Summer Solstice and a Mindcrime

Monday, and what would it be without a Monday morning flat - open up the bike shed to find the front tyre flat as a tack - at least the weekend was good...

With the weather forecast not looking good for Friday and Saturday I was in two minds as to whether I go on the planned weekend adventure or not...

“The Plan”: Head to Salisbury and Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice sunset, all night festivities and morning sunrise. Then head back to Salisbury, grab some brekky and maybe a shower at a hostel, catch the bus up to Avebury and then spend the afternoon exploring this and Silbury Hill. Follow this with a night in a BnB before bussing to Swindon for the train back to London.

So with heavy rain forecast for both Friday and Saturday, things weren’t looking good. By 3pm on Friday I made the call to just go anyway - grab a poncho from a camping store, get the train to Salisbury and take it from there. I’d already packed some dry clothing, but that was about it in my pack.
Sunset wasn’t due til after 9.30pm that night, so the train ride to Salisbury was a good look at the English countryside of Wiltshire. Really picturesque with the usual bit of human intervention - it is a pity that there’s so much human habitation of these regions at times...
Anyway, once at Salisbury I discovered that pretty much everyone on that train was going to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice because we all stepped out of the station and into the lines for the busses to the Stones.
The Summer Solstice (and the Winter Solstice) are the only times of the year that you can actually get up close and personal with the stones themselves. For the rest of the year, all tourists have to stay behind a fence that is quite a way back from Stonehenge itself. So why not make the most of a trip to the site and not only get to walk amongst the stones themselves, but add to that the experience the festivities/celebrations/rituals of the summer solstice. Far better than standing and pointing from a distance...
The bus dropped us off where the road closed, leaving us a walk of about a mile to get to the site. Pleasant enough walk through the fields, and funnily enough there was both a feelable vibe to the place as well as the scent of incense(?), but not much of a sunset as you can see above left.
I must admit that I really didn’t know what to expect, and was glad I went there with a very open mind - but forget tales of dancing naked in the forest or virgin sacrifices.
The number of people already there was a surprise, as were the types of people - absolutely all walks of life. A quick veggie burger from one of the caravans by the gates and it was time to get in amongst it.
Inside the circle of stones was fairly packed and the drums and celebrations were well underway. After a bit of a look around I ended up chatting and hanging out with a trio of welsh women by one of the smaller stones just on the edge of the inner circle. We were on the outskirts of the main ‘drum circle’ that was close to the centre of the stone formation.
There were folks leaning against the stones everywhere and one of the welsh women explained the reasons behind this to me - apparently the stones themselves have healing properties in much the same way as some trees can. Having experienced the tree phenomena back in Adelaide, and with a bit of a tetchy back from the past few months, I thought ‘why not?’ and gave it a go. Funnily enough, standing leaning against the stone wasn’t uncomfortable, and I was surprised at just how smooth the stones were despite how pitted they looked. As odd as it may sound, it did actually feel good - unless that had something to do with what I could smell in the air...
While watching the goings on, chatting with some new friends, feeling good against the stone, we met Ross. A friendly bloke who had been ‘worded up’ on the night by his mother who’d been constantly coming for years. It was his first time like myself, but he was far better prepared - hence how I ended up with a can of Stella in my hand.
So our little group became five as Ross, myself and one of the women leaned against the stone with the other two just in front of us. Ross’ main mission was to have our own drum circle, and was looking out for a drummer.
He caught one fellow (right) and convinced him to play where we were. Within half an hour we had been joined by 5 other drummers and we had our own drum circle in full swing. We were also joined by a guy with a trumpet, a didgeridoo, a couple of tambourines, a shaker and even one bloke with a triangle - there’s always one. Just join in and play seemed to be the order of the night. As for the rest of us, well, clapping, singing, chanting and dancing was pretty much all that was left so we did that - turning the place into the most amazing mosh-pit-like throng I've been a part of! Call it out and you got a chorus of your chant replied by all. As the first drummer Ross grabbed called out “have no fear tonight. It ain’t stupid if it’s from your heart. let me hear you, show me the love!” This guy had everyone getting into it - Ross couldn’t have found a better guy to kick things off in our area of the Henge. And we were right on the edge of this ‘circle’ having a great time of it, as the crowd grew thicker and thicker in our neck of the woods...erm...stones.
One of the best party atmospheres I’ve ever been in, and yes, probably helped by what I had been passively smoking most of the night. It would also explain why I was getting stuck into another veggie burger at 2.30am. As Ross said, go pay several pounds to get into a nightclub, get ripped off for drinks and cop the crappy attitude of underage drinkers/clubbers OR come here for free and party all night in this fantastic atmosphere...
Well, as you know, at around 2.30am I left our little party zone and went for a bit of a wander around the site. If I’d thought that there were lots of people around before, well, I got a shock at how many were there were now, and with more still arriving! This wasn’t the only shock I got once I started to look around a bit more.
First, was my surprise at what the time was and how long we’d been partying in the one spot - over 4 hours!! And second, was the fact that it was raining. Not heavily, but still what you’d call a ‘shower’. How did I not notice before? You may think this is nuts, but inside the circle of the stones, it was only a light drizzle. I don’t know why this is, because the stones themselves, whilst being monoliths, are still relatively spread out and certainly don’t provide any overhead cover... Still, the £2.50 I paid for the poncho was now proving itself to be the best £2.50 I’ve spent for some time as I checked out the surrounding ‘ditch’, stones and other drum circles.
With sunrise scheduled for around 5am it was time to maybe try and get a bit of sleep, or at least get off my feet for a bit. I left the current drum circle I was at and took up a spot at the base of one of the outer circle stones. Not the most comfortable, but slightly drier than you’d think, even under my poncho. I managed about 45mins of sleep, despite folk constantly bumping me, and actually felt quite good, considering I was expecting both a sore back and a cricked neck for sleeping hunched in a Mexican siesta style position against the stone.
So, at just after 4am, I headed back inside the inner circle to find a good spot for the sunrise. A lovely typical English summer’s day for it too - cloudy and light drizzle. This meant that we had absolutely no idea when the sun was up, nor if the sun had even come up. This didn’t stop the party though, as it continued to kick on both inside and out of the circles.
I had expected to see some sort of druid or pagan ritual, but other than a druid procession that I couldn’t quite see, that was it. At least I could see their ‘sun face’ staff moving through the crowd and hear the horns (right), but that was about it. No matter, we just chatted amongst ourselves until a massive cheer went up for what we thought must have been the sunrise and then the party kicked on.
By 7am, I decided it was time to move on. The crowds were thinning quite considerably as you can see here below. With the drizzle continuing I joined those leaving and went for one last wander about the stones before trudging back to the busses and Salisbury.

