Visiting Cambridge, England and the Price Family

We arrived in Cambridge, England on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 13, amidst on and off rain showers.  It is a beautiful, green place filled with history, mystery, and nooks to be explored.  We were excited to see McKay's family and this area of England.

We drove directly to McKay's rented townhouse and unloaded our stuff.  Shortly thereafter, we set out to walk and explore the historical downtown area.

The walk took just a few minutes but included beautiful scenery and roaming cattle.

Punting for pleasure is a local tradition dating back to 1910 and has become one of the town's favorite activities.  It is a lovely way to see some of Cambridge's finest buildings and hear about their history from a knowledgeable guide while enjoying the views.

Punts are flat-bottomed boats which are usually propelled with a long pole.  They were used in medieval times as practical workboats in areas of shall water.

We went directly to the ticket office and purchased our tickets but our scheduled time allowed us to do some additional exploring and take a look at McKay's humble office at the university.

We started our punting ride in the rain but that didn't last too long.  It remained chilly though so the blankets continued to be appreciated.

There are many famous bridges along the route, including this wooden bridge, Mathematical Bridge, first built in 1749 from oak but reconstructed with teak in 1904.

As the various colleges were built by wealthy patrons over the years, they each tried to outdo the others with their designs and opulence.

This Bridge of Sighs was designed by architectural prodigy, Henry Hutchinson, who died soon after this Gothic Revival gem was completed in 1831.  The bars on the windows were designed to prevent students from climbing in or out of St. John's college at night.

This big swan actually attacked Cameron while he was sitting in the boat.  Thankfully he wasn't hurt but we were all quite startled.  I think that Tricia got a photo of the event but we didn't.

This photo of the guys was taken just inside of McKay's small Cambridge office.

His office and work at Cambridge was under the direction of the Deparment of Land Economy.

We purchased these snacks inside of a local market.  We had seen them in London also.  They were yummy and quickly devoured by us.

They ride a lot of bikes for transportation around Cambridge.  McKay rented one during their stay but for church, shopping and other activities, the family walked everywhere.  The cobblestone streets are charming but bumpy.

The colleges only allow students inside of their compounds.  Using McKay's credentials, one gatekeeper allowed us to walk around inside of St. Johns College.  It was beautiful.  Since school hadn't started yet, there weren't many students around.  We were quickly detected by another official and asked to leave.  We were happy to be able to see inside one of the campuses.

I took these photos inside of McKay and Tricia's townhouse.  It was clean, white and functional and we were happy that there was room for us to stay with them. So we cancelled our hotel.

Since they had to walk about two miles to a real grocery store instead of just a small market, we took McKay and Tricia shopping that evening for essentials and canned goods.  They loved not having to carry groceries in their backpacks for the long walk home.  We went one more time before we left at the end of our stay.