Ye Old Cambridge

I lived in Cambridge, near Boston, for a summer a few years ago, and while I was there and afterward, I always had people getting it confused with Cambridge in the UK.

For instance I would say something like, I really like Cambridge, it is the perfect college town, and people would say, yes, it is a beautiful English town. And I would say, oh no, I mean Cambridge, outside of Boston...and they would say, oh, huh. Which always struck me as weird, in the US anyway. Of course I expect it living in London.

So we finally went there to check it out. It is certainly much older than the Massachusetts version. Some of the colleges date back to the 1200s or earlier. It was tough to really see a lot of the different campuses as they were closed off for the summer. I guess probably at all times of the year they don't especially like looky-loo tourists wandering about when people are trying to go to class. We did follow an open door though and walk around the interior of Queen's College, which was really beautiful. It must be distracting to try to study somewhere that is so amazingly old (I also wonder how comfortable it is - with the low ceilings and probably lack of proper air conditioning/heat).

We also went for a lovely punt on the River Cam. It looks pretty big in all the pictures, and you get this romantic image of gliding along a la Venice with your own private punter, but it is not really all that. For one thing, the river is full of punters - both literally and figuratively - many of them amateurs with a case of beer or bottles of champagne in tow, you can hardly go a few yards without one of them running into you. It is also rumored that if you fall in, you can get Cam Fever, a flu-like illness that can only be diagnosed and treated by local doctors. Luckily, we opted for a chauffered punt ride vs getting our own.

We shared our punt with another couple and a group from Taiwan. Luckily we were right under the guide so we could hear what he was saying. He got a bit frustrated over the din of the chatty Taiwanese and a few times asked them if they were planning to listen. I don't think they heard. The river is not really that long either. But the cruise gives you a great view of the Backs - like it sounds, the backs of all the old colleges - something you cannot see at all on foot. We also saw some of the most modern and ugly buildings on the river, brought to us by the inventors of Velcro.

We also climbed to the top of St Mary's, saw and heard the Bells, and got a spectacular view of the entire town.

The rest of the town was a bit diappointing - probably made worse by the throngs of tourists. We went looking for a nice place to eat, but all we found was a mall with a bunch of chain shops including a Subway.

All and all, I have to say I like the Boston version of Cambridge better - not as old, but a nicer town and certainly with better restaurants. And, of course, better proximity to the Red Sox.

All the photos are posted here.

Home of GMT

As usual, I haven't blogged in a while so I have a few pent-up posts from some new places I have seen recently. I'll start chronologically with the one closest to home, Greenwich.

Greenwich is pretty much the home of time. Greenwich Mean Time, to be exact. Running right through the town is the Prime Meridian, where every new day starts first, with the stroke of midnight GMT. There are lots of photo opportunities with clocks and standing on the line itself (you can find the requisite photos here.)

But other than the clocks, there is also a really interesting museum and exhibit at the original Royal Observatory, which eventually had to move further away from London because of the brightness of the city lights. And like most museums in London, it's free.