Week 22 in London - Cambridge on Saturday

Week 22: 31 August – 6 September 2015

Our weekend continued onto Monday, with another bank holiday. The last day of summer, and we had planned to spend it in the sunshine at the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual Caribbean festival, the “largest of its kind in Europe”. Unfortunately, it poured with rain all day and so the transition into spending cold winters days indoors came early. We made our own version of a Cheesymite roll to get us through.

Onwards into Autumn, and on Saturday we went for a day trip out to Cambridge, approximately an hour and a half outside of London. Cambridge is a pretty country city, and most noteworthy for the University of Cambridge. It was evident looking around that the population generally seemed a lot younger than usual.

Cobbled streets, sandstone buildings of impressive architecture, green open spaces and the River Cam are all trademarks of the city, creating its appeal.

Many of the colleges for the university are built around manicured central courtyards that the public can enter and view. Kings College and Trinity College are 2 of the largest and most impressive colleges, although those 2 aren't open for general admission. 

For a relatively small city, there are also a significant number of churches, 2 of the more interesting ones we saw were the Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs and the Round Church. 

As we walked closer to the river, more and more people try and convince you to go “punting”, which doesn’t mean the same as it does in Australia. Here, punting is basically the Cambridge version of Venice’s gondola rides. We went for lunch, and then wandered around the Market Square.

On Sunday we waved goodbye to our housemates of 4 months, Nathan and Michelle, who moved over to Streatham.

Highlights for the week:

- Last day of summer

- Missed out on Notting Hill Carnival due to rain

- Start of autumn

- Day trip to Cambridge

- Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs

- Round Church

- Original Hardys Sweetshop

- Punters on the River Cam

- University Colleges, Kings College and Trinity College are 2 of the most impressive

- Market Square
- Nathan and Michelle moved to Streatham