Beautiful Cambridge

David and I had both been to London twice, but had never visited anywhere in England outside of London. So that was a priority for this trip! We chose to visit Cambridge to explore the beautiful college campuses. 

Cambridge University is made up of 31 different colleges. From what I understand, they are pretty much independent entities and students have more loyalty to their specific colleges than to the university as a whole. Some of the famous alumni that our tour guide kept mentioning were Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, and the author of Winnie the Pooh. One of these things is not like the others. The Cambridge people seem really proud of Pooh though. 

We started out at King’s College to see the famous chapel. From the second you walk in the gates, everything is perfect! Even the grass. Actually, especially the grass.

The chapel didn’t disappoint either. I’m so in love with the ceiling!

I was in awe of all the beauty, and our day was just getting started. Before visiting more colleges, we decided to take a punting tour down the River Cam.

A punting tour is kind of the thing to do in these parts. Our tour guide/chauffeur pushed us down the river and back using a pole. Kind of like the gondolas in Venice.

Just like Venice, Cambridge even has a Bridge of Sighs (it was named after the Venice one).

This is the Mathematical Bridge in Queen's College- named because of the engineering that went into it.

This was my favorite building I saw in Cambridge. Of course, it’s a student dorm lol. As the sarcastic British man on our boat put it, “Well, that looks a bit rough.”

Our next stop was Trinity College.

Trinity College Chapel:

We still had plenty of time to spare, so we also forked over some more money (the main drawback of England: everything is horribly expensive) to go inside St. John’s College.

It turned out to be worth it, because there were a lot more areas where tourists were allowed to wander than in the other colleges we saw. Besides the buildings, we loved the park! We lucked out with perfect spring weather- it was even warmer and sunnier than the French Riviera. We both got sunburns. #youknowyourewhitewhen #youcangetsunburnedinengland

We had a small fail moment in St. John’s when we couldn’t figure out how to open the door to the chapel. We had to wait for a smarter tourist to come along and sneak in behind her. I guess that means we’re not cut out to go that college if we can't even figure out how to open their doors ;)

We decided to make the long walk back to the train station so we could wander through town a little more. 

The sun starting to set over King's College:

Our last stop was to the Fitzwilliam Museum to see some art. I was pretty tired of walking at that point so we didn't see everything. Thankfully, at least one thing is free in England: the museums. That way you don't need to feel guilty about not spending a long time there.

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After just an hour train ride we were back in the big city and ready for a full day of exploring London the next day (after a good night's sleep).