Cambridge

​The day of the Royal Wedding, we went to King's Cross station and took a train to Cambridge.  One of our faculty sponsors, Lizzie Talbot, had a fight choreography workshop to present there, so we hired a tour guide to show us around the campus for the day. I don't remember her name, but she was great.  Here's a photo of her standing outside of a pub called The Eagle.  The Eagle is the oldest pub in Cambridge and dates back to the 14th Century. The King's Men used to go there and perform.  Also, there was a fire and two girls died and they say that you can see their ghosts standing in the window.

Here's the window where you can sometimes see the ghosts of the two girls.  They always leave it open because when it accidentally gets closed, you can hear the girls screaming.

So that's how our tour started out: with Shakespeare and ghosts!

As I said earlier, it was the day of the Royal Wedding and the whole town was celebrating.  In the market square they had a giant screen set up so that everyone could watch.  In every pub and shop there were carboard stand ups of the couple that you could take a photo with.  When we went back to the Eagle for lunch, we met Rob's friend Rachel there and her husband Andy, and their two sons.  We had our first fish and chips and Andy posed with the Royal couple.  The neat thing about the Eagle is that in WW II it was a hangout for the RAF, so all the decor is from that period.  The ceiling is covered in RAF graffiti that they burned into it with candles.  I wish I'd gotten a photo of the ceiling.

Here's Rob and his friend Rachel.  We are no longer at The Eagle, and the wedding is now over and they were packing up the giant screen TV and the crowds were dispersing, so we walked around a bit more. We stopped in at another pub to get a cold drink  because it turned out to be quite a hot day.  Rob is sporting his brand new Bat out of Hell t-shirt he just got the night before.

Other neat things we saw after the official tour of Cambridge was over: Harry Potter themed shops   As it turned out these were EVERYWHERE, but this was the first one we saw and I might have squealed with delight.

This reminded me of Honeydukes.

I know it's supposed to say Bateman Street, but it clearly says BATMAN Street.

I wish I could have seen this production staged at the Cambridge Arts Theatre: Midsummer with superheroes!

Here's the information that our tour guide gave us as she took us around campus and showed us all the ancient buildings. It was graduation day for many of the colleges and therefore we weren't allowed to go inside most of the buildings.  The one place we did get to see the inside of was the chapel at King's College.

Corpus Christi College

​​Corpus Christi was founded in 1352 and is the 6th oldest college, but has the oldest chapel, built in 1577.  Christopher Marlow and Fletcher are famous alumni.

KIng's College

​King's College was started by Henry VI in 1441.  He started Eton for his sons so only boys from Eton were allowed to go to King's College. Only 70 students were admitted on scholarship.  It took 100 years to complete the chapel, which was much larger than Corpus Christi chapel-- Altarpiece "Adoring Magi" was painted by Rubens.  All students had to go to chapel every day and then write about it.

Clare College

Clare College is the second oldest, founded in 1326 by Lady Elizabeth de Clare for 10 students. to be fed, housed, and educated till they turned 20.  It was the first college founded by a woman and the play Blue Stockings is about this college.

Trinity College

Trinity was founded by King Henry VIII.  There's a statue of Henry on campus and as a joke, some of the students replaced his scepter with a chair leg and the administration thought it was funny so they left it that way.  Famous alumni are Isaac Newton, Lord Byron who kept a bear on campus, AA Milne, Prince Charles, and Eddie Redmayne.  During Isaac Newton's tenure, the plague had broken out so everyone was going home to avoid getting sick and that's when Isaac saw the apple fall off the tree outside his  window and thus invented the theory of gravity.  That apple tree is no longer there, although in later years, the students would hang plastic apples off the not an apple tree that was planted there.

St. John's College

Founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII.  Famous alumni are writers William Wordsworth and Douglas Adams, and actor Derek Jacobi.

Sidney Sussex College

Also founded by a woman, Lady Frances Sidney.  Surrounding the college are high stone walls that are designed to keep the students from sneaking out and broken glass is embedded in the walls to discourage them from climbing over.  Their curfew was 11pm. Famous alumni are Oliver Cromwell, who after his death was buried at Westminster.  However, once the monarchy was restored, Charles II had his body disinterred and executed by hanging and then beheading.  His head was placed on a spike above Westminster.  After a storm broke the pole and the head was blown to the ground, it was in the hands of private collectors and museum owners for the next 300 years. His head was finally sent back to his alma mater and was buried close to the chapel in 1960.  His ghost reportedly still roams the grounds.   

Christ College

Founded in 1505 also by Lady Margaret Beaufort.  Famous alumni are John Milton and Charles Darwin, who started the botanical garden.

ADC Footlights Theatre

Founded in 1855, ithe Amatuer Dramatic Club is England's oldest University theatre.  Famous alumnus are Trevor Nunn, Peter Hall, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellan, Stephen Fry,  Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Tilda Swinton, and Eddie Redmayne. Prince Charles acted on this stage.  It's run entirely by students.

PHoto Gallery

The photos are labeled to the best of my poor ability to remember what they are of.  If you notice a mistake, please tell my so I can correct it.

The Map

We left from our hotel, walked to the Covent Garden Station, took the Piccadilly line to King's Cross station and then took a train to Cambridge.  We couldn't help but notice that they entire town had been decorated for the Royal Wedding and we were a little bit sad that we had an activity planned already instead of being able to go down to Westminster and be among the throng of well-wishers. It seemed like we were the only people who were leaving London that day. However, our journey took about 2 hours and there were toilets on the train, but no trolley witch with Cornish pasties or chocolate frogs, unfortunately.  My entire knowledge of traveling by English train is from The Young Ones "University Challenge" episode and the Harry Potter movies.