Cambridge weekend and brief stop at Oxford

This weekend we ventured to Cambridge, England. It was about a 3hr. drive. We headed to Grantchester first and had lunch at the Orchard Tea Room where Virginia Wolfe, Lord Byron and several others took their tea back in the day. It had lovely outdoor seating but was pretty overpriced food (nothing to write home about). I accidentally spilled my raspberry lemonade all over Hailey-whoops!

We headed to our hotel, Cambridge City Hotel (a bit spendy but just one night and very centrally located, we didn't have many options with booking it at the last minute and it being during a school holiday). There is NO parking in this town and we were forced to do valet (since it is such an old town there is very little parking, which is why there are so many bikes in this town and students are not allowed to bring a car). Chris mocked me when I asked housekeeping for some of their Neal's Yard Remedies products (that were in the brochure in our room and came to find out they were for the higher tier rooms). Whatever-love those products. Why not? :) They gave the kids little activity packets at check-in which was nice! Then we all took a nap. 

Hailey threw a big fit because she was wearing a yellow coat and wanted to wear her red fleece instead (oh no, it has begun)...

We did some exploring by the river and around town. Look at all of these chimneys-reminds me of Mary Poppins!

Look at all these people drinking on the lawn and chatting with friends (bar right there offered take-away as well). Looked like fun.

Stopped in here to have one of their famous sticky buns (we had shared an ice cream cone a little earlier but it had to be done):

Bike parking:

King's College:

Brain rock sculpture?

Then we got Greek takeout at the popular Gardenia's restaurant which seemed to take forever but hit the spot! Since we were all in one room, the kids didn't go to sleep until after 10pm. 

Sunday we took full advantage of the full English breakfast offered (ha, and took some bananas, apples and cheese with us for later). I think Hailey ate her weight in food (this was just the beginning):

Cambridge has very cool architecture and feel-super old buildings but they are very well-kept. Next we went punting (the act of riding in a special flat bottomed boat called a punt which is propelled by the standing driver on the back pushing off the bottom of the river with a long pole) down the Cam River, which is said to be the best way to view a lot of the university buildings. It was really fun and we lucked out with the sunshine. 

Our guide was awesome and super informative and joked around with us (the other two in the boat were non-participatory). Some things we learned about Cambridge:

-The university is made up of 31 colleges (it's different than elsewhere where it is a college OR a university) and 17-18,000 students attend the university. Some colleges are more prestigious than others and Trinity College is probably the most prestigious of the bunch (32 Nobel Prize winners from that college). Cambridge as a whole has produced 48 Nobel Prize winners, more than any institution in the world. Steven Hawking and Sir Isaac Newton etc.

-The university was formed when students at Oxford were sick of the riots between the townspeople and the students. They are now big rivals and Cambridge calls Oxford "the other university". We happened to be in Cambridge when the Varsity Race was taking place in London (big boat race between Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames River). This was the first year that the women's team was using the same course. Oxford won both races. 

-Went by the library where the Bible was translated into English for the first time and Winne the Pooh was written.

-Cambridge is named after this first metal bridge (bridge over the Cam River=Cambridge). Ha, Chris had the camera and only got the corner of the bridge:

And then his pole got stuck in the river and he lost it (Ha, happens to the best of them) but it was right at the end so he could just park the boat by pushing off a bridge and another driver retrieved it for him. 

On the drive back, we detoured slightly so we could go through Oxford. Also very cool, the streets seemed wider and more spread out and the buildings were a different style. We drove around to look at buildings and then had some mojitos and tasty real salads (with this awesome breaded goat cheese on top) at the CoCo Cafe.

We gawked at the very cool Christ Church (college) where Harry Potter was filmed. But no time to re-park and actually go in. The kids were antsy and it was time nap time and time to head home.