Cambridge

Wednesday morning found us boarding a coach (driven by a gentleman whose first language sounded like Polish or Russian) for a trip to Cambridge.  It doesn't take long at all to pass from London centre--depending on traffic, of course--into the surrounding neighbourhoods, and from there into the countryside.  The trip is around two hours, but the time went by fairly quickly.

Cambridge is a little like Santa Barbara: they're both college towns, and so beautiful that it's a wonder students ever go to class.  In the case of the former, though, the college buildings themselves are a major part of the grandeur.

After a stop at a campus cafe to get a drink and use the loos we visited the English faculty library.  In part because of the university's organization, wherein there are a number of separate colleges to which students and faculty can belong, there are departmental libraries whose resources can usually be used by anyone, regardless of college affiliation.  The English faculty library has its own room devoted to Shakespeare and works related to him; it's smaller than you might expect, but then, the library itself, while modern, is on the snug side.  It also features stress-reducing services like a graffiti wall (which, according to the staff, was adorned with many Terry Pratchett quotes and pictures of daffodils this spring) and Tea at Three, where the head librarian makes tea and supplies cake for students.

Next we went to the Judge Business School, where we heard a presentation on user experience.  The important thing about the Judge is that the interior looks like a shopping mall designed by set decorators for "Doctor Who."

Our last visit before lunch and free time was to the Wren Library at Trinity College.  Getting there meant wandering among the back streets, and then behind the college.  The area where some of the colleges border the River Cam is called the Backs; Trinity's backyard includes a well-tended lawn.  Though we weren't able to walk around the college grounds, we did see the quad, which was surrounded by columned walkways and filled with immaculate grass in the middle.  As the name implies, the Wren Library was designed by Christopher Wren.  The library is beautiful, with a black-and-white checkerboard floor and dark wood shelves decorated with crests carved in lighter wood.  It also includes covered display cases that house things like Newton's first copy of the Principia and a manuscript of Winnie-the-Pooh.   Before we went in we were asked to be especially quiet, as there were two students taking exams in the library.  It struck me as not an ideal environment for exams, in part because of the distraction of visitors coming in and out, and in part because the grand surroundings must have been intimidating.  Perhaps the students become inured to such things over time.

Lunch was at a pub, of course, where I had shepherd's pie and a pint of cider.  I must admit that I'm not used to midday drinking.  That did not stop me from trying to adjust, though.
After lunch we had a bit of free time before meeting our coach and returning to London.  Whilst walking we'd passed by a few churches that I wanted to return to.  The first, very near the pub, was St Bene't's.  (According to the church's website, the wonky spelling is because the name is a contraction of Benedict.)  It's not only the oldest church in the city but the oldest building in the whole county.  Therefore, as you might imagine, it's on the small side, with thick walls.  Though there are plenty of later touches--most of the arches are Gothic, as are the present windows--there is one stained glass window high in the west wall that I assume is original to the Saxon architecture, mostly because of its location, which would have been more protected than the lower windows.  The interior is whitewashed, with dark roof timbers and painted angels supporting them; it also features modern suspended light fixtures that would be much more at home in the 1960s than the 1100s.

Next I visited the Church of St Mary the Great, otherwise known as Great St Mary's.  Nearly opposite King's College, its tower is touted as one of the best places to look over Cambridge.  I glanced briefly at the stairs before deciding against ascending, though it likely would have been worth the exertion and fee.  The present building dates from the 1400s and is the University's church; it was built to accommodate greater numbers than the other churches I visited in the city, and has a second storey of pews for seating.  Great St Mary's has plenty of stained glass windows, and figural finials, including a unicorn, on the ends of some of the pews.

I was most excited to visit King's College Chapel.  Despite the name, the chapel is large; it appears to be even bigger than Great St Mary's, or longer, at the very least, since its profile is long and tall.  It's supposed to have some of the best medieval stained glass and vaulting in England.  I walked up to the college gates, excited to see all of this, and asked the porters if this was the entrance to visit the chapel.  You can well imagine my dismay when I heard that the chapel had closed to visitors some fifteen or twenty minutes earlier.  I was told I could come back for evensong, though I couldn't, as our coach was leaving before then.  Not being able to see the chapel was perhaps the greatest disappointment of the entire trip.

After choosing some postcards from a nearby shop I started wandering back toward the coach pick-up point.  As I went I passed a plaque that marked the former location of the White Horse Inn, where Luther's Reformation ideas were debated.  I also stopped in St Botolph's, another of Cambridge's many churches.  The church's website says that it was near the south gate in the city's walls, the one that led to London, and was the first church encountered by visitors crossing the Cam from the west; given that, it's no wonder the church was named for a patron saint of travellers.  Like St Bene't's, St Botolph's is old and smallish and somewhat plain, though it does have a carved screen before the altar that was installed in 1460 (though the paintings on it are from the 19th century).  I think the pendant lights in St Botolph's are even worse than those in St Bene't's; St Botolph's are just big frosted globes that look utterly out of place.  I understand that wiring and lighting a mostly-medieval church must be a challenge, but surely something can be done that's less jarring.

I've no idea which college this is; it's just a typical Cambridge view

As I walked back to the park where we were to meet our coach I passed a horde of schoolchildren, possibly high schoolers, speaking Czech, and wondered if they'd come by coach all the way--some of the EGT kids did, in my first year.  You could not pay me enough to sit on a coach with a bunch of students all the way from Central Europe to the UK.  I was glad to get back on ours and watch the pretty countryside pass by until we reached London again.