Hi Everybody,
I'm commandeering Michael's blog for a day (does it count as commandeering if its been abandoned? whatever). I've been in Cambridge for a week, and it's been wonderful. I've really enjoyed meeting Michael's friends here, and seeing where he's been living for the last while.
Cambridge is a beautiful city... all the old colleges are incredibly decked out and there are lots of very quaint cobblestone streets. And so many flowers! So we've spent a fair bit of time just walking around and exploring. We've discovered that there are actually a lot of really interesting museums in town. We went to a science center, an anthropology museum, and paleontology museum (my favorite), a zoology museum, and an art museum, so far. There is still a museum about explorers in Antarctica that is on our list. All of them have been really cool.
It's also been really nice cooking with Michael again.. he's willing to eat whatever food my experimenting produces (and he's an excellent chopper and stirrer and dishwasher). We did a "dinner exchange" with some friends of his the other night. They are from China, and cooked really fantastically delicious szechuan food for us, and we made pizza. We got the better end of the deal (even though it was pretty good pizza).
I've got about a week left until I head back to St Louis and let Michael actually concentrate on writing his thesis, but we've got lots more exploring planned. I am incredibly lucky to have been able to come visit him, and am super happy to be here!
And here are a bunch of pictures from our visit so far. Enjoy!
 |
| That would be an iguanadon skeleton behind us. (: |
 |
| Michael is a little creeped out by all the taxidermied birds and skeletons all over the zoology museum. |
 |
| I am short (especially when compared to a giraffe). |
 |
| The view of Cambridge from the Castle Mount. Yup, there used to be a castle in Cambridge, defending the best crossing of the river Cam, but all of the stone got taken to build the first colleges. |
 |
| King's College... the architecture is fitting. |
 |
| St John's College |
 |
| Walking along the waterfront in Ely, a small town a bit north of Cambridge. It's a lovely place. |
 |
| The Cathedral in Ely was built in the 1080s... it's stunningly beautiful, and dominates the town. |
 |
| It's even pretty from a parking lot. |
 |
| The main cathedral tower. |
 |
| Pretty! It was a gorgeous day, too. |
 |
| A stained glass window from inside the cathedral. There were little balconies you could climb to get right up near the windows, which was really cool. I've never been in a cathedral that was so inviting to exploring all the nooks and crannies. |
 |
| We also visited Oliver Cromwell's house in Ely. Despite leading England as Lord Protector after the English Civil war, Cromwell and his family were apparently short. Or really good at ducking. |
 |
| They had lots of helmets and hats to try on. |
 |
| We played dress-up. |
 |
| It seemed like most of Ely was in some way part of the Cathedral grounds, and a lot of it was grassy parkland. With ponies. |
 |
| Another view of the Cathedral. |
