(2-17)– It’s insane how fast this month is going. I already feel like I’ve been doing stuff non-stop, but when I look back it doesn’t seem like enough, either. I woke up today feeling a little bit homesick, but mostly just hungry for more experience. Maybe it’s my restless nature, but I can’t seem to sit still for long.
That was part of the reason why I decided to leave for a day-trip to Cambridge right after being in Oxford. We woke up early again, but this time it was by bus. We had a couple delays and for most of the start of the trip the sun was still coming up, so it was a relaxing trip. I fell asleep for a second, but I also enjoyed looking out the windows at the stops. Bus windows are like windows into people’s lives, in such a weird way. You almost feel like you know them when you see their faces waiting for the bus, when it arrives, how they talk to the workers or each other. It makes me feel like a writer, actually.
When we finally arrived, it was right in the center of town. A lot of the colleges are on the River Cam, but there are a couple off the water. One inside the town is Jesus College, with its own green. In the distance is a couple of other college buildings.
Cambridge only has 31 colleges to Oxford’s 38, but I see a much greater difference in Cambridge’s colleges. They are almost all built to different styles. You’ll see over the set of photos that even the ones on the river come from different people and different worlds. It’s really a treat to cross history like that, but we’ll get to it in a bit.
Next, we walked a bit further into town and found Cambridge’s Market Square, which was different than Oxford’s because it included clothing, books, produce and prepared foods along with pastries and meats. We gave it a quick walk through but continued on because we knew we would be back for lunch.
We went around the corner to the main street of Cambridge, known as the King’s Parade.
We stopped by the official Cambridge bookstore, which is one of the oldest continually running in England, apparently; it was mostly university books, though, so not really my style. Mia, who I’d call a science nut, definitely enjoyed it more than I did– but either way, I still think it’s pretty cool to interact with history that way.
There’s also a church that’s in the center of the town known as St. Mary’s the Great (or Greater St. Mary), which is famous for having one of the oldest bellringing societies in the world. They also chime the Cambridge Chimes (the same sound of Big Ben), and it’s the same church where Stephen Hawking’s funeral took place.
The church also has a beautiful view from its tower, with 123 steep, narrow steps. It was a really nice day today, and the sun was out, so when we finally made it up the tower (out of breath), we were hoping for something really good. And the view was pretty amazing! You could see pretty far into the distance in every direction, and the town is so pretty. I love when the smaller buildings are offset by random spires sticking out of the ground from the various colleges. Being somewhere like this makes you feel scholarly and magical, like there’s some greater purpose to being here. It fits that this college is such a religious place because it really feels different than other schools and towns.
Even from ground level, the King’s Parade is such a nice street. It has these old buildings that look like museums’, and tourists and students alike eating lunch on the courtyard walls. There are some cars, but more than any other form of transport are the bicycles which whiz by. The streets here are shockingly quiet compared to London. I almost didn’t even feel like I was in a city.
We bought some tickets to go see King’s College Chapel and then went over to Market Square again to grab lunch. I bought from an “Africanesque” (their words) food stall, which was basically just rice, beans, and plantains with some sauce. It was okay, but I was really craving noodles. The line was just a little too long, though. To feel a little better about it, I bought a striped polo collar shirt with a Cambridge logo. The lady in the booth was actually really sweet and told us all about her daughter and how college was getting more expensive and competitive. I think that’s a really interesting thing for a person who lives in a college town, especially an elite one, to say. For me, it kind of speaks to how much reform is needed to the college system– everyone should have an opportunity to learn.
After that, we went to King’s College, where we found another set of beautiful views. This Gothic-English college was founded in 1441 by Henry IV, but after the War of the Roses, the college’s current look wasn’t completed until Henry VIII’s reign.
The main gate opens up into a beautifully large grass courtyard, with the dorms off to one side, classrooms on another, and the iconic King’s Chapel to the right. With the sun still mostly out, its like a whole different world. There’s something comforting about being surrounded by a wall, especially one so perfectly manicured and neat. I wonder if it feels different to be a student here and see this every day, but I can only imagine how much pride I would have in my college.
I also really enjoyed this college because of its chapel. With the largest fan vault ceiling in the world, some really beautiful stained glass (twenty-six, all but two of which are from the 16th c.), a huge organ, and the altarpiece, Rubens’ Adoration of the Magi, there’s something innately human and drawing about churches for me. People come here to pray for a reason: sometimes I wonder if it’s really because places like this bring you closer to God, or because their beauty reminds us of the things we love, that there’s something to see in the world that is purely beautiful and not shaded by all the tragedy we see every day.
There were still a ton of awesome sights to see, so while we were walking over to the docks we made some stops. Below are some of these views, like The Eagle (which is where Crick announces his discovery of DNA), the self-supporting Mathematical Bridge (the myth being that Isaac Newton built it without bolts and when students took it apart and tried to rebuild it, could only do so by adding bolts– an impossible myth since Newton had died 22 years before), and the Round Church (one of four round medieval churches still in use in England).