The weather was still pretty ordinary... okay, it was downright crappy, so the plan to head up to Avebury was canned there and then. Besides, Avebury’s 10miles from Swindon, and the idea of riding the bike from Swindon to Avebury, doing the site and Silbury Hill before then going the 5miles to check out Marlborough and it’s market, is something that I’ll admit is far more attractive than bussing and walking on a drizzly day...
Time for breakfast in Salisbury while checking my Rough Guide to England to see what’s about and possibly worth checking out in the local area. English manners and service showed its style as one waiter told some Americans that one of them was lying in a mix-up with their order. Still, the view I had of the river Avon from where I was sitting was nice.
I headed along the river Avon after breakfast and followed it all the way round through the Queen Elizabeth Gardens to eventually end up in Harnham and at the Old Mill (right). Built in the 1100’s it inspired the artist John Constable a couple of hundred years later. Walking through Harnham and then back into Salisbury to The Close, it was literally like walking through some of Constable’s paintings and the 1500's (with cars).
The Close is the walled grounds that contain Salisbury’s Cathedral as well as a couple of museums and other old mainsions. With the Cathedral in full operation for a special service, I checked out the Salisbury and South Wiltshire museum. Lots of info on the history of the area and Stonehenge, and worth it, as Bill Bryson says - his quote in the visitors book is happily up on the wall by the entrance...
Unfortunately, the other three museums in this area weren’t open so it was back up towards the High St to explore the streets and alleys to eventually find Market Square and the massive market there. For a town that wasn’t all that large, the streets and the market were packed. The fact that the morning’s crappy weather was now replaced by some blue sky and sunshine certainly helped.
From the market I made my way along the river walk to end up at the Mill (left), which despite being a couple of hundred years old, was still the younger of the two ‘Mills’. Lunch with a few pints by the river in the sun was the go.
Getting the noddies in the sun made it an easy decision to head back to the train station and back to London for some much needed sleep.

