of Cambridge is made up of all of these colleges which have their own individual staffs, courses and things like that but all of them make up the University - make sense? No, I know it doesn't, but that's the way it works!!!) So anyway, because he's a "member" of one of the colleges, we got to do some stuff that "normal" tourists don't get to do. First off, let me show you the college that David goes to which is called St Johns College (or just, Johns College for short):




On that last one you will notice a gigantic tower. One of the fun things that other people don't get to do and we did. . .is climb to the top of that tower :) Lovely little bits of trivia with that tower - during the Easter term (there are three terms in the College year - Michelmas, Spring and Easter) Undergraduates are not allowed up the tower at all, something about getting their results during that term. . .
That's the view and one of the gargoyles from HALFWAY up the tower. Getting there was relatively easy, except for the getting dizzy part (spiral staircase). But then came the next part of the journey which was a lot narrower and tighter. . .poor little claustrophobic me had to just keep moving cause as soon as I stopped the panic set in a little, but once we got there, it was well worth it!!!

See all of those people on the boats with the poles? We'll get to that in a second :)


Notice the cute little round church that's snuggled in there? That's called "The Round Church" (original aren't they these English people) and it was built in the 13th century (1200's) and it's still there!!!!This building is the John's College Library (the new new one, not to be confused with the new old library or the old new library)
So as you can see, the view was freaking awesome and well worth the panic caused by the stairs!!!!
The next stop was Kings College and the Kings College "Chapel". . .Building of this was started during the reign of King Henry the 6th and it was completed during the reign of Henry the 8th. We can't remember the exact connection but there's some connection to Henry (8) and Anne Boleyn (His second wife) and there is a screen there that has their initials entertwined carved on it (unfortunately you can't use your flash inside the church and that part was far too dark to get a good picture of). However I was able to grab some photos of the cool wall decorations:
Although the prettiest thing in the whole "chapel" was the ceiling (which Shelley says looks like a wedding cake):
Then there came the boats on the river with the long poles. . .I told you we would get to it. . .it's also known as "Punting" (which has nothing to do with golf Shelley) and we Punted!! Well, ok, we sat in the boat and got punted by David and Mike (yay for boys, see, they do have their uses!). Being punted along the river Cam was very cool. . .the only thing that was missing was the alcomohol (next time we're paying someone else to do the punting and then we're buying wine and drinking down the river) So here are some pics we took while punting :)

The above picture is the outside of Kings College Chapel :)

Above is the house in which the Master of the College (the head of the college - kinda like the Dean or something) lives, apparently the current "master" is a very lovely man. . .
This is Johns College.
Random doggie that was being punted and looked like it was "on point"
Mikey while he was punting, his hair is all windswept and heroic-ie looking. . .



Us on the boat :)
Anyway, now that I've just overwhelmed you all with photos, "Our time" in the living room - don't ask - is over so I'm going to finish up this blog and relocate to our room :)
Love to you all, missing you heaps!! We hope you are doing well!!
COMMENT!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

lovely tour.looks like a lovely place.you two look sooooo happy.!xx m.l. n p.s.

Cavegirl Nat said...

I heart Cambridge.
Was that a friend of yours punting? we had some stranger do it for us.
Great pics from up top. And pretty one of you two!

shambles said...

Yeah, that was our friend Mike doing the punting :) We thought about hiring someone but we could get the boat and do the punting ourselves for 2.50/hr!! (we don't have a Pound sign on our keyboard as it's a NZ laptop!!)
Next time we go however we've decided we're going to pay someone to do it and then have a picnic and some wine on the trip :)