Cambridge canter

This past weekend we took a quick one-day trip to Cambridge. I visited here with my family when I was young, but like most kids I never looked at a map so I had no idea where anything was! My parents lived here for a year in the early 70s and their inspiration for my name comes from Clare College in Cambridge.

We left early from London and arrived just after 9, leaving a full day of sightseeing. Cambridge is of course best known for its colleges, and when we were there it seemed to be a convocation day with lots of young people wearing black robes wandering about with their families. Consequently we didn’t get in to most of the colleges as they weren’t open to visitors on that day. But we did get to see King’s College Chapel (the word chapel implying that it is small, which it definitely is not!) Building was started by Henry VI and finished by Henry VIII. It’s full of enormous and imposing symbols – greyhounds, dragons, castle gates and roses carved in stone abound. Next we visited the ‘Round Church’ built in 1130 when it was on the main Roman road into town. We then climbed to the top of Castle Mound which at one time housed various fortifications. We wandered back through town, enjoying the beautiful weather and watching the punters (amateur and professional... the professionals make it look easy but I am sure it is not!) on the River Cam. Our last stop was the Fitzwilliam Museum, a gorgeous building which holds a varied collection, from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts to medieval and more modern art.

On our way back towards the train station we saw a statue dedicated to those from Cambridgeshire who lost their lives in World Wars I and II, which my mother tells me has an Ottawa Valley connection – the sculptor was R. Tait McKenzie who was from Lanark County, Ontario. There is a museum dedicated to him in his final home at the Mill of Kintail, just outside of Almonte which we used to visit when I was young.