We went through our little tour of the town and then sort of turned around in a big circle to get back to the dock. When we made it there, we were a little worried there would be no tours since the wind was pretty strong. Thankfully, though, they didn’t mind! We went down the docks and got into our punt boat, which is basically a canoe-shaped vehicle that sits really low in the water and has a “punter” who uses a long pole to drive the boat. The wind wasn’t blowing too much, but there was a little bit of grey in the sky. Overall, it seemed pretty safe, especially since the weather had been nice for the rest of the day.
We got into the punt and set off with a really funny and sweet guide named John. Although he was pretty quiet for the first half, trying to get us down the river against the tide (he even said that this was the strongest current he had felt all year so far), he made up for it on the way back. It also started to rain like crazy about halfway through the trip, which was refreshing (and slightly annoying), but pretty because it made a rainbow over St. John’s College. John told us all about the local history, from the Virginia Creeper to this town’s Bridge of Sighs, to the St. John’s missing clockface (supposedly lost in a competition with the neighboring college to save from having to build two faces but probably because of costs). I felt kind of like I was in Venice, slipping underneath the bridges and meandering our way down the river, the only thing that could have made it any better was a co of hot chocolate.
After the boat tour, we stopped at Fitzbillies, a local bakery, to pick up what I heard was a local delicacy, their Chelsea buns. Although I think the cinnamon bun-like dessert with black currants and honey would have been twice as good warmed up, they were still really appealing. I could probably eat three or four of these things and still not get sick of them. They’re just the right about of savory/sweet and pastry. Maybe I’ll have to try some London bakeries and see how they shape up.
Next, we went to a place called Heffers, which was similar to Blackwell’s. It too has been serving the Cambridge community for a long time. The nice thing about this one was that it has both new books, board games, and a secondhand section. We hung out here a bit and then headed back down to King’s College.
We stayed a little too long and ran down to the College to find good seats for an evensong service and the chapel we had heard about earlier in the day. During term-time, King’s Voices– a male and female choir– performs. We got there near the end of the group but made it into the church, so we respectfully sat down and waited for them to start. The church had a totally different ambiance than it does during the day; sconces on the walls are lit up to look like crowns, and there are strips of lights going up towards the ceiling, making it appear like the building is even bigger than it is and casting lovely, ominous shadows on the vaulting. I couldn’t record, but I wish I could have. With the organ playing, I felt like a little kid, when my mom would take me to see performances in our first wooden church. There’s a magic in music, even if you aren’t religious.
When the choir came out, we stood, something I didn’t realize happen so much in services like these (at least five times: we didn’t sit for very much). They sang a psalm and some Latin bible lessons, all the while their voices refracting and collecting on the ceiling and bouncing back down to us. Even though we were a little too far to really make out the words (we had guides, thankfully), it was really, really, really beautiful. Sometimes it’s so strange to me what appeals now; my mom tried so hard to include my brother and me in her religious life, but all I wanted was to get as far away from the church as possible. When I’m traveling through, or far from home, churches are one of the first places I gravitate to. Maybe it’s their beauty, or maybe its something else, but they always remind me of her regardless of what’s inside.
After the choir and speakers finished, we did a little prayer, which also felt weird to me (Besides Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner with my grandma, I don’t think I’ve prayed aloud since “Now I lay me down to sleep”). We left, and by then it was already pretty dark, which changed the town completely. It was still nice but lit darker. I almost expected Frankenstein-like torches on the wall or marching around town.
We stumbled upon the Corpus Clock (or grasshopper clock), which is outside Corpus Christi College and was unveiled in 2008 by Stephen Hawking. The clock is analog, without and hands or numerals; the blue slits count the hours, minutes and seconds. The grasshopper/locust beast on the top is known as the Chronophage (Greek for “Time-eater), which moves the clock with its legs, blinking and chomping as it goes. It is also, interestingly, only accurate once every five minutes (with the pendulum stopping, the lights lagging or racing).
It all is meant to convey a sense that time, and life, are “irregularly” and inevitably moving forward, and it is meant to be terrifying; the creator is quoted as saying “Basically I view time as not on your side. He’ll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he’s salivating for the next.”
Then came the worst part of the night. Since our earlier plans were canceled due to the museums all being closed on Mondays, and since it was too late to visit a college, we were just looking for something to do. Unfortunately, we all tried to go to the public bathroom in the Grand Arcade (a mall), and some psycho tried to shove me and Brian around. It was pretty scary, but he didn’t have a weapon, he didn’t take anything, and there were three of us around. Even though it could have been dangerous, I didn’t really feel unsafe, just creeped out. This guy basically chased us out of the mall, though, so we decided to just hang out in a Café Nero, which is like European Starbucks until the bus was on its way.
We made it down to the bus station, a little skittishly, and hung out there until the bus came. With all the flooding and bad weather, a bunch of roads turned out to be closed. we finally made it home about an hour late and went promptly to sleep. Overall, I think the group agreed that even with our little tussle at the end, Cambridge was a little neater than Oxford. It just had some special kind of magic and uniqueness that we didn’t see in Oxford. Maybe it was the fact that the weather changed and we didn’t have to stay in a hostel, but the buildings were all so different and didn’t feel as closed off; the town had a little bit more to do. Still, I saw why so many writers were interested in Oxford as a place and kept imagining their characters (and themselves, too) there, becoming inspired by the old walls and the feeling in the air. I’m really thankful I got to see both these amazing towns.
Cheers!
Ethan Knox 
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