Sunday, as you can imagine, started somewhat slowly. Brekky, coffee and a book in the sun was a pretty good way to spend what was left of the morning - all 30minutes of it. With such a glorious day on offer it was a good chance to head down to the large sainsburys by Finsbury park for a bit of a chill in the park before doing the groceries and then strolling home. Nice to have such a relaxing day before the night ahead...

Off to the Indigo2, which is one of the venues in the massive O2 Arena or as it used to be known, the Millennium Dome. Why was I here tonight? In the words of Rob from the Curiosity Show, “well, I’m glad you asked.”
Back in about ’93 Matt introduced me to the music of a band from Seattle known as Queensrÿche with the song ‘Silent Lucidity’. Google it or find it on iTunes if you wish - I'll bet you already know it. Anyway, they’ve been one of my favourite bands ever since for many reasons, but they aren’t a band that’s made it to Australia. This was the first chance I’ve ever had to see them, so I wasn’t going to miss it.
The night’s show wasn’t your ordinary concert either. The band have produced two albums, their 3rd and 8th albums, that are in fact narrative concept albums that tell a particular story. 'Operation: Mindcrime' was the first and naturally the sequel was simply 'Operation: Mindcrime II'. Tonight the band would be playing both albums back to back to do the entire story, complete with the story going on around them as well as up on a big screen behind them. A few extra bits between the songs to help put it all together, including revealing who killed Sister Mary - which at the end of the first album you're left still guessing.

Not quite the large stage production of a ‘We Will Rock You’ or anything like that, but certainly a well put together show. If you’re after the story itself, well, it’s more than I’m willing to type up here, but Wikipedia has a decent synopsis for both if you google ‘operation mindcrime’.
Approximately 3hrs for the entire show, before a 3 song encore from the album that launched the band back in the early 90’s - Empire. The three songs being;
'Best I Can' - a song about a man rising up after being wheelchair bound as a child,
'Jet City Woman' - a song about eventually coming back to your hometown and the loved one you left behind (and no, it didn’t make me think of who you might think),
'Empire' - the album’s title track and a political song about governments and empires.
A fantastic show and a great way to see the band for the first time. I have to say that I was surprised at just how little difference there was between their live performance and their recorded albums - nearly identical and brilliant. Geoff Tate’s voice is something else, as was Pamela Moore's, who is the original 'Mary'. Great band and a great show.

Time to get excited about next weekends adventure!

Two Down

Hey hey! Chalk up a second pedestrian collision!

I really do need to get some little stickers of people to put on the bike frame like the old world war one fighter pilots.

Believe it or not it was the same pedestrian crossing as the last one, except I was going the opposite direction and thankfully not as fast. The traffic wasn't moving so she decided to cross the road without looking, and completely engrossed in her ipod. I shouted, she didn't hear and with the brakes holding my wheels I slid straight into her. Apart from a big fright she was okay, and thankfully no real damage to either of us...

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Lunch on the roof of Hennessey's in the sunshine - it's the pub behind work if you're wondering. Before finishing the day off at the Bavarian Beerhouse with Karyn. Large beers and a pork roast for dinner amongst dozens and dozens of Germans gathering for the Euro quarter final between Germany and Portugal. All Good, and a good catch up to boot.

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Friday tomorrow, and lunch with Marty n Row in Ledenhall Market before I head off on the weekend's adventure - or maybe not if the weather's no good where I'm heading. Will find out tomorrow and let you know on monday because I'm out on sunday night.

Three Crowns - Big Thumbs Up

A pretty quiet week with not a whole lot happening, followed by a good relaxing weekend. Considering what the plans are for the next couple of weekends, this was just the ticket.

Caught up with Row for a few afterwork drinks during the week, which ended up including dinner and then later catching Mark as well. The Counting House was the venue, which was originally just that. Incredibly old and with the historical plaque on the wall too. A really nice old place with a good cruisey after work atmosphere. They even allowed me to secure the bike to the front of the building as well.

