Cambridge (the other one)

Jay and I met in 2004 in Boston and spent many of our "salad days" in the American version of Cambridge. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to travel to see how the UK version stacked up. Naturally, we got stuck in an incredibly frustrating traffic jam as we tried to drive into Cambridge (this is the story of our time in London - so many traffic jams!). But we finally made it and even found some miraculous street parking (and having been to Windsor, we now keep a bunch of coins in the car to make paying for parking possible). The only disadvantage of our parking spot was that we could see a carnival in the distance - the Cambridge version of Winter Wonderland. The boys could not understand why anyone would want to walk around a university when there was a carnival right there. But we convinced them it was not open yet and we promised to return at the end of the day. 

We started walking around on our own - most guide books recommend taking a tour, but this is not really possible with three young children. Our goal was mostly to get a feel for Cambridge and see some of the colleges that make up the larger university. One thing that surprised us was the amount of shopping available there, completely packed with Black Friday-esque sales (although there is no real Black Friday here, given the lack of Thanksgiving).

We didn't buy anything, although we might have considered this crazy insect clock. I don't think it was actually for sale.

Once exiting the shopping area, we first came upon King's College. We had wanted to see this one and its chapel, but as was the case with most of the colleges, it was closed to visitors. Here we are, wistfully looking at it from the outside.

We saw a few other colleges from the outside, or were allowed to take a few steps in:

The family just inside Corpus Christi College:

We then did make it inside St. John's College, which was quite inspiring to all of us in different ways. The boys had an amazing time pretending to hide in doorways and jump out and scare us. Jay loved the dining hall that looked like Hogwarts. I loved the rich academic feel of the architecture. 

The grandeur of one of the halls:

It was windy (and in case any of you are wondering, as Joey did to me the other day, if I am having another baby, the answer is no. The belly in this picture is from too much Italian gelato, Belgian chocolate, French pastries, and English crisps and cider). :(

This is the Bridge of Sighs, designed to look like the one in Venice.

This is a (slightly distorted) panorama of the chapel and dining hall, just inside the entrance.

While we made the mistake of driving into Cambridge, we discovered that most intelligent people in Cambridge prefer other modes of transportation:

Walking

Biking

Punting!

We then did visit the Cambridge winter carnival. It was actually quite nice compared to Winter Wonderland, since it was both smaller and cheaper. The weather wasn't awesome, but it maintained just a light mist and didn't start to rain until we made it back to the car.

Sammy went down a giant slide on what looked like a front door mat and enjoyed racing around in Lightning McQueen while Joey opted for the bumper cars with me. Sammy then observed Joey jumping on the trampoline from the bouncy house. 

Then both boys went on a roller coaster, with very different opinions in the end.

The exit interview:

It was a great day. If there's any lesson we've learned from traveling through Europe with 3 kids, it's that you need a good balance of kids time and adult time. In Cambridge, we all got to see and do what we wanted. We were quite impressed and hope to return some day when one of our kids is a Rhodes Scholar. No pressure.