Now that I'm done gloating sharing about graduating from Cambridge University, I will to take you on a tour around the beautiful city of Cambridge in UK.
A few years ago I went to Cambridge for a day, but I don't remember much of it, I don't even have any photos of the trip which is a bit odd. Just as well, as this time I have a local, my kiddo nephew to take me around the city. Having studied here for three years, he took me on a walking tour of the University through a student's eyes.
RIVERS AND BIKES
Apart of the University, two scenes are quite representative of Cambridge - the river and bicycles.
The River Cam meanders through the city, and many of the colleges are situated by the river, creating one of the most beautiful city campus in UK. Punting is a very popular here, and I saw quite a lot of people taking those tours along the river. If you want, you can even punt yourself. Most people did it the luxury way, sitting comfortably on the boat to admire the gorgeous scenery en route. Although this is an outdoor activity, it was still done in a social distance way. There were a few row of seats on each boat, and each section had a screen in between. Nice.
Another familiar sight in Cambridge are the bicycles. Many students cycle around, especially if their college is quite far away from their faculty. With a river, you get many bridges and there's one that is quite funny, called Orgasm Bridge. That's what the students call it, not sure what it's proper name is, and I doubt anyone cares! I was standing on the Orgasm Bridge when I took my first image above. The Orgasm Bridge is one of the main bridges and it doesn't look any special, that's why I don't have a photo. It's quite steep ... and cyclists have to cycle quite hard, some panting heavily as they approach to make sure they can make it over the bridge. Their relief, once they're at the top and and the pleasure of zooming down is another feeling. Now you understand why this is called Orgasm Bridge. Does that sound familiar, guys? 😂
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THE OLD FROM CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge University was established over 800 years ago when a group of academics from Oxford University moved there to get away from the hostile townsmen. Rumour has it they chose this location because it was very remote and it made it difficult for the townsmen to find them. Over the years, the scholars established themselves at Cambridge, building up Cambridge University that consisted of 31 colleges.
The more established and well known colleges such as Trinity College, Kings College, Queens College, Emmanuel College, Magdalene College are located in the city centre. This is where I started my walking tour.
Kings College - This is without a doubt the poster boy of Cambridge Univiersity. Established in 1441, the Kings College Chapel is probably the most famous landmark in the city and can be seen from inside the city as well as from outside.
St Johns College was established in 1511 but the site used to be a hospital from back in the 13th century. Beyond the Main Gate (first image below) lies the rest of the colleges and its buildings, spread over 12 courts, more than any other college of Oxbridge. Some of the college building have spread across the road, like the Old Divinity Building. This was build in 1878 hence the style is a bit more modern than the Main Gate, but ancient, nevertheless. Apparently, when this was built, they found lots of skeleton in the grounds!!! Not to worry, no mass murder happened. The skeletons were from the 14th century Black Death.
| Queens College was established in 1448, and is most famous for the Mathematical Bridge. This is a wooden bridge first built in 1749 and is made up of straight timbers. The current structure was rebuilt in 1905 based on the original design. Hubby is a maths buff, and was this was one of his must see sights during our trip. |  |
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 | This is Magdalene College and was founded in 1542. My kiddo nephew said this is "Maud-Lyn" College, and the aunty in me had to correct him and said it's "Mag-da-lyn". Woops! Never correct a local. The proper pronunciation is "Maud-Lyn" due to some historical reason. Now you'll know if you ever to go Cambridge. |
| Trinity College was founded by Henry VIII in 1546. It's the largest and richest college of the 31 and has the most Nobel prize winners out of all the colleges, including Oxford University. You can't really see all that, but what you can and should see, is the Newton Tree. Rumour has it that an apple fell from this tree onto Isaac Newton leading him to come up with the theory of gravity. |  |
 | This 16th century Gatehouse leads into Christ's College. I hear the college has a series of courts that dates back to its inception in 1505 and some lovely architecture. |
OPEN AIR MUSEUM
This is a just snapshot of my tour of the traditional old buildings around Cambridge city. Walking around here is like walking in a live open air museum. History is embedded in every building, every street, every corner, and you end up learning a bit of the past without realising it. It was a real pity that all these Colleges were closed to the public due to Covid and I couldn't access any of them, otherwise, I'm sure this would be a much richer walkabout. Despite that, if you love history and architecture, you will love this city, and hopefully when you get a chance to visit, you can get to see all the colleges.
