7.23.09 London.

we desperatly needed a pick me up after our early morning. we were as tired as we look i promise.

We started today with another early morning and a train to Cambridge. I had no idea what to expect to see or do at Cambridge and was surprised to hear that we would be taking what I thought was a campus tour of Cambridge University. Turns out that the university is all over the town and it is a college town in every sense of the word. It is a very quaint, adorable and reminded me of Venice a little in that there are more bikes than cars there. I had no idea how old Cambridge University was until I saw the banners that said celebrating 800 years of excellence. Can you imagine attending a school with that much history? It was a totally foreign concept to me but I loved it. I instantly liked Cambridge when I was first greeted with the Ted Baker store and many other cute shops along the streets. We met up with our tour guide Sally, the world’s most lovely woman with the perfect British accent. She had an amazing wedding ring that I photographed several times to get the full affect.

what better way to be greeted in cambridge than with ted baker.

800 years this place has been kickin. brilliant.

sally the tour guide and her not so understated ring.

stained glass and fan vaulted ceilings inside the chapel.

Cambridge is broken up into different colleges just like Utah State is and each has its own housing and sports even. We went to the King’s college chapel that was built for Henry VIII. The architecture is the last of the gothic style and is filled with stained glass windows. Going into the chapel, we were able to see the design of the glass in more detail and also see the cathedral screen that divides the religious section of the church from the secular part. It is the first of the Renaissance design and is signed by Ann Boleyn. Sally informed us that back in the day students would try to scale the chapel and it was some big feat if you make it up there without getting noticed. We walked past the senate building and apparently a few engineer students were able to get a car up on the roof in less than 6 hours. It took the university a week to get it down and Sally showed us a picture of the car on top. So funny!

king's college chapel.

We had lunch and ate at the Eagle Pub. It has quite the history for being a pub. Shakespeare did short plays in the courtyard; William Morris sat in those chairs as well as Isaac Newton and so many others. I felt unworthy to be in a place with such great minds and I am merely an interior design student from Utah. Lunch was monumental for our table, well more just for Kaitlyn and I. I am an avid fish hater and so is she. Everyone ordered fish and chips since that is a British original and Kaitlyn decided to order it as well. I wasn’t so daring BUT I did do something pretty astonishing. I tried not one, but TWO bites of everyone’s fish and just as I thought, it was disgusting. Nothing that is deep-fried should be disgusting but fish is the exception. I can now say I’ve tried fish and truly hate it. We had time to kill during our lunch so we hit up some of the shops that Cambridge has to offer.

picture perfect telephone booths.

lovely little neighborhood where every door looks just like this.

After lunch, it was off to the FitzWilliam Museum. Sally was back to make our tour more interesting with her marvelous voice. We were able to see pottery and china from Turkey and see the first appearance of people figures on china. Something we saw here that I was totally freaked out by was an actual mummy with the body still inside. It was so creepy to think that there was a decaying body just beyond the glass wrapped up in scary cloth. It was very weird and I can only imagine the stench behind that glass case. I have wanted to see some Picaso works and there were a couple in this museum so that was really exciting to see his cubism work in front of me. Sally also showed us a sketch Picaso did of a family friend that was a lovely, normal drawing and it was neat to see another side of Picaso’s work. He really was super talented, even though twisted.

art piece outside of the fitzwilliam.

As we left the museum, it had started to rain surprise surprise. Sally was so concerned because we were going punting and its not fun to do in the rain. Punting? I thought. I have no idea what that is. Well Sally led us to a river/stream that runs throughout campus and town and its pretty much a crapified gondola. We had nine of us in a little boat and a tour guide stands on the end of the boat and “punts” or pushes the boat along with a long pole, such as a gondolier would do. It was the most relaxing part of the day and the rain let up and the sun came out for our little ride. Our tour guide would point out important buildings along the way so we learned a lot as well. I think we should do all our tours while sitting on a boat because it was so much more enjoyable than walking around. Good thing I didn’t pay to go on a gondola ride in Venice because this was the same affect and totally free. I think I would really love to attend college in London and actually it isn’t as expensive as one might think. Tuition is 3000 pounds but they get ya with housing. Living expenses are from 7000 to 9000 pounds. Still, that is much cheaper than Ivy League schools in the US. If only I had the brain to get into Cambridge. It was really cool to see another sort of college town that is light years different than Logan, Utah.

punting. notice our tour guide willow punting us down the river.

other punters on the river. it was so pretty.

residence halls on campus. this same building is in the first harry potter just without the ivy.