CAMBRIDGE

The flood waters of regional England are receding so we decided to make use of the rare sunny weather and head out of town again. Claire had been here a few years ago and was keen to return, particularly to give some punting ago.

The town is literally named after the first bridge that crossed the River Cam. It is also the location of one of the worlds most prestigous universties. We found out that initially the sons of royalty and nobility were given degrees from Cambridge without having to sit exams - just had to show up at lectures. We were assured the process is much more rigourous these days. Our punting guide also informed us that no student of the university is permitted to have a paying job during term time, as it takes the focus off their studies. As a result it is predominantly a uni for the wealthy.


You may have picked up that we decided against self punting in favour of a guided trip. Given that it is summer, there was chaos on the river. A few of the novice punters had some directional problems, so there were a few collisions. Thankfully we stayed reasonably dry! Our guide did confess to a quick dip earlier in the day.


Apart from punting, the other reason to visit Cambridge is to see Kings College. This college was founded by King Henry VI and completed by King Henry VIII. It was literally used to house the kings that attended the prestigous Eton school. The building and grounds are very impressive and the chapel worth the visit. The major colleges all own land on each side of the river and thus a bridge as well. The land on the other bank is known as 'The Backs' and the colleges all charge an entry fee to enter it.



The college chapel is not quite as grand as the Canterbury Cathedral but just as intricately decorated. This chapel is dedicated to Mary with 25 windows depicting her life. All bar the last window were installed in the 16th century with the last one being placed during the 19th century.

Inside Kings College Chapel. The choir section must take up 1/3 of the building, so no wonder the Christmas Carols from Kings are shown on worldwide TV.

Kings College

Claire with the grounds of Kings College in the background.


One of the tall stories about Cambridge is the Mathematical Bridge. This is the only bridge not made from stone and joins Queens College to The Backs. Legend says that the designers of the bridge used Isaac Newton's laws of physics, as the brige was held together using merely friction, without the need for nuts or bolts. We were assured that it has subsequently been modernised using more modern building techniques.
The Mathematical bridge at Queens college.

UK - Canterbury

With the typical English 'summer' setting in over the last few weeks, it's been a bit tough to get out of London (due to flooding everywhere). Finally a sunny weekend emerged, so we went down to Canterbury to check out the sights.

We did a river cruise with George as our rower and guide along the River Stour. We followed this with a gentle stroll through the historic city. Apart from all else the main attraction is still the cathedral, and it is worth the visit.

The cathedral is a massive structure with intricate carving and decoration all over it.

Inside it is even more spectacular. The sheer enormity of it is hard to describe but there are multiple altars in the crypt, nave and quire.

Choir area in the center of cathedral looking towards the front

There are many intricate stained glass windows all along the sides and ends and our camera just didn't do the colours justice. The original stained-glass windows were removed during the war for safety. In hindsight this was a good call as the replacement windows were damaged. The original windows were subsequently returned to their rightful place.

The intricate carving seen on the outside was replicated inside as well. This is a shot looking up one of the towers.

We were lucky enough to hear the choir practicing for the Evensong later that afternoon.

London - Red Bull Air Race

Seeing as Claire isn't really in the best form for adventure sports at the moment we thought we would go and watch others do it instead.

The activity of choice was flying, in particular flying down the river Thames at a height of around 5-10 metres, while dodging inflatable 'gates' going at speeds of up to 400km/hr. Impressive to say the least. It was very reassuring that one of the pilots has a day job with British Airways, although if he flies his jumbo like his racing plane it could be an interesting flight!!

The race caused the closure of the London City Airport and the river. The planes first had to battle the highrises of the Canary Wharf financial district in order to get low enough to enter the course (outside Millenium Dome), as the plane must be below the height of the gates as it goes through or they get a time penalty. Red gates have the plane flying through sideways and blue gates must have horizontal wings. More time penalties apply. The course is completed twice with a 'half cuban' (upside down loop) at the half way mark.

If you have the same question that we did, what if the planes hit the gates? That was answered, and happy to say apart from a loud bang as the 'gate' burst, the plane continues although off course. There were crazy guys sitting on the pontoon just waiting for this, and the replacement 'gate' only took 5min to go up.

Unfortunately the photos weren't too good as we had to rely on the camera phone, as someone forgot either of our 2 cameras....

London update

It has been a little quiet over the last few weeks, as the we've been busy in London. It didn't help that last weekend Claire was in too much of a hurry to catch a train (see photo). The outcome was a very painful sprained ankle. Not good, although the recovery is progressing well.

Other crazy things we have seen in London lately is a bizarre art sculpture on the South Bank. It was a series of water fountains that showed water coming out a few different ways from the sculptures. Modern art !?

In other news, the local cygnets (swans) are growing up quickly. They are living at Canada Water which is near our local underground tube station. The babies are almost ready to go it alone, and lose their grey feathers. If only the local council would clean away the rubbish that is thrown into the water...

Le Tour de France hits London

After a fortnight of terrible weather, the sunshine returned for a big weekend across the UK. Londoners definitely had much to choose from as this weekend saw the finals at Wimbledon, the Formula 1 at Silverstone, the Live Earth concert at Wembley stadium, and the start of the Tour de France.

Claire did her good deed for society and volunteered at the cycling for both days (the Time Trial on Saturday and the 1st stage on Sunday). Unfortunately she was 'backstage' for the entire Time Trial so only saw the riders for the few seconds it took to pass her on Sunday. Steve caught up with Sharyn & Conor to watch Saturday's festivities, and took numerous photos. Apparently over a million people turned out, and I could definitely believe that as I have never seen so many people in Hyde Park.

Nice flower bed in Hyde Park













Conor & Sharyn













Our best vantage points were near Westminster, and I saw the last few riders across from Buckinham Palace.


In the warm up, I think he was a mobile phone addict!!














They averaged about 50km/hr, so bit tough to photograph the riders side on













At a corner on Buckingham gate



























The winner of the Prologue - Fabian Cancellara



























Lots of people watching one of the many big screens around London













Before Sunday's stage, I caught the Caravane, where the Tour sponsors create interesting floats.













Just bizarre... Pizza anyone??













Water bottle













Motorised Wheelie Bin













Although the race didn't officially start racing until they reached Greenwich, they were still going mighty fast