2024 England - April - Norfolk Trip - Day 07 - Cambridge Walking Tour and Home

 April 13th, 2024

I think I said last night that our hotel was quite nice…a nice way to end our trip.  It was a Hyatt Eccentric hotel and located in a most modern area.  I woke up around 5 AM to texts from the Lundberg family (our daughter Cassidy) indicating that their precious cat took a fall off the mantel and a big clock fell on it fracturing its back leg in many places.  They tried to repair it.  But Whiskers would not let the bandaging alone and was in a lot of pain even with strong meds.  So they had to put him down.  Oh, my heart sunk upon reading that text.  We were there when Whiskers was brought home.  The joy that cat brought to this family the past year has been amazing.  It kills me to know of the sadness that they feel (and I feel) and the fact that he is gone.  Hard to believe.

After showering and stuff, I headed over to Sainsbury (which was less than 100 yards away) to buy some milk and pastries.  After returning to the hotel room and eating such, I set out on a nice walk around this interesting neighborhood.  It was so modern compared to the other locations we stayed at on this journey.  It reminded me a bit of when we were in Berlin, but staying in a BnB there.  The housing structures were very similar.  Anyway, I walked around some schools, a nice big park with playing fields, running tracks and so on.  It is a very, very nice area about 10 minutes drive into the center of Cambridge.  There was a bus stop right outside the hotel door.  If Denise and I had been alone, we would have probably just used that to go into town.

We gathered at 9:45 AM in the lobby to check out and head into the center of Cambridge for our walking tour at 11 AM.  We traveled back to the same car park (Grand Arcade Car Park) which was part of a nice mall.  We made it there in good time and arrived in the area where the tour was to begin.  But I could not see a building nor a sign that said Footprint Tours.  I wandered all around.  I asked a fellow and he said, ‘Oh yes…they are over there by the green umbrella.’.  What he said was, ‘They are over there WITH the green umbrellas.’.  Well, we saw neither as the guide had gone into the shop that is used as an address point to gather.  It was a fudge shop…not a tour shop.  The tour was to be free (minus tips).  But the fudge shop cost me!  Denise could not resist good fudge.

The walking tour took almost 2 hours.  It took us past some of the same things we saw the day before on the punting tour.  But, the guide was really good and shared a ton of history, pictures and so on about many of the old colleges that make up Cambridge University.  Some that we discussed were Trinity, Trinity Hall, Kings, Queens, and a number more.  Many great minds and Nobel Prize winners have come from this university and from many of these colleges.  It was quite astounding to hear about all the break throughs that happened here in so many fields of study.  The tour was really nice.

Upon completing the tour, the group was hungry.  Some wanted just ice cream.  Others wanted food.  So some went off to Jack’s Gelato for a good looking set of cones.  Denise and I (and a few others) wanted to try Fitzbillies, a favorite cafe and bakery.  Fitzbillies did not let us down as we had a chicken sandwich, an egg quiche like thing and then one of their famous buns.  We just sat on a bench outside Fitzbillies eating and watching people stroll by this popular area.  Even a street performer stopped and began playing his guitar and singing near to us.  It was a nice stop.

At this point, the sight seeing part of the trip was basically done.  We had a 1.5+ hour journey back to our temple flat.  The drive went well except when trying to get through the Dartford Tunnel\Bridge.  But up to that and after that it was easy sailing.  It was about a half hour slow down getting through Dartford.  All good.  

My little car ran great.  It gets amazing gas mileage.  I probably could have done this trip on 3/4ths of a tank of gas.  Pretty amazing for all the driving we did.  It is a fun little car.  Our travel mates (Dave and Anna Thackeray) were not feeling well for most of the trip.  Congested, coughing and just down right miserable in many ways.  We pray that they can now get comfortable and get over what is ailing them.  Dave has an appointment with an EMT on Monday because he has lost most of his hearing.  He says this has happened many times in his life.  He had hoped it would not happen over here.  I just hope they can get him in and deal with it!

We love traveling with these folks.  All played together really well.  I think we saw quite a bit of historical things and enjoyed the sea and other geographical areas in Essex and Norfolk areas.  So much history here.  And so much land diversity.  The fields were blooming yellow everywhere.  And new life was seen (lambs and piglets).  It was a little cold and wet at times.  However, our last two days in and around Cambridge were spectacular.  So spring continues to push up the thermostat…which we are excited about.  In summary…great trip with good friends and temple mates!  One for the memory books!

Some pictures:

I’m not sure why Cambridge has Giraffe’s all over town, but they do!  This guy was found in our neighborhood where our hotel was.  It seemed like it was there for no rhyme or reason.

This is the park that I walked around.  In the distance is where our hotel was and many, many apartments.  Lots of people were out jogging, walking, riding bikes and so on.  It was a nice warm day.

This is called the Corpus Clock I believe.  It is a clock that keeps actual time even though it slows down and speeds up all the time.  It self adjusts every 5 minutes due to this inconsistency.

A couple of pictures of our tour group stopping and talking at different stops.

This is a door created in the 15th century (1400’s) and is an entrance into one of the many colleges at Cambridge.  There are 31 colleges in the University and there are over 20,000 students that attend.

This is the Mathematical Bridge over the river Cam.  I forget which college it belongs to…I think it was Queens’ College.  But not sure.

This pub across the street is called ‘The Anchor’.  Believe it or not…Pink Floyd played here many times in its beginnings!!!  I couldn’t believe it.

A great view of King’s Chapel in King’s College.  Largest chapel in the world.  There is a difference between chapel and cathedral I guess.

The statue in the middle of this picture is a statue of a DNA strand.  The man who basically unraveled the idea of DNA created this statue in his memory.

A couple of the many bridges that crosses the river Cam.

Downtown, many of the streets looked like this.  Pretty narrow, pretty old.

This is where we stopped to eat lunch across from Fitzbillies.  This is King’s Chapel from the front of it.  We did not go in.  No one asked to.  We probably should have to see its architecture…which is supposed to be pretty unique.  You can see Denise, Dave and Anna.

I loved the name of this pub…The Giggling Squid.  They have the funniest names for their pubs.

We are at the Grand Arcade Mall taking our last group photo before we head off to our flats at the temple.

This was our lunch…a Chicken Caesar on Focaccai bread, a savory tart (quiche like thing) and a Chelsea Bun.

A good photo of a Chelsea Bun….they are famous for these buns at Fitzbillies.

Giraffes everywhere of various shapes, sizes, colors and designs.  I read on a few that they were going to be auctioned off.

Who’s the guy in the middle…Henry VIII.  He’s everywhere.  He did not start any of these colleges but he kept some alive.  This next 2 photos are a part of the entry to King’s College I believe.

Us looking back at the Mathematical Bridge.  

Statues of people who had a hand in starting or keeping one of the 31 colleges going.  I wish I could remember all their names.  Sorry…I cannot.

This is a picture of our ‘student’ guide…who did not seem to be a student at Cambridge.  However, she was really knowledgeable of Cambridge and she was born here.  (My wife just told me that she has her PhD!  I had no idea. ) I guess I’m right though as she is not an ‘active’ student.

This is a picture of the hotel lobby (Hyatt Eccentric) where stayed the last night.  Really nice place.

Outside the Hyatt Eccentric.  The small sign above the door is all you got for signage making it a bit hard to find.