Work is, well, it's work... It pays the bills (not that we've received any yet!) but it could do better, and the feet are getting a little itchy on this one as it's just not stimulating enough. One thing that it did do during the week will remain to be seen if it's worthwhile. The guy who sits opposite me had an interesting proposition for me. His girlfriend works for a very upmarket and exclusive matchmaking company - for millionaires and extremely successful individuals (ie; not me), but she needed to complete her quota of new database entrants by the end of this week, so he put the idea forward for me to be that last person she needed. Within a half hour of saying 'okay', she was on the phone interviewing me. One email and confidentiality agreement signed, as well as a dodgy pic on a mobile phone camera, and her quota is done.

I did have to laugh. At least if anything comes of it, I know that if they end up using me, then it won't be for my money or support like someone else did!!

Thursday and Friday nights both kicked off with the work crew and a few pints in the pub watching the Euro's (European Football Championships) and a couple of 'rounds of golf'.

The weekend landed with some fantastic weather - plenty of sunshine and some puffy white clouds. The morning kicked off with the arrival of a parcel containing some Canadian items, so Thanks Mum n Dad!!

Not long after, I met Sue at the Three Crowns on Stoke-Newington Church St, which I mentioned in an earlier post. I still haven't got the timing sussed for getting around to some places yet, so I was rather early. No matter - a pint and the paper on the couch under the skylight with some very cruisey 'café del mar' styled music, and I think I've just discovered a great hangout for quiet weekend mornings/arvos! Both a pub and a restaurant, this place was great - check the pics. So before Sue arrived, I went through the Guardian's top hidden gems of Europe in their travel section, and there's quite a few that I'll be looking to tick off that list!!

We ended up having lunch there and chatting away for most of the arvo with a few pints. The Apple, Cinnamon and Coconut Crumble with vanilla sauce is superb too!!

I even have a new friend from behind the bar now who's from Sardinia (near Corsica) and teaches film production. She was most interested in my plans for a short film that I shelved a few years back, so I may be resurrecting that.

Time to head into Liverpool St station and meet up with Dresch (a recent arrival from Melbourne and fellow Spurs fan) to go watch that evenings Euro matches in a nearby pub - The White Hart. Several more pints between the three of us followed by dinner til the games ended and the pub eventually closed.

Sunday has since been a relaxing day reading in the sun, some domestic chores and generally being a chilled out day. Hard to do much else considering the neighbours down the road had some massive party going til around 4am the night before... Watched 28 Weeks Later tonight. Set in London and it's quite something to watch a movie when you've been in nearly all the places that are shown. Even quite funny when you know the distances the group in the movie travel in the supposed time span that they did it in!

Enjoy your week!

Woodbridge Regatta & Riverside Fair

Well, it’s all happening here. My ‘probation’ period with the company that I’m working for was due to finish the week after next. However, due to the turmoil of the last couple of months, I now have a few more months of probation...
Anyway, with the weather improving during the week it was lunch down by Leadenhall Market for some outdoor Tapas to catch up with Row n Marty. Great stuff and a bit of a feeling of Melbourne and DeGraves St - almost.
The good weather didn’t last long, as by Thursday evening’s ride home it was raining again and as luck would have it, a small shard of glass topped the day out by ripping into my tyre to give me something else to do in the rain. It’s funny, every time I hear a police siren (which is a fairly common occurrence) I automatically start hearing the theme song to the Bill in my head. Just one of those weird little things about living in London, I guess...

Friday evening and while having a few ‘knock-off’ drinks with the work crew, it started raining yet again. Just in time for my quick trip over to Liverpool St station for the train ride back up to Melton to spend the weekend with Steve n Eileen again. This time it was for the Woodbridge Regatta and Riverside Fair.
After enjoying the scenery of Suffolk on the train ride there, I made my rather damp way to the Horse & Groom, which is the local pub for Steve n Ei. An interesting little pub this (pictured) and not just because it’s pink. Actually, it’s not the only building in the English countryside that’s pink, so don’t think it’s that odd. The “Doom” as Steve n Ei call it, has quite an interesting crowd. All good folk, and typically ‘country’ as I know it. It was certainly entertaining and good for quite a few laughs. I met Dickie, Julie, Jethro and (I think) Tony, who just sat in the corner but was rather difficult to understand on the few occasions that he did speak. A few more pints for the evening, some good laughs, and it was then time to head back to Steve n Ei’s place for the night.

