We Went To Cambridge And It Was Pretty (Oh Goodie, A New Place!)

On this day, so many days ago, so many photographs were taken. This is because Cambridge is PRETTY. As some of you may know, Bry's dad went to Cambridge. This makes him fancy, could you tell? Rosemary also went to Cambridge, so she is also fancy and was able to show us around. 

Our first stop of the day was for coffee (you may notice a common theme emerging) at a shop that sold flat whites, thanks to some crafty research beforehand by Brybry. The flat white was delicious. And they had wifi. As content as can be, we then proceded to explore Cambridge on foot, with our trusty guide Rosemary boldly leading the way. 

We decided to begin by heading off to Emmanuel College, where Richard went. It was pretty.

Emma.

It has archways. We are disappointed the lawn lines do not line up perfectly with the archways. 

Emma is quite photogenic.

The grounds were quite stunning. And there were ducks. 

Look at the pretty. 

The sun was shining so much we got accidental hipster lens flare in many of our photographs. 

Bryony contemplates which path her future will take. Alex congratulates herself on unintentionally artistic and meaningful photography. 

A future in modelling for Bry, perhaps? And a future in photography for Ally. Our expensive science degrees will be less lucrative for us than what we are obviously Born To Do. 

Pensive Rosemary is Pensive. 

The famous (infamous?) movie theatre opposite Emmanuel where R and his friends drunkenly rearranged the letters of the movie titles to spell cheeky things. As Otago students we are shocked. This kind of behaviour would never happen in Dunedin. 

We explored some of the other colleges and parts of the town that were letting people in for free (we were so not going to pay to pester poor students while they were trying to learn; no, we will pester them for free). They were also pretty. 

Sliiiiightly fancier than Carrington, perhaps? This is Peterhouse.

We could have lived here, if we'd had different lives. 

Ye olde buildinge.

Ally annoys Brybry by jumping into all of her photos. 

Including taking a cheeky selfie of herself and Bry, as Bry attempts to photograph things.

The resulting photo. Artistic genius. 

King's College. A college fit for a king, indeed. 

Another gloriously pretty and also fancy building.

SO PRETTEH.

The town is also full of the pretty.

In a reversal of roles, Bry accidentally took a fashionable-looking picture of Ally. This one is straight out of ASOS Marketplace. 

Cambridge was full of bikes. Bikes were everywhere.

Bikes, bikes bikes!

Cambridge people, oh how they love to cycle!

A somewhat futile endeavour to try and stop them, methinks. 

Everywhere you look, there are bikes chained up. Maybe they don't actually ride them, and they are just for decoration.

We stopped off for a quick half pint at a cute wee old pub on the river, and had a try of some of the local brews. Brybry also tried some packeted pork crackling pub snack type thing. It was not her fave. Alex opted not to try - it did not look tempting enough to give up eleven years of vegetarianism for.

Cambridge is old and has quaint signs. 

Cambridge is famous for its punting. This is when you are fancy and it's what you call rowing, when you do it against Oxford, and you do it in a different kind of boat. People do it on the river Cam. There are lots of bridges you can use so you don't get wet. 

A view from a bridge. Some boats are visible. If you look closely, you may see a bird. Or maybe a plane?

More water and boats. 

A bridge over troubled waters. 

Punt, punt. 

You may or may not know that Cambridge University was where the structure of DNA was originally elucidated (Watson & Crick; Franklin & Gosling; 1953). This FunFact made Bryony very excited. 

"What's that I spy in the distance?"

"Is that a stylistic though somewhat inaccurate representation of a DNA molecule in sculpture form?"

"It is DNA!"

"Rrrrrrrww, DNA! I love DNA!"

"DNA, wahoo!"

We then wandered along the river to find a place to have a big nom, as it was hard work taking in so much prettiness in one day. We ended up at the St George, one of the oldest pubs on the river in Cambridge and it was so cute.

More boats all along the river. So many boats. 

Just Cambridge again, lookin' scenic. 

There were also some sweet house boats along the river too, that people live in. Probably not students. Imagine a flat of five in a house boat! Disaster. 

The view from the pub where we had lunch/dinner/noms. We watched all of the evening crews rowing - sorry, punting - and were impressed by their athleticism on such a cold night while we were inside a warm pub near the fire, eating huge meals and drinking beers. 

References:

Watson J.D. and Crick F.H.C 1953. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. Nature 171: 737-738.

Franklin R. and Gosling R.G 1953. Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate. Nature 171: 740-741