bustin out the sea legs today!!
ok so today was the last school field trip for the semester and it was to cambridge, the university town.
best trip of the year! hands down! it was an amazing time. the city is beautiful, not too big, and the company made it a very enjoyable afternoon.
takes about 2 hours to get there from holborn (faraday house), so we got there around 11, and we went on a small walking tour of the city. basically, its the home of cambridge university, but inside cambridge uni there are individual colleges, like st. johns, trinity, and king's colleges. so theres tons of old architecture around the city and stuff, its really quite interesting. and its where sir isaac newton went to school, and where the apple fell on his head (allegedly). i'm sure alot of places claim that. but the city is very beautiful, there's a canal running thru it thats gorgeous, with huge weaping trees on the sides, and the boats... ahh the boats. here's some of the city:
our tour went all over, to a couple of historical sites, and then it dropped us off at a pub - the eagle - which is the most famous in the city. apparently the area, which is really flat, was used in ww2 as a base for airforces, including the us airforce. and the pilots would come into the cambridge city during the weeks, and spend time at the eagle, and they would sign their names in the cieling using lighters, and the signatures are all still there. quite interesting if you ask me. got some pics, but they're hard to read. i was wondering if anyone i know might have gone there??? anyways, we didnt eat there, we went to the pub next door which was cheaper and less busy. everybody and their mom was at the eagle. here's the eagle:
from there the fun really started. there's a canal thru the city, and they have these gondola type boats that you can either go on tours on, or you can rent it yourself to go around with. they call driving one 'punting' so you can either rent a boat that comes with a punter (very expensive) or you can rent a boat and punt yourself for considerably fewer pounds. our group of 4 (me, courtney, michelle and her friend john) decided to try it ourselves... best decision we could have made. i turned into the punter based on my water experience on the canoe/kayak etc. so i was standing on the back of this tiny boat with a 15 foot pole in my hands pushing off on the bottom of the canal! it was so fun! and i like to think that i was doing just as good as the hired punters, because i saw alot of the other people who tried to do it themselves, and they weren't exactly going straight. its a long boat, like a gondola, with just this little platform in the back to stand on. pretty easy to fall off, so i think its a good sign that i didnt! the best part was the fact that on every bridge there were a few tourists taking pictures, so i'm going to be in a bunch of people's pictures. it was brilliant - everyone would talk to you as you punted by... and the real guides gave history of the city as they punted, but i like my fake history tour better. it was great. but we got to see the whole city, and had an extremely enjoyable day out on the water! here's some shots of me punting, and the canal:
here's the first time we turned around, we got rammed by a couple. the girl was driving and the guy was sitting. im not going to take this opportunity to talk about female drivers, but i could. anyways, michelle thinks its hilarious, john is ready to ram, i'm concerned, and courtney is ready with the camera!
from there, i was pretty tired, and wet. not because i fell in, but because you put the pole all the way in the water, then stear like a rutter behind you, then pull it out of the water, and stick it in again next to you. so we walked around a little more, saw more sights, and got some dessert at a patisserie. i had some princess fingers, which are like donuts, with both ends dipped in chocolate. but by the end of the day i was just exhausted, and it felt great to ride home.
on another note. today is the queens 80th birthday... or it may have been yesterday, i'm not exactly sure. to celebrate we're going to the victory tonight for a pint.
cheers maties!
james august
best trip of the year! hands down! it was an amazing time. the city is beautiful, not too big, and the company made it a very enjoyable afternoon.
takes about 2 hours to get there from holborn (faraday house), so we got there around 11, and we went on a small walking tour of the city. basically, its the home of cambridge university, but inside cambridge uni there are individual colleges, like st. johns, trinity, and king's colleges. so theres tons of old architecture around the city and stuff, its really quite interesting. and its where sir isaac newton went to school, and where the apple fell on his head (allegedly). i'm sure alot of places claim that. but the city is very beautiful, there's a canal running thru it thats gorgeous, with huge weaping trees on the sides, and the boats... ahh the boats. here's some of the city:
our tour went all over, to a couple of historical sites, and then it dropped us off at a pub - the eagle - which is the most famous in the city. apparently the area, which is really flat, was used in ww2 as a base for airforces, including the us airforce. and the pilots would come into the cambridge city during the weeks, and spend time at the eagle, and they would sign their names in the cieling using lighters, and the signatures are all still there. quite interesting if you ask me. got some pics, but they're hard to read. i was wondering if anyone i know might have gone there??? anyways, we didnt eat there, we went to the pub next door which was cheaper and less busy. everybody and their mom was at the eagle. here's the eagle:
from there the fun really started. there's a canal thru the city, and they have these gondola type boats that you can either go on tours on, or you can rent it yourself to go around with. they call driving one 'punting' so you can either rent a boat that comes with a punter (very expensive) or you can rent a boat and punt yourself for considerably fewer pounds. our group of 4 (me, courtney, michelle and her friend john) decided to try it ourselves... best decision we could have made. i turned into the punter based on my water experience on the canoe/kayak etc. so i was standing on the back of this tiny boat with a 15 foot pole in my hands pushing off on the bottom of the canal! it was so fun! and i like to think that i was doing just as good as the hired punters, because i saw alot of the other people who tried to do it themselves, and they weren't exactly going straight. its a long boat, like a gondola, with just this little platform in the back to stand on. pretty easy to fall off, so i think its a good sign that i didnt! the best part was the fact that on every bridge there were a few tourists taking pictures, so i'm going to be in a bunch of people's pictures. it was brilliant - everyone would talk to you as you punted by... and the real guides gave history of the city as they punted, but i like my fake history tour better. it was great. but we got to see the whole city, and had an extremely enjoyable day out on the water! here's some shots of me punting, and the canal:
here's the first time we turned around, we got rammed by a couple. the girl was driving and the guy was sitting. im not going to take this opportunity to talk about female drivers, but i could. anyways, michelle thinks its hilarious, john is ready to ram, i'm concerned, and courtney is ready with the camera!
from there, i was pretty tired, and wet. not because i fell in, but because you put the pole all the way in the water, then stear like a rutter behind you, then pull it out of the water, and stick it in again next to you. so we walked around a little more, saw more sights, and got some dessert at a patisserie. i had some princess fingers, which are like donuts, with both ends dipped in chocolate. but by the end of the day i was just exhausted, and it felt great to ride home.
on another note. today is the queens 80th birthday... or it may have been yesterday, i'm not exactly sure. to celebrate we're going to the victory tonight for a pint.
cheers maties!
james august
posted by Jamie at 12:43 PM
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