Cambridge Day 2

Day two we had to go punting. I think I am correct when saying it is Lyndon's favorite past time at Cambridge. There are places where you can rent boats from or if you are a student each College has their own set of punts you can rent. We just rented a boat from the public boat house and tried to recreate our epic punting trip up to Grandchester. It is a town up the Cam that you can reach by punting. We did it with a group of friends when we lived here. It was a fun punting trip as was this one. Our friend and his little boy joined us which made it even more enjoyable. We are firm believers in the more the merrier.

Lyndon in his element.

Here is Christopher Wren's library at Trinity College. The best view is from punting across the Cam.

Here is the bridge at Claire College. In one of the stone balls on the bridge (it is the second one down from Lyndon's head) there is a slice missing. The older students play a prank on the first years by filling it up with a piece of styrophome so it looks whole. During orientation they will take the first years down there and have one of them touch it or something to make the piece fall out and tell them they broke the bridge. I love the traditions here.

View of the city as we head toward Grandchester.

Picnics are nice, but picnicking on a punt on the Cam River is kind of the best. We did not make it quite to Grandchester, but we gave it our best effort. 

My boys in front of the Corpus Clock by Corpus Christi College. It has a giant gold locust on it that "eats" the seconds as time ticks away.  

St. Catherine College.

Peterhouse College. I love the bridge of sighs behind me. 

Darwin lived here and so did Lyndon, on his study abroad with BYU. There is a story where he and his roommate got lock out and one had to boost the other one on the window landing to get inside. 

We visited Pembroke College which is another favorite. I talk about how they are all beautiful and probably say they are all my favorite. The beautiful grounds in combination with the architecture makes every college pretty grand. Pembroke has a special place in my heart because it is right behind Lyndon's College and we would often walk through the grounds to get to the English Language Library. We actually would sneak through the College because only students are allowed unless the College is open for visitors. We did a lot of sneaking through many of the Colleges. 

Emanuel College. This one was close to Lyndon's College and I have fond memories of visiting here. Can you spot me and Henry?

The Emanuel Crest is my favorite one. I love the blue and gold lion.. 

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We peaked into Sydney Sussex College. It was closed, boo. This one has a fun location across the street from the city's Sainsbury's Grocery store right smack dab in the city center. There is street the is usually pretty busy with shoppers, bikers, taxi's, but when you go inside it is this beautiful almost "secret" place. Of course it is not a secret, because everyone knows about it, however, I love how drastic the atmosphere changes from the busy street to the quiet College.

The sky was beautiful, like a painting in the Louvre.

Here we are at Downing College! This is Lyndon's College. We spent a lot of time here studying, eating, hanging out. We had dinner in the great hall that night (the food was a lot better than I remember). We enjoyed taking part in the tradition. 

Our Cambridge experience was split between two flats. This is the second flat we had while there. In this one we had a room with two twin beds that we would push together every night. We had to share a bathroom and a kitchen with the other residents. They were all students at Downing College as well. Some of the things they studied were pretty interesting. On guy, Simon, was getting a PHD how Shakespeare's productions translated from plays to films. Another guy was studying fairy colonies in Iceland. I am not joking. He told me all about it. Apparently there are people in Iceland who believe in fairies and there a sightings of them. He went there and did primary research by interviewing people who had seen fairies. Not sure why he was looking into that, but that is pretty cool! I want to read his thesis. Anyway, we loved living here. 

Here is one last photo of Pembroke College. Stunning isn't it?

We spent Easter Sunday in Cambridge and went to our old ward. It was great to see familiar faces and catch up with old friends. The ward has changed so much! It was kind of sad to see that most of our friends have since left Cambridge, but that's what happens in a college town. Lots of turn over in the population. It was wonderful. I keep saying that, but I am not exaggerating. Our hearts ached when we had to leave.

Oh England we have missed you so! We will hopefully visit again soon. I do not think we can keep away long anyway. xoxo