Saturday was a much quieter affair, and a much needed day of relaxing for me. Steve n Ei left early for Gatwick airport as they needed to pick up the newlyweds who were returning from their honeymoon (see the previous post - Wedding and UFO’s). It’s a several hour trek to get there - and of course back - so it left me to enjoy a rather late and slow start to the day.
I even jumped on the bathroom scales to find out that I'm now under 70kgs - almost the same weight I was when competing in marital arts over 16years ago!! (On a brief aside - back in 2004 when I was last in the States I was over 90kgs, so V n Johnny will have to cast their memories back to '92 when we first met in the Phillipines to get an idea of what I look like now!! I'll be back in the US later in the year guys, which means that Al n Lisa will just have to wait til then to see... But back to regular programming...)
Explore the village of Melton and nearby Woodbridge? Nope. It was bucketing down outside, so a bit of read time and some movies on cable, followed by a bit of a ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway?’ session completed the time before the return of the ‘pickup’. A simple chinese takeaway, with a pint in the ‘Doom’ on the way to collect it pretty much rounded out the day. Cruisey, casual, and all good.

Sunday started off casually with a walk to Woodbridge via the riverfront and the trail that follows the river from Melton round to the main marina of Woodbridge. It actually begins in a boatyard/marina in Melton, and had plenty of cyclists and dog walkers as well as scenery accompanying the river itself.
We met Dickie and Julie at ‘The Caravan’ for breakfast - it’s a small caravan/kitchen that sits between the river and the train station with several outdoor tables. Lovely in the morning sun next to all the harboured boats on the riverside. (yeah, it had stopped raining and the weather for the day was ‘cracking’ to say the least - sunshine and 24C!!)
The longer we were there, the more people were arriving and the busier the area got, as everything started to get put together for the Regatta and Riverside Fair. I swear that when the fair was in full swing that nearly the entire population of Woodbridge was in attendance. It actually stretched a fair way along the river too, with market stalls, rides and other fundraising stalls all along. This also included the two clubhouses for the two boat clubs along this portion of the river. Several water activities as well, including the ‘Duck Race’, which comprised of sponsoring (or buying) your rubber duck for £1 before it was ‘raced’ on the model boat pond with everyone else’s duck. The winner scored £100, and yes, they were well in front in the fundraising stakes with a couple of hours to go til the race itself. That’s Dickie popping his ducks into the starting cage. (Notice the little model boat made from plastic bottles in the corner of the pond.)
As for us, well, we took a leisurely stroll after breakfast to take in all that was going on before heading back into Woodbridge itself while we waited for high tide on the river so that the day could really kick off.
Woodbridge is a really nice little place, and also one that goes back a fair way with its share of buildings from the 13-1400’s. One of the younger pubs was established in 1652, which is over a hundred years befor Terra Australis was bumped into by a certain English explorer.
So, through the narrow little one horse... erm... car lanes (above left) and we ended up taking a breather (and a few pints) in one of the local ‘no hats allowed’ pubs.
To make our way back to the river, we took a short cut through a ‘lane’ that was a little more picturesque than some (pictured). Amazing what you can find in such small villages as this. But back to the river and the now packed docks along the ‘foreshore’ of Woodbridge. It was all happening with some of the water events in full swing, along with everything on the banks - even a troupe of Morris dancers. The only thing missing was probably a small band of hare krishnas. The rides were all going flat strap and the basket for the ducks was filling up.
We ended up grabbing some lunch (and pints) in the Woodbridge Cruising Club (on the right of the pic on the left). Good cheap fair from the usual round of voluntary ladies in the club’s kitchen. Ham salad baguettes, and a pretty good lemon slice as well.
Back into the magnificent sunshine and foreshore we went, until a bit later when someone decided to excuse themselves with an “I’ll catch up”. Yep, that didn’t happen, so the remaining four of us trekked about trying to locate said person. We did find him later, sunning himself on the bank absolutely nowhere near where we separated... He’s actually in the pic just here at the base of the white building on the right. Handily he just happened to be right by the ice cream seller, so with newly acquired ice creams, we called it a day and headed back to Melton via the riverside trail we arrived on.
One last stop past the ‘Doom’ for a final drink before getting back to Steve n Ei’s place, and eventually catching the train back to London. With the daylight hours currently lasting til around 9.30pm I was treated to a great view of the countryside from the train. Also thrown in for good measure was one of the best sunsets I think I’ve seen here in the UK...

