We didn’t manage to get to Cambridge last summer, so we wanted to make sure we did this year. As we’re going to already be on our Europe trip when it is our anniversary we booked for a random night early in the holiday, but again at the Doubletree where we spent our wedding night.
We’d not booked the train, so arrived at Kings Cross and got our returns there – 30 quid each makes me think it has gone up a bit since we last did this, but we’re too old for student railcards now! We eventually make it onto the train, and an hour later arrive Cambridge. It sounds silly but we love just walking around town and seeing what has changed (Richer Sounds is now on the opposite side of the street; they’ve knocked down the old BBC building near the station; Clinton Cards has shut) and what is still the same (all of those summer schools have started; over-priced tourist t-shirts; Heffers).
We visit both Emma and Christ’s. The colleges are officially closed for the summer, but I pop into the p’lodge at Christ’s and say I’m a graduate of the college so is it okay to have a look around. “You’re a graduate?” the porter replies “so who was the Master of the college?” Oh – a good question, they’ve obviously realised that a quick question like this will sort the members from the non-members. My mind goes blank for just a moment, but then it comes to me; Dr Alan Munroe (and I throw in a reference to his wife Mary for good measure). We wander about, but things are pretty much as they always were. New Court was refurbished a few years ago now and they added a small garden in front of it. The change this year though is that second court is finally habitable again after they refurbished these old rooms. The stone looks so good after the clean! In Third Court we also saw the new tree that we read about in Christ’s Pieces magazine – the old one was diseased so needed to be removed.
Next we go to Emmanuel and here we go to the Chapel first as we can see the door is open. Entering the chapel we both get a buzz and excited feeling. My heart is in my throat and it all rushes back to me – remembering what it was like to take that first step up (over the grate where I could have easily lost a heel!) and onto the tiled floor to meet Scott waiting at the altar. We enjoy and reminisce and then the other man viewing the chapel starts to talk to us. It turns out that he too is an Emmanuel graduate (from the 1970’s) and we talk about the chapel and the good times of being a student here. He talks a bit about the am-dram stuff he used to do when here and we then find ourselves talking about old Emmanuellites. He confides an odd link that he will be playing one of them in a drama production about the King James Bible, and that he also wrote the screenplay! We’ll keep an eye out for him on the telly then! Walking around the college it is the hive of activity that it becomes every summer with the summer schools in residence (and, we realise, the recent graduates only just moving out as last week was graduation week), the ducks patrolling the waterside and the odd tourist getting their camera out at the main gate to take a photo of the iconic Wren chapel.
Back at the hotel and we collapse a little from all our walking. When I made the booking I slipped a note into the “any requests” box saying it was our anniversary, so we have two small complimentary bottles of wine waiting for us. We take these and the glasses down to the lawn bar outside the hotel next to the river, and sup these before we head to The Chop House for dinner.
It must have been in some magazine of the Grauniad where I’d read about this new restaurant in town and how it served good kegged beer and very decent grub. We ask for a table in the window rather than downstairs to take advantage of the light evening. Nothing grabs us at first from the starters, but then we see a cheese board is a possible starter so we decide to share that. We muse about having one of the steaks or chops for a main (we are in the chop house after all!) but Scott goes for the special which is a beef wellington and I go for ale braised beef.
We munch on the nice bread and cheese which has come with some apple and then little pickled onions (for boys) and gherkins (for girls). The blue cheese is good without the taste being overpowering. When the main comes we are ready for it and they look like good sized portions. It is only after we are about 15 minutes into eating that I realise there is half a side of beef hidden under the bone and so my portion suddenly becomes massive, and Scott has managed to get through the pastry on his beef and sees the size he too has to tackle to finish. The sauce is lovely and rich and both of us are also enjoying the beers we’ve chosen too, but we only just make it through our mains. They are lovely and we are gutted that there is no way we can have a dessert as we’re sure they would have been very tasty too.
On Monday morning the weather is still glorious so we go for a bit of a walk around town again (even though are feet are aching as for some reason we both decided to wear new shoes for this trip!). We get onto Jesus Green, to Christ’s Boathouse (no one there), Jesus Lane and Christ’s Pieces. When we get to Parker’s Piece we rest on the grass and relax for a while. It is so lovely being back.
As we get the train back to London we agree that if there were any jobs going around Cambridge when we looking to move, we would most definitely go for them. We also indulge in our little dream of if we can afford to put a deposit down on a new house maybe we would try and find a small one in Cam (we could rent it out to student tenants for 10 months of the year and could use it ourselves in the summers). You never know!
