Today we decided to explore outside of London city. Train journey was about 1.5hours with free seating. We were glad that the train was clean and had ample seats. It was not crowded so we were free to choose our seats and move around in train.
The train went past some small towns. And very soon, we reached Cambridge station. One of the recommended food was SmokeWorks along Station Road, just 5 mins walk from the train station. The portion was huge. And to be honest, we had breakfast only about 2 hours ago, so we ordered a platter for 2 for sharing. Turns out to be just nice for 4 of us!
From there, we took a taxi to the Rutherfords Punting counter next to River Cam. Once again, we bought the tickets at a discount using our rail pass! The thought of sitting in the boat and touring Cambridge in the cooling weather was extremely appealing to me. Very soon, we hopped on and our punting began. Warm blankets were provided to protect our legs from the cold!
The view of the university campus from the river was beautiful. We saw many others trying to steer their boat on their own. I though it was really fun and I might have attempted to do that if I was not pregnant! But at that moment, I was glad we had someone to do it for us and introduce us to the place as the boat floated on. Not only could he do the introduction, he also entertained us with his Mandarin which he picked up from tourists he ferried. Many of the buildings were century-old! In particular, I was looking out for the Mathematical Bridge as well as the Bridge of Sigh where Mr Lee Kuan Yew took a photo with his wife. We saw the bridge. But unfortunately, the exact spot where they took the photo was quite far to walk to. So, we could not take photo at the same spot. The entire punting was about 45mins and then we returned to the same spot we boarded.
Thereafter, we decided to explore the campus on foot. The buildings were pretty backdrops for photos. We had to pay for entrance tickets for some of the colleges. Guess apart from making money, it was also 1 of the ways they limit the number of tourists into the colleges.
First, we paid to enter the Trinity College because I actually wanted to find the Newton’s apple tree and thought it was inside. I later found out that the tree was right next to the entrance that we came in from! Honestly, it looked a little different from what I had expected. Hence, I did not notice it.
Fun fact: it is not the exact apple tree that Newton sat under. Based on my understanding, this tree was grown from the seed of that original tree. I guess you could call it a descendent tree!
We then visited the King’s College and the beautiful chapel. I wonder how it feels to be a student here. Would I feel more like a tourist instead? At this point, I also asked my baby if he/she would like to study here?!
By then, we had walked quite abit and it was about time we get a taxi to head back to the train station for our train back at 4pm. Dinner was finally at Four Season’s Duck at Chinatown now that we knew where it was. Among all the ducks we tried at England, our favourite was still Gold Mine at London Bayswater!
That evening, I didn’t want to rest early. Hence, I suggested to hubby to go for a stroll around the chinatown area. We found a chips place which a friend recommended. There were various sweet and savoury dips available. We decided to choose 1 sweet and 1 savoury dip to go with our chips.
We also happened to see the M&M’s World and customised our own M&M’s! 1st, we took our photos. Then, we filled a cup with M&M’s of different colours. According to the staff, the lighter colours would be better for the prints. We then poured our M&M’s into the machine. Very soon, they came out printed with our photos!
Perrine Travels 