Hello from the UK!

After a summer spent at home enjoying all of our favorite New England Summer activities, the Green family got the travel bug again. This time we’ll be in Cambridge for two months. Jason and I are so excited to be back! We lived here for two years almost a decade ago and have been looking forward to a time when we could come back with Fiona. While we’re here, Fiona and I will be busy seeing how much we can cram into 9 weeks while Jason visits colleagues in the chemistry department at the University of Cambridge. Hopefully Jason will also be able to squeeze in a fair bit of Cambridge fun with us too!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here almost two weeks already. Between the jet lag and multiple sets of visitors, the time has flown by. Feeling like I’m too old to stomach a red eye flight anymore, we boarded a flight in Boston at 8am on June 30 and arrived in London at 8pm local time. After quickly dropping off our luggage at our hotel, we headed over to a highly recommended Indian food restaurant, Dishoom. It’s a popular spot known for both amazing food and long waits. Luckily for us, our late arrival worked to our advantage, and we were quickly seated for dinner just after 10pm - perfect for us given that our stomachs were still on Boston time! We stuffed ourselves with some of the best Indian food we’ve ever eaten then, still not particularly tired, went for a midnight splash in the nearby fountain.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel for a quick sleep over in London before heading to King’s Cross station the next morning to catch a train to Cambridge.

After a quick 50 minute train ride, we arrived at Cambridge station. From there we hopped into a cab and headed over to the Chemistry Department’s visitor flat where we’ll be staying for the summer. The flat was described to us as having “a room with a double bed and a settee in a through room,” so we had prepared ourselves for a tight space. We were excited and surprised to arrive at a large, two level flat with two rooms upstairs and a kitchen and third room downstairs. More than enough space for the three of us!

And making the apartment even better - its location! That building you can just make out at the far left of the picture? The chemistry department where Jason is working this summer! And as an added bonus, we’re in the same neighborhood just blocks away from where we lived for two years when we were here a decade ago.

After unpacking and getting settled, we set off to recreate one of our favorite Cambridge activities - a walk through the common grazing land for dinner at Sala Thong, a Thai restaurant that was a regular for us when we lived here before.

The Thai food wasn’t quite what it used to be, but the walk was just as idyllic as I remembered!