Lovely day in Cambridge

Milton Keynes is really well positioned to go anywhere pretty much in the UK so we decided to head to Cambridge today. First up we went to a wonderful art deco cafe for brunch - photos above were all taken there. The menu had all of the calorie counts of the items on the menu, even the smoothies. And my Gluten Free breakfast came with a nice GF flag on it.  Food was yum. 

Luckily for me the breakfast place was right near a Marks and Spencer so I went bra shopping and bought a few extra clothes while there, was fun but a big delay in our heading to Cambridge. 

Cambridge was busy, it was a hot Sunday - the car said 29C but the temperature online said 23C or 25C at different times. Upshot is it was hot and still. We didn't really have a plan so wandered. I wanted to see the Bridge of Sighs but we found, unlike 33/34 years ago when Mike and I spent time here the colleges are all closed to the public now and there is no public place to see the bridge from. 

As we walked into Cambridge we spoke to some guys hawking punting rides - $280 for the 4 of us from them, as we walked away they asked us to haggle with them "what do you want to pay madame?". Later in the day we came across other punting companies charging less than half this! 

Left - top St John's college, had to take a pic of a classic English post box. Bottom left "the round church" and right Magdalene College. 

After wandering aimlessly we decided we'd better find some sights to hit so went to a pub for a pitstop and quick drink to come up with a new itinerary. The pub we chose declares itself the most famous in Cambridge as it's where DNA was discovered. 

Right - The alleyway to The Eagle pub. There were giraffes all over the town, tbh I didn't take an interest in why. Bottom - left, sundial clock at Caius and Gonville College, the oldest college in Cambridge - I can't see how you can read it but hey! right a street with old buildings and bunting everywhere. 

Cambridge is steeped in history, it has narrow roads, alleyways between buildings. It was a Sunday so as I said loads of tourists, we really felt for the students who were around though, trying to manoeuvre through the crowds on their bikes (you have the have a bell here) or trying to get into a college past hordes taking selfies or group photos. 

We spent a bit of time watching people punting with varying degrees of skill. We could also see students in lovely now closed to the public grounds enjoying the sunshine. The student accommodation is on the outsides of the historic town in more modern buildings. 

Left - top punters on the River Cam. Trinity College. Bottom from a bridge over the river and right, another now retail heavy street with cute old buildings. 

It's crazy this is our last full day and tomorrow we are going home. It's also awesome that it's such a hot sunny day too - Spring is well and truely here. 

Before we left Cambridge we thought we'd better find Newton's apple tree - well Newton's lawn with an apple tree planted in it. 

So the photos to the right are two with Newton's lawn and the apple tree on the left top and bottom. To the right we have anther building on the Gonville and Caius College. Then it took me ages to get this photo of the Corpus Christi clock - so many tourists in the way, the others were wading their way through a massive queue for a gelato place that has curious flavours (like 100+ people queuing) and I didn't want to lose them. So there is lots of reflection sadly as couldn't get to a good angle. 

After our afternoon in Cambridge we headed to an Aldi for dinner supplies, Paul cooked us all burgers which were yum. We sat out in the garden and Karen gave me a book for my birthday, the cat settled into the Olive tree pot while we were all sitting outside and we enjoyed a lovely evening in the sun. 

Tomorrow we will need to pack! maybe do some more shopping since we can and enjoy a bit more sunshine before heading back to Heathrow to start another 36 hours of travel journey. Sadly in Economy class. It's been a fab holiday, perfect length of time, great company and lots of sites experienced.