* As we entered the town from the train station and walked through the construction zone that will eventually produce student housing, shops and what-have-you, a friendly gentleman came up to us and said "Is this your first time in Cambridge?" "yes" "Great. It gets better. Honestly, it does." And off he went, satisfied that he had done well by Cambridge.
* I'd sell my cats right now for a glass of ice cubes. Seriously.
* The train we took from London to Cambridge clocked out at 102 miles per hour. The ride was soooo smooth and took only 46 minutes.
* Gene, being the bicycling crazy man that he is, is enthralled with the bicycling community here. The streets are always full of people biking to wherever -- of all ages even little gray-haired grannies. And they live in peaceful coexistence with the autos. Gene spent the first few days taking those action shots with his camera where you hold the button down and get a million shots that are only a nano-second different from the one before it. Whenever he can, he engages a bicyclist in conversation, starting with "I really love this country's biking mentality" and goes on to discuss the sad state of affairs of Arizona, even as the bicyclist inches away because, after all, they were biking somewhere. When they are passing him by on their bikes, he just yells "RIDE ON!!!" at them.
* The horrifying trend of wearing tights and calling them "pants" is in full bloom here in London and it is, indeed, just as horrifying here as it is in the states. How I long to go up to one of the girls and say "Excuse me, but I think you need to go home. You forgot to put on your pants."
* The Tour de France will be starting in Cambridge on July 7. They are giddy with anticipation. It'll make some passes in other cities, including London before it eventually gets to France (will they make them keep pedaling on the Chunnel Train?)
Impressions of Cambridge:
The gentleman was correct. It did get better. Just what you'd expect. There are about 31 different colleges in the town. And they are all quaint and lovely looking. We took a bike tour of the city, aka, my 3 hours of terror as I dodged pedestrians, other bicyclists, and rode through tall grass which made my bike very wobbly. My palms were red from the death grip I had on the handle bars when I was done. I did eventually do a face-plant as Gene had to stop fast to avoid hitting a woman walking directly in front of him and I had to stop fast to avoid hitting Gene. I stopped but then lost my balance and fell over sideways onto concrete. So much fun. A bunch of teens were vey concerned and kept saying "are you all right?... are you SURE you're all right?" until I finally said "OKAY, I'M FINE, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ON.
And here I am, ready to gather up Wife Points by biking all over Cambridge for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
Our meeting point:
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| This is "Reality Checkpoint" in a green area known as "Parker Piece", where the tour group met prior to the bike ride. There are several theories why it's so named. One is because it is between a popular pub and the campus and as students cross the park, perhaps a couple of sheets to the wind, they are reminded of the difference between Cambridge undergrads and the “normal folk” of Cambridge. Reality Checkpoint is also reputed to have been a place of pilgrimage where generations of Cambridge LSD trippers have paid homage. Pink Floyd also played gigs in Cambridge in their before-fame days and there's a theory that they mention this pole in a song. To me, it means the last time I was terror-free for 3 hours. |
One of the more illustrious students at Trinity College was Lord Byron. He got a dog and brought it into his dorm room. The powers that be at the college pointed showed him the specific regulation in the rule book that clearly said "no dogs allowed". And so Byron went out and got a bear. And the powers that be at the college said he couldn't have a bear. And he said "why? there's nothing in the rule book that says I can't." because the rule book only specified dogs. And so an emergency meeting was called, bears were added and Byron was shown the specific rule. So he housed the bear off campus and periodically, he could be seen walking the bear around. No, I don't know if it's really a true story, but the rule book does specify "dogs, bears and pets of any kind". Perhaps he just threatened. It is a great story.
Byron was also what's know as a "night wall climber" -- students who sneak out at night, climb the walls of the various colleges and place items at the top. Here is the entry to Trinity College. Notice the statue of Henry VIII.
The gold-plated orb he's holding has been stolen several times. So has the scepter. It was replaced with a variety of items. The administration finally gave up and kept the one he holds to this day -- a table leg:
The top of King's College has had many an item placed up there. Once Christmas morning, there were Santa hats atop of each spire.
One time, an orange traffic cone was placed up there overnight. The administration had to build a scaffold to go get it at a cost of 3500 pounds. It took several weeks to erect the scaffolding and the night before the crew was go up and fetch the cone, the culprits moved it to the other side.
This is the courtyard of one of the colleges (they all started to blend together. When you're focused on not dying on a bicycle, you tend to lose attention). It's rather beautiful. A scene from "Chariots of Fire" was filmed here.
Here is King's College from a distance. It's magnificent. There are always 4 cows, we were told, roaming in the grassy area in front. Today there were only 2, hidden from view. When our guide asked the guard why, he was told "because the bull isn't done with 2 of them yet."
And a typical center-city Cambridge street:
And finally, a pendulum clock erected in the former doorway of what used to be a bank. Couldn't get a good photo of it from across the street, but if you look closely, you will see that it is a monster-type grasshopper that pulls the mechanism clockwise with its front claws as its jaw snaps open and shut. No one knows how it manages to keep time, since periodically the pendulum will stick for several seconds. We saw it happen while we stood there. Strange and ugly but fascinating.
And again, a perfect weather day. You would think it was Phoenix in October, rather than the UK in June. Tomorrow is still predicted to be rainy with a thunderstorm, but since all I really want to do is visit the British Museum & Harrods, it shouldn't slow me down any.
An ambitious day. Steps taken, including 2 hours on the bike = 17,658 give or take. That's because there were some left over from yesterday, since my FitBit seems to be on US time, but there was about an hour or so when I was walking around and didn't have it with me. And when you get up over 15,000, what's the difference, really.
Total = 83,755
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