And a big Thanks to Steve n Eileen for a top weekend!

It's A Phoenix

It’s been a long week, even if it only started on Tuesday after the long weekend and saying sayonara to mum n dad.

I’ve managed to close the door properly on the last few months of turmoil. Unfortunately, that doesn’t shut off what I need to, but that will happen eventually I hope. It’s a pity, but I needed to do it as those of you with the fuller picture already know... This is also the reason I have to apologise for the poor quality of pics I’ve posted on here over the last couple of months, as my tremor has steadily become worse and it doesn’t work too well with a light digital camera. Anyway, hopefully soon, I will finally get to have a full night’s sleep and I’ll stop losing weight.

So, a slow week of work ended with a few of the folks from work in the pub and a (video game) round of golf. After that it was on to the Three Crowns for a few more pints for Sue’s birthday. (You may recall her from the West Ham Away/It’s All Happening post.) Anyway, after avoiding another “note slid under that door I just closed” (ie; delete an unread sms message), I met up with Sue and Will, as well as their friend Lauren and her friend, Manón, (if I’ve spelt that correctly) for an interesting night. Turns out that Manón is a fellow cyclist and plans to do a cycling tour of the eastern states (of Australia). Not sure if we’ll make it out for a ride as she does live up in Newcastle, but you never know, and you can take a bike on a train...
When we all called it a night, I needed to trek along the full length of Stoke-Newington Church rd to get to a bus route that was a) still operating, and b) would get me home. This is a pretty interesting road as it winds its way through a rather ordinary area. The road itself is full of all sorts of pubs, cafes and shops and is very bohemian in style. I will definitely have to spend some more time here. In fact it became part of the plans for Saturday.

Saturday’s plan was to ride down to Borough Market in the morning, do some grocery styled shopping, including picking up some more of the excellent wildebeest meat. I then planned to ride back to Stoke-Newington Church rd (which is on the way) for lunch or brunch and a coffee somewhere along the road before heading home.
Well, Saturday just didn’t happen that way. Let’s just call it a “Doona Day” and leave it there. As I said above, things don’t automatically shut off once that door is closed. Anyway, I digress... I actually managed to read the full story of “Me and My Shadow”, which is the account of writer/director, Kevin Smith (who’s autobiography I’m reading) and the years he spent with his friend, Jason Mewes, and their fight to overcome Jason’s addiction to heroin and oxycontin. If ever there was an account of someone epitomising just exactly what is meant by “true friend”, then this is it. A powerful read as it chronicles the tale of his friend who becomes a junkie and their struggle over many years to beat it. A quick google of Kevin Smith and ‘Me and My Shadow’ and you should be able to find all 9 parts that make up this intriguing story.