We’d not booked the train, so arrived at Kings Cross and got our returns there – 30 quid each makes me think it has gone up a bit since we last did this, but we’re too old for student railcards now! We eventually make it onto the train, and an hour later arrive Cambridge. It sounds silly but we love just walking around town and seeing what has changed (Richer Sounds is now on the opposite side of the street; they’ve knocked down the old BBC building near the station; Clinton Cards has shut) and what is still the same (all of those summer schools have started; over-priced tourist t-shirts; Heffers).
We visit both Emma and Christ’s. The colleges are officially closed for the summer, but I pop into the p’lodge at Christ’s and say I’m a graduate of the college so is it okay to have a look around. “You’re a graduate?” the porter replies “so who was the Master of the college?” Oh – a good question, they’ve obviously realised that a quick question like this will sort the members from the non-members. My mind goes blank for just a moment, but then it comes to me; Dr Alan Munroe (and I throw in a reference to his wife Mary for good measure). We wander about, but things are pretty much as they always were. New Court was refurbished a few years ago now and they added a small garden in front of it. The change this year though is that second court is finally habitable again after they refurbished these old rooms. The stone looks so good after the clean! In Third Court we also saw the new tree that we read about in Christ’s Pieces magazine – the old one was diseased so needed to be removed.
Next we go to Emmanuel and here we go to the Chapel first as we can see the door is open. Entering the chapel we both get a buzz and excited feeling. My heart is in my throat and it all rushes back to me – remembering what it was like to take that first step up (over the grate where I could have easily lost a heel!) and onto the tiled floor to meet Scott waiting at the altar. We enjoy and reminisce and then the other man viewing the chapel starts to talk to us. It turns out that he too is an Emmanuel graduate (from the 1970’s) and we talk about the chapel and the good times of being a student here. He talks a bit about the am-dram stuff he used to do when here and we then find ourselves talking about old Emmanuellites. He confides an odd link that he will be playing one of them in a drama production about the King James Bible, and that he also wrote the screenplay! We’ll keep an eye out for him on the telly then! Walking around the college it is the hive of activity that it becomes every summer with the summer schools in residence (and, we realise, the recent graduates only just moving out as last week was graduation week), the ducks patrolling the waterside and the odd tourist getting their camera out at the main gate to take a photo of the iconic Wren chapel.
Back at the hotel and we collapse a little from all our walking. When I made the booking I slipped a note into the “any requests” box saying it was our anniversary, so we have two small complimentary bottles of wine waiting for us. We take these and the glasses down to the lawn bar outside the hotel next to the river, and sup these before we head to The Chop House for dinner.It must have been in some magazine of the Grauniad where I’d read about this new restaurant in town and how it served good kegged beer and very decent grub. We ask for a table in the window rather than downstairs to take advantage of the light evening. Nothing grabs us at first from the starters, but then we see a cheese board is a possible starter so we decide to share that. We muse about having one of the steaks or chops for a main (we are in the chop house after all!) but Scott goes for the special which is a beef wellington and I go for ale braised beef.
We munch on the nice bread and cheese which has come with some apple and then little pickled onions (for boys) and gherkins (for girls). The blue cheese is good without the taste being overpowering. When the main comes we are ready for it and they look like good sized portions. It is only after we are about 15 minutes into eating that I realise there is half a side of beef hidden under the bone and so my portion suddenly becomes massive, and Scott has managed to get through the pastry on his beef and sees the size he too has to tackle to finish. The sauce is lovely and rich and both of us are also enjoying the beers we’ve chosen too, but we only just make it through our mains. They are lovely and we are gutted that there is no way we can have a dessert as we’re sure they would have been very tasty too.
On Monday morning the weather is still glorious so we go for a bit of a walk around town again (even though are feet are aching as for some reason we both decided to wear new shoes for this trip!). We get onto Jesus Green, to Christ’s Boathouse (no one there), Jesus Lane and Christ’s Pieces. When we get to Parker’s Piece we rest on the grass and relax for a while. It is so lovely being back.
As we get the train back to London we agree that if there were any jobs going around Cambridge when we looking to move, we would most definitely go for them. We also indulge in our little dream of if we can afford to put a deposit down on a new house maybe we would try and find a small one in Cam (we could rent it out to student tenants for 10 months of the year and could use it ourselves in the summers). You never know!
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