Cambridge.....

After a delicious breakfast we set off on the coach for our first excursion - to the historic university town of Cambridge, the home of the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209 and consistently ranked one of the top five universities in the world.

We had a lovely morning wandering round the city, the architecture in Cambridge is very diverse, so I snapped quite a few of the buildings to show you.

 Queens College, amongst the oldest and largest colleges of the University, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou, the Queen of Henry VI.

 St Botolphs Parish Church

 Terrace of properties on Trumpington Street

 Corpus Christi College, established in 1352

 Corpus Christi College

 Kings College, founded in 1441 by Henry VI

 Senate House built in 1722–1730

 Caius College founded in 1348

Trinity Lane

 Door to Peterhouse Library, Department of Archeology

 Trinity College,   founded by Henry VIII in 1546 as part of the University of Cambridge.

We called in The Lawson Gallery on Kings Parade, opposite Kings College. and discovered an artist we've never heard of - Sam Toft - we were so taken with her work we bought five prints, which are now hanging in our hallway.

We came across this pub with a really interesting history, but we didn't go in for a drink, surprise, surprise.

There there was this lovely church - St Benet's Parish Church, the oldest building in Cambridge, said to date from 1000 - 1050AD.

This next photo is of Cambridge's second oldest building, the Holy Sepulchre,  a 12th century Norman Round church.

There were lots of cyclists in Cambridge.

See the half-timbered building in the background?  Here's a close-up.

Also see the number 17 just to the left of it, here's what that is.

We spotted a lovely pub,The Anchor, which dates back to 1864, right on the banks of the river Cam, so popped in for a late lunch.   There were no seats outside but we found a table inside with a nice view of the punts on the river.

One can hire a shared chauffeur or a private punt, and the punting hire firms were doing a roaring trade the day we were there.   We were convinced that they waited until they had at least three private hire punts, (where one person, usually an amateur, propels the punt) before launching them altogether, which caused chaos and much hilarity. 

Below is a short video of a weir further up the river, which flows down to a lower level of the river where the punts were, notice the cows grazing amongst the tourists.  The end of the video shows some punting on the river.

We have never laughed as much as we did during that couple of hours of watching the amateur punters before, unfortunately, it was time to head back to the coach for the journey home.

Join me for Part 3 when we visit Southend-On-Sea.