Tuesday 5/12 (local)
Today's journeys took me far and wide, taking me through the English countryside and into Cambridge. As it is Winter there isn't really that much time for sightseeing (hours of daylight are substantially reduced), and Cambridge is pretty much all I got in today. Did pass through Oxford on the way back to London, but didn't get much of an opportunity to see it. However, Oxford is a story for another day!
The British rail system seems to be quite decent from first impressions, however it is somewhat different than back home in Australia. First of all, there is no one big station like Central - there are lots of big stations. Paddington, Kings Cross St.Pancras, Euston Road, they're all fairly large stations... which can make it a little more confusing to get around. In Australia... need to go to Newcastle, or Brisbane, or Melbourne? go to Central Station. Simple. In Britain, not so easy. To get to Salisbury you need to start at Waterloo, to get to Cambridge you need to start at Kings Cross, and to get to Oxford you need to start at Paddington. Well... it's not really that hard in the end. The train up to Cambridge was actually quite luxurious, even for Standard class. Ample space for each seat in both a legroom sense and also with respect to width. It is very, very easy to fall asleep on these trains. Which is a plus for me, hehe.
Now, one tip for those who are travelling to the United Kingdom. Be careful which BritRail pass you buy. This is a serious point. I didn't realise this whilst making travel plans back at home, but there are several categories of BritRail pass. Passes allow you to travel around the London area, or England, or the United Kingdom itself. I should have bought the London pass as opposed to the Flexipass (England + Scotland). Bah! Oh well. I'll know for next time.
I woke up at about 9:00am this morning and headed up to Cambridge not too long after getting up. After a one hour train ride I arrived at Cambridge by 11:00am. What initially surprised me was the size of Cambridge. Cambridge is small, in fact you can get around easily by foot or bike. The purchace of a city map at the train station proved my point (as well as the rows upon rows upon rows of bikes just outside the train station). I didn't hire a bike though, I did the tour of Cambridge by foot.
My primary intention of visiting Cambridge was to have a look around at the University. As I have not visited any University outside Sydney I expected the format to be quite similar - where the only exception to the Sydney Universities would be that the buildings be much older. My assumption couldn't be any further from the truth. The University is not one big blob, the University and the Colleges are all over the place. Have a look at the map, and have a look at where the University Colleges and Admin buildings lie!
I didn't get the opportunity to visit all of the colleges but I did visit a fair few. To rattle off a few: I visited the following Colleges: Downing, Pembroke, Kings, Trinity, Magdalene. The Colleges vary in both age and appearance, however most of them seem to have a common feature - the Quadrangle. Now i'm not quite sure what the fascination behind the quadrangle is and i'm sure i'll never know. An intersting theme, and i'm not really complaining about it.
Short entry today. Don't get me wrong - it was an enjoyable day. Just that there is only so much I can write on the topic.
King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
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