Cambridge

Sunday morning, and after dodging 2 early morning calls and deleting 2 voicemails without listening to them, it was off to Cambridge for the day. I was told this was a beautiful spot to visit and I wasn’t disappointed. Even a fair bit of the countryside I passed on the train ride up there was really nice, although there always seemed to be some bit of man-made object in there to spoil the scene. I guess as a species, we just don’t get it at times...
I managed to cover a fair bit of ground and still have a leisurely time of it for a cruisey relaxed day out. Unfortunately, June is part of the exam period for the colleges, so most of them were closed or restricted in their access. That, however, didn’t stop me winding up in a couple of the colleges where I shouldn’t have been. At least it wasn’t a dull day.
I was amazed at the number of bikes around this township. They certainly outnumbered the cars and there were so many locked up to fences and bike racks everywhere. If you thought that finding street-side car parking was difficult, I actually saw folks struggling to find places to put their bikes!!
When I come back here, I’ll just bring my own with me. Don’t get me wrong, I found it easy enough to walk everywhere, but ‘when in Rome’...
Cambridge University itself is made up of many ‘colleges’ who all seem to slightly independent of each other, or perhaps competitive may be a better word. I managed to visit several of these, and Downing College was the first that I entered by mistake. I couldn’t get into Kings, which is the most famous college, helped in no small way by its very impressive ‘chapel’ - which is larger and more impressive than some churches!
Trinity College was one that I visited thanks to accidentally walking through the back entrance. After going past King’s college, and a visit to the market in the town square (see left), I wandered through some of the smaller laneways until I found myself at a bridge that crossed the river Cam and led into the parklands known as The Backs. From here I headed into those parklands in an effort to get onto the pathway that I saw heading along the banks of the river Cam. In the process I ended up heading down the pictured alley of trees and straight into Trinity College - oops!!
I then tried to cut through to St John’s college, which was their neighbour, and biggest rival, only to end up having to go back and around through the Backs until I found the main gate into St John’s. St John’s is the second richest/biggest college behind Trinity, and while it has the most impressive building (see pic), that building has a rather unique clock tower in that it doesn’t contain a clock. When they built this particular building, Trinity College found a local rule/law that stated that there can only be one clock within a certain area, and so hastily built their own before St John ’s could finish theirs. On I went, back to the main street of Cambridge via the bridge of sighs and St John’s College.
I then proceeded up this street past the round church until I reached Magdalene (pronounced Maudlin) College and one of the main berths for the punts. From here I noticed a walkway that led further along the river Cam, so decided to explore this before eventually discovering a very cruisey restaurant hidden down an alleyway (another advantage of being on foot!). I headed in, as it was 1.30pm and I hadn’t eaten at all yet, only to discover that they had a mezzanine area with an excellent riverfront view of both Magdalene college and the parklands to the northeast of it. So, to the sounds of Cafe Del Mar (#7 or 9 I think) I lunched with a couple of peroni and a pleasant view.
Having now done most of Cambridge from south to north, it was time to head south again, and riding a punt down the river Cam seemed an excellent way to do it. 15mins til the next one left so I happily sat on the bank watching others show me exactly why hiring one for myself would have been a bad idea. I still have no idea how this one group of folk didn’t end up in the river! Time to go, and with no other passengers, I got the seats all to myself.
The ride down to silver street was quite good as not only did I get to sit back and enjoy a completely different angle of the township, but the punter(?), or whatever you call the guy working the pole (damn, I have to be careful how I put that!), also gave me a guided tour of the places we passed.
Shortly after asking if many folks go into the river, and him telling me about poles getting stuck in the river bottom than we see exactly that - a lone pole sticking out of the water and a pole-less punt up ahead. I rescued the pole while he steered us towards the owner - good deed for the day #1 done.
From here I headed down past the lock and along the river until I discovered a hidden bridge through what looked to be a rather not-so-obvious path. This led me to the back of the FitzWilliam Museum and also the back of the Peterhouse College. Unfortunately, no way in, so around the rather large block I went to enter the museum through its main entrance. Impressive museum this one. The foyer alone was amazing (see attempted pic on the right). The Egyptian section was fascinating and complete with actual proper Egyptian cats (if you recall the one from the British Museum - see my earlier post ‘That Cat’s Back’). Unfortunately, the rest of the ancients areas - Greeks, Romans, etc... - were mostly pots and vases, and so resembled another large antique shop. Upstairs and there were mostly paintings from various regions and times. Again, like I found in the National Gallery a few years ago, anything that is pre-1800’s is completely dominated by the church as it’s just one religious painting after another. Don’t get me wrong here, as the artistry is fantastic, but it does get very same-same. Thankfully they did have some of John Constable’s and Picasso’s works there to make it worthwhile.
Back up Kings road to the Great St Mary’s, which is the main church that backs onto the market square (seen above in the background of the market photo). It has a tower that you can go up and view the town from. Usual deal, with tight spiral staircase and lots of steps (right). Nice view, but the roofs of Cambridge aren’t all that exciting.
Back to the train station via a couple more alleyway discoveries, the botanical gardens and that rounded out the day. Well, actually, a take away curry from down the road and a few episodes of Futurama rounded the day out, but who’s counting...