Day trips from London #4 - Cambridge
I might have lost the sequence here - not able to recollect if my 4th trip is Brighton or Cambridge and, since I don't have any pics from Brighton trip, couldn't check the photos for reference.
Also major gap in the day trips, which happened due to 2 reasons, added to my forgetfulness. After going to Windsor, I got my schengen visa and went to Paris and also booked Spain tour almost immediately which is quite exciting but made me super cautious about my expenses to afford those trips. Another most irritating reason is that the work load increased significantly resulting in 7 work days a week. urghh 😤😡.
Anyway, going with Cambridge for now.
Following the streak of travelling on our own, plus more newly joined people in team (everyone is enthusiastic first 2-3 trips 🙃), we took a train to Cambridge one fine Sunday morning (or was it Saturday?😕).
It was a nice, moderately sunny day and as usual the train ride was amazing. We picked up few flyers, with information on various places to visit and maps, from the platform and made our way out. While looking for the bus stop we spotted an open top, hop on hop off bus and decided it to be best option as we didn't try it in London, plus it's optimal way to go to major attractions without loosing our way. They also offered punting tickets for lesser price when combined with bus ticket, however, there is only cash payment option. We only got enough cash for bus tickets and, with no cash machine nearby, we had to forgo the offer on punting tickets.
We started the open bus tour and, as the audio guide listed the places we would be stopping by and their significance, we made our plan for the day. We visited Fitzgerald museum first which is a typical museum, quite elegant and got a beautiful collection of paintings.
It was almost lunch time when we started from the museum and next stop is punting area. There are few counters to get tickets and we thought of deciding after lunch (few offered discounts on the rides, still punting with open bus tickets combo is the best offer we came across).
We went to a bakery to pick up something we could eat while we walk as we were crunched for time and got baugette and canolis packed 😘. For a while we strolled by the Cambridge streets admiring the brick buildings and wondering what we could have done to study there 🤓. Being bought up in a city mostly occupied by a major university, I felt a sense of familiarity with the place. Funny how we could always find something to relate to despite of many differences.
After a while we got bit tired and stayed in bus enjoying the nature, brick buildings and the pubs (apparently students do pub hopping during weekends 😀).
Next stop was the botanical gardens. Many found this place boring and thought we were strange for choosing it over punting which is the signature activity of Cambridge. It was also so unlike me, given my love for water, however, that garden is the only part of the university open for public and I couldn't resist. It's very vast and have so many sections and glass houses and, what was supposed to be half hour visit, ended up taking almost 2 hours. After having coffee in the cafe within the gardens (one of the best ways I could think of relaxing👼), we dragged ourselves out. With some pondering on what to do with the time left, we visited local shopping mall to get some cash and went hotel chocolate outlet - in addition to chocolates they also have chocolate flavored liqueurs and perfumes/body lotions of wonderful fragrance with mild hint of chocolate - as the perfume is expensive, I had to be content with the lotion.
On the final bus ride of the day in Cambridge back to the railway station, we came across the ADC theatre which produced very well known artists (can't recollect them🙄)
It was a wonderful trip and, even though we couldn't complete everything in the list and missed the punting, I was quite proud of just 2 of us managing things on our own.
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