Next time, I will share some of the newer buildings from Cambridge University. They may lack the history, but not the character. Hope you will join me then.
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Thanks for taking me on a nice tour and showing me how beautiful this place is. Did you feel something special while you were there? I keep imagining I would feel something special while visiting, other than enjoying visiting a new place. But I guess that's only in my head.
Possibly it'll be like in Paris. Before I went to visit Paris, I've always associated the city with Edith Piaf. I was expecting to find her presence there in some way. So I spent one week in Paris and only remembered Edith Piaf when I got home 😂. Since then, she's not associated with Paris in my head anymore.
It may seem weird and maybe not many understand what I'm talking about but I do feel special about Cambridge. I consider it's a unique place, there's no other place in the world like that due to its legacy.
By the way, can I take any short course there, even an one day course, to get a diploma, or a certificate?🤔 I guess not 😂
Anyway, I'd like to visit one day as it's a very important one for me.
Take a CELTA. You'd have an English Teaching qualification that is issued by Cambridge Uni and only takes a month! Your English is so good, you could probably teach the course :-)
I did CELTA many years ago, it was tough, lots of homework and prep, and I found it especially difficult as I never learnt grammar, so had to brush up on all the tenses. I'm hoping to put it in good use one day, maybe it will come in handy next year if I still can't get back into Taiwan as a tourist, and need to find a teaching English job to get back in instead.
It's still the gold standard and will open many doors. I hope things calm down and you can get back. I think teaching is much better paid in Taiwan than it is in Thailand!
Let's hope so
That's so interesting!! Do you think it's a good or bad thing now Edith Piaf is associated with Paris for you? And do you have anyone in mind relating to Cambridge?
I took a look online, Cambridge University does weekend courses, and the venue looks really nice! Not sure if you will get a certificate of attendance.
https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/course/garden-history-art-craft-and-artifice
And there's also online lectures which are free of charge. I think everyone on Hive should attend this one!!!
https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/event/topical-talks-write-heart-not-market
My nephew highly recommend the Fitzwilliam Museum but unfortunately we couldn't get any tickets on the days we were there. It looked so beautiful inside. They do talks and stuff, and if you ever visit I'd recommend to pre book entry.
https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/learning/adulteducation
Last and not the least, the Museum of Zoology seems really good, again, I couldn't get tickets in due to time limits.
https://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/events
I could say neither good, nor bad, it's just something that has been in my mind for some time, but after visiting Paris, I think Edith Piaf is associated to a certain period of time in my mind. Obviously life is very different in Paris now, that's why I did not think of her at all while there.
Cambridge however is a different matter. I associate the city with the English language itself. I mean it's like Cambridge would be the mother of the English language, because of the C1 Advanced. I could upset a few people, but English for me is not the US but England :P I hope it makes sense.
You could create a cool challenge out of this. Pick a big city and ask people to write about what the city means to them, what memories they have about it, with photos and stuff. It would be funny. Maybe we could find some sponsors to have some rewards.
I have a bunch of stuff like this in my head, cities associated with famous people for various reasons, or famous people associated with cities(?), could speak about it for hours :)
Thanks for the links and recommendations, I'm going to check them out fr sure!
Think about my proposal :)
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Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!A very nice city tour. The name of the bridge was really fun 😀 I love watching old buildings, it's very impressive. Will be waiting for the newer buildings. Thanks for sharing 🌸
I thought that was so funny as well, so much history and fun facts when you have students around.
Thanks for dropping by
What a name for a bridge! One would think that men would learn more about the big O with such opportunities at hand lol.
What a beautiful place! OMG!
Really nice tour! Thank you! What a name for bridge 😃
I've actually been curious about the city of Cambridge for a while so it's awesome that you did a post about it. Thanks for the tour. I love towns with canals or ones that are built along rivers and Kings college looks amazing.
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