Cambridge, continued

Found some more internet time, so here’s the rest of the scoop on what we’ve been doing in Cambridge 🙂

Thursday we went punting on the river Cam–no, not hunting; this is the traditional method of using long poles to push flat-bottomed boats down the river. Or, in my case–to push them around in circles 🙂 Michael punted our boat most of the way and the view was gorgeous–the tranquil backs of the colleges, flowers blooming, willows draping over the water–but then I decided I wanted to try punting, and it was all I could do to concentrate on not falling in the water, not getting my pole stuck between the riverbed and the bottom of the low bridges, not colliding with guided punting tour boats, and not spinning around in circles in the middle of the river…well, I succeeded on the first few 🙂 Oh well, it was a uniquely British experience and I enjoyed it, even if it gave me sore shoulders after only 10 minutes!

Friday we visited The Orchard, a lovely little tea garden where you can eat scones with clotted cream under the blooming apple trees 😀 It was so pretty and relaxing; we blew bubbles and braided flowers into our hair and read books until the clouds swallowed up the sun. It was a really beautiful place. Later that afternoon, I enjoyed some much-needed alone time with some coffee and English shortbread, reading the tales of King Arthur’s knights with a view out to King’s College…wow, I’m really here! Got to hear the King’s College Choir sing an evensong. My favorite part was hearing the perfectly-tuned choir sing psalms word-for-word as songs–I realized that the purpose of matins (morning) and evensong (evening) services is to bookend the day with remembering God, and that was beautiful.

Today was mostly just wandering around, picking up last-minute souvenirs and reading in the (sporadic) sunshine on Parker’s Pieces (for some reason, they call their parks ‘pieces’ here–especially awkward when you get to the one called ‘Christ’s Pieces’ O,O) until Alyssa and I almost got obliterated by some English boys who thought they knew how to throw an American football…

Tomorrow we’re off to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of Shakespeare the Bard himself!!! We’ll be seeing 3 Shakespeare plays (hooray!!!) and staying at the Quilt and Croissants, what sounds like a lovely B&B after the noisy urban hostel of Cambridge. It’s been a lovely time here, but I look forward to updating you on the next stage of the adventure 🙂 Love!