Our Own Little World: Visitors!

Three days after we arrived in Cambridge, we were lucky enough to have back to back visits from two of our favorite families - the Wrights and the Wines. We introduced both to the area with our standard, boiler plate Cambridge whirlwind tour. To start the visits, we headed out to the Orchard Tea Garden for a bit of relaxing for the adults while the kids played. After enjoying our fill of tea and scones, we walked down to the river for a stroll through the beautiful Grantchester Meadows where we watched swans, climbed trees, jumped gullies, and even happened upon a community Grantchester to Cambridge river swim!

Next up for each group of visitors was a rousing tour highlighting what we believe to be the very best of the city center. Being that it’s the peak of the summer tourist season, we made this a quick and abbreviated tour because this time of year, the center of Cambridge is crowded to the point that you quite literally have to throw elbows to get down the sidewalk. Lucky for us, Jason’s favorite Cambridge site is down a tiny, little known Free School Lane. It’s the site of the old Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics) where J.J. Thompson discovered the electron. We think it’s a pretty cool place to visit, but for some reason, it’s not a spot that’s overrun with tourists...

A little further on down Free School lane, an ever narrowing passage pops out on to Bene’t Street, home to another spot with really cool historical significance: The Eagle.

The Eagle has some scientific significance because it was the pub where Watson and Crick would meet outside of work to discuss the theories that would eventually lead to the discovery of DNA.

Perhaps more interesting though is the RAF (Royal Air Force) Bar at the back of the pub where British and American airmen would burn their names into the ceiling with lighters before going off to fight in WWII.

The last stop on the expedited Green Cambridge Tour is to see one of the university’s colleges. Perhaps the most well known of the colleges and usually the first request from all our visitors is King’s College. So this was where we headed with the Wrights.

This time, because we weren’t there as part of a worship service, we were allowed to take pictures of the beautiful cathedral.

Unfortunately for the Wines family, King’s College was closed to visitors during their visit, so they didn’t get to see their first choice college, but I actually think they are the lucky ones because we were able to instead take them to St. John’s which I have already said is my favorite that I’ve visited yet.

After a busy afternoon of sightseeing, we like to end our little tour in our favorite spot to have a drink in the city center, on the patio at the Anchor.

Finally, no visit to Cambridge would be complete without a little punting. Typically visitors choose to take a shared, chauffeured punt trip down the river because punting is really no easy task. Graham and Tom however bravely decided to take the challenge and both proved to be rather skilled punters!