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TOO MANY COLLEGES, ONE GREAT CATHEDRAL, and THE GREAT OUZE…July 4, 2006

That would be Cambridge (just join ‘em, and get a bike!), Ely, and the hostel in King’s Lynn….

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This should prove to Thor that we don’t see EVERYthing in England through our “rose-colored spectacles”....this is right down in Cambridge, very near the colleges for which the city is famous.

UPDATED with photos…..

July 4, 2006

Today we drove from Saffron Walden to Cambridge, after suffering through a passage through the city streets, we parked in the north part of the city and took a bus (Park and Ride for two pounds each - and given the traffic and parking problems, this is the only way to go!) to the center of town, where we got a map to the colleges (18 of them - this is only one)
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and did a walking tour past each and every one.  We didn’t spend a lot of time going in except at King’s College where we paid to tour the Chapel and walk in the grounds, where we saw students earning money “punting” tourists along the river Cam.  You have to practically fight them off at every corner where the Cam is accessible - they simply must be paid on commission!
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Otherwise, it was just have a look and go on….we saw the chapels of a number, looked in the “hall” of some, walked in the courtyards of most, and admired every single one.  Just lovely.  Cambridge is a busy place and a living city….and they’re STILL building
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Here we’re looking across the central yard of one of the colleges, and nearby and entire block is being gutted (saving all the facades, since they’re listed architecturally and can’t be demolished) to put a new shopping center in.  I have no idea how much it is costing, or how the developer got permission, but I guess if the center of Cambridge isn’t to die completely, they have to find creative ways to live with their past, while continuing to live into the future.

We left Cambridge and stopped next at Ely, where they have perhaps the most amazing cathedral we’ve yet seen. 
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The sheer mass of it is just stunning.  Two parts have collapsed in the past – the central tower and one of the two side towers on the west end.  Both of these were in the 14th century, and while the west tower was left, the central one had to be fixed, and it was redone in wood!  They got a carpenter, who made a “lantern” that would span the now eight-sided crossing where the nave meets the two apses (I think that’s the term).  We walked all around a couple of times, took a tour for over an hour, and saw many of the old monastic buildings.  Sadly, during the “Reformation” carried out by Henry VIII as well as during the Cromwell period, iconoclasts did immense damage to the decorations in the church.  But what remains is incredible – including the painted ceiling seen above that had been forgotten until the 1980s, when they changed from coal to gas for heating and decided to clean the coal smoke off the interior.  Surprise!

Here is the ceiling of a small chapel….it’s supoprted by what is called “fan vaulting”, and the ENTIRE ceiling of the nave of King’s College chapel is this type of vaulting….however, they won’t permit photos in there, and I complied, so here you can get a tiny idea of what you’re missing.
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After Ely we headed for King’s Lynn, and got lost (of course) but found our way in to the hostel right on the Greater Ouze River.  I’m going to bed.

Posted by on 07/09 at 03:19 PM

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Next entry: ENRICHING KING'S LYNN, ENJOYING FELBRIGG HALL, and the BRIGHTON OF THE NORTH - July 5, 2006

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