Last days in Cambridge

My time coming to Cambridge every Tuesday to look after Ellie, is coming to an end next week as she is now at school and though I will pop over to maintain the vegetable garden it will be when I have the time. I shall not neglect it as there will be lots to do and vegetables to pick and the winter sown broad beans are looking good. Still covered with mesh cages because the Muntjac is very partial to them!!

I suddenly realised that I had never shown any photos of this lovely city, so after having the chariot removed from my bike, I was free to cycle into the City Centre. Cambridge is a cyclists paradise with paths and tracks away from busy main roads and the bike is so well catered for.

I cycled across Coe Fen stopping at the bottom of Mill Road to take a picture of the punts on the River Cam.

Scudamores punts waiting for business

 Then onto The Backs where I took this iconic photo.

Kings College Chapel

Then over the River Cam by Trinity Hall  .....

Bridges cross the Cam all the way along

and out into Trinity Street.  I chained my bike up at this point and took to my feet for more photos.

Bagpipers busking outside The Senate House

The town side of Kings College Chapel from Kings Parade

However a cup of coffee was calling so I went to Michaelhouse, where half the church has been turned into a very nice cafe, off the tourist track, so usually a table is available.

Michaelhouse

As I came out I noticed the very small entrance to Gonville and Caius, (pronounced 'keys') that was my father's old college and it was open for visitors and nothing to pay!! So in I went and wandered around and suddenly noticed this at the bottom of a stairway   ...

Was this THE Professor Stephen Hawking?

and it is because I asked a porter who was happy to tell me that this was why there were so many wheelchair ramps in the college. My father went to Caius after he served his time in World War 1 and I can still remember him taking us for a tour of the colleges when we were quite young and being very, very bored!!!! However one thing he mentioned, and it seems to have stuck in my brain, is that next door is Trinity College (the richest college in Oxford and Cambridge) .....

Trinity College entrance

... and over the entrance is the figure of Henry VIII, the founder, who holds a table leg because his sword was stolen many, many years ago!!!

But I had to press on and so the next stop was at the Corpus Clock that my granddaughter 

never really likes to see. I think the 'grasshopper' or 'locust' on the top that 'eats' the seconds away is rather frightening. Personally, I could stand for hours just watching it!!  

Round the corner from the clock is The Eagle pub, that doesn't look much from the street but is very historic and is where, in 1953, Francis Crick and his partner, James Watson announced that they had 'discovered the secret of life' or as we know it, DNA. 

The red plaque on the wall has the history of this pub

I couldn't leave the centre of Cambridge without this photo; a small selection of all the bicycles you see about the city; and this was a quiet day as the colleges had 'gone down' for Christmas.

Bike park by the Market Square

Then back to my son's house with a quick stop at The Leys School ...

School buildings around the cricket/rugby pitch.

...  the trees in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens laden with mistletoe.

Round balls of mistletoe

I shall miss being able to visit the City Centre by bike as that will be taken home and so I shall be using the bus in future, free with my bus pass!!