Bernie in England 2006: Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 9th entry

This morning I was woken up by the sound of Charlie knocking on the door of the guest bedroom and telling me that the bathroom was now free. So I crawled out from beneath the very soft and nice sheets and went to the bathroom for my personal hygiene. Then I went downstairs where Charlie and I had breakfast – I had some of her dad’s home-baked bread which tasted really nice and after having another go at the Sudoku we’d started yesterday we got into my car and set off for Cambridge. Sudoku is something is something I’d only learned yesterday, it’s a kind of numeric puzzle involving a lot of logical thinking and the harder ones apparently can really make you rack your brains but it’s definitely addictive. And I suppose it’s also good as a kind of balancing counterweight for someone who normally deals with languages only. At around nine then we reached Cambridge. I parked the car at the park & ride parking lot and then we took the bus into the city centre. Despite the early time it was already ridiculously hot inside the bus and I was really glad when we got out at the Grafton shopping centre. Being one of the biggest shopping centres in the wider area it’s kinda well known, Charlie told me, and we walked through it for some window shopping. She also bought a banana-caramel milkshake and let me have a taste of it and I found that it tasted really good. As we got out at the other end of the shopping centre we soon got to the market place in the middle of Cambridge, an accumulation of stalls selling mostly a rich selection of fresh fruit and other foodstuff.
Nearby, there was also the Great St. Mary’s Church which we entered and admired the interior and we were also quite lucky – I found at least – because soon after we’d entered an organist started to practice and played some really beautiful melodies which I enjoyed a lot. After having seen enough of the church we crossed over to King’s College, part of the prestigious Cambridge University. First we entered the chapel building with the elaborate wooden organ and despite photography being prohibited inside the chapel I couldn’t resist and took a few shots. That’s me for you, haha… Then we saw a small exhibition with a number of old documents, amongst others the will of King Henry VI., which was really fascinating to read or, to be more precise, to try to read as ye olde English was a bit challenging after all and the writing on the parchment was pretty faded too. Having seen these interesting pieces we stepped out into the campus courtyard and strolled about, talking about how strange it felt to be walking here where the students of Cambridge Uni would be walking too, during term time. We soon reached the banks of the River Cam, a small and very calm river on which people are poling their punts admiring the campuses from the river. We crossed a bridge over the Cam and I asked a German couple – in German- if they’d be so nice to take a photo of me and Charlie and that they did and after some more strolling on the grounds we left the campus area. We then headed back into the town centre for some more window-shopping, went into a book shop and then Charlie saw a Pocky – handbag which she almost bought. Being not much of a shopping person myself I still hadn’t gone into some of the shops before and some I didn’t even know – like Lush, a shop that specialises in soaps. They’ve got all sorts of soap there: fruity soap, fragrant soap, honey soap, soap that looks like cake and even ‘shower jelly’… walking into shops like these was like looking at the world through different eyes – a truly interesting and eye-opening experience…
After that we went to a pub to grab some grub – I had sausages with gravy and mash which was quite good. Then, after finishing our meals and talking for a while, Charlie told me that we’d pretty much seen everything of interest in Cambridge and that she was going home and so we were saying our goodbyes, until September, and then I went back to my car and drove to the nearby town of Ely where I saw the pretty impressive cathedral and spent most of the evening walking around. A pretty relaxed last day of sightseeing and that’s just the right thing, I think, I’m really glad that Charlie had had time these two days and tomorrow I’ll go to Stansted, return my car and then go on my next journey – the one to Austria.