Cambridge

David:
Our first morning in London, we awoke bright and early (by London time - it was midnight our time) to make a day trip out to Cambridge. Jodie has a friend there that she wanted to visit, and I was giving a short presentation to a professor who does work in my field.

Cambridge is about an hour from London on a very pleasant, leisurely train. The station for this train, though, is about half an hour away from the house we are staying at via the London Underground. The London Underground at rush hour is neither pleasant nor leisurely. Three trains passed before we were finally able to get in; even then we only made it because some kindly Brits (perhaps sensing our bewilderment at seeing more people on in one subway station than the total number of people that have ever ridden the Edmonton LRT) held the doors open and pushed us in.


Cambridge was very beautiful. We saw the Wren Library, which houses many unique and historic works, such as a lock of Isaac Newton's hair. We went to a service at the amazing King's College Chapel, where they had a special prayer for medical researchers, which I appreciated. Most exciting, we went punting.


Punting is an old English term for "spending twenty minutes bailing rainwater out of a flimsly boat, then standing on the slippery end of this boat in the rain and trying to propel yourself with a very long stick without falling into the water, because you are an hour by train from dry clothes". Thankfully, the rain cleared up and the sun came up, meaning our biggest threat was being swept off the boat by rogue overhanging trees.


Jodie was able to avoid the overhanging trees, but she fell victim to the sticky mud at the bottom of the river. Our friend Ian had wisely advised that if the punt became stuck in the mud, it was better to let it go and lose our only means of propulsion than to fall into the water trying to pull it out. Jodie, being the wise person she is, followed this advice (I'm not sure what kind of boat Captain condemns her crew to drifting aimlessly just to avoid getting a little wet, but oh well.)


In the picture to the left, you can see the punt sticking vertically out of the water a long way behind us. You may not be able to see all of the locals and tourists alike laughing, pointing and taking pictures. We eventually recovered the punt and Jodie recovered her credentials by doing an admirable job of parrallel parking us against the bank. All in all, punting was a great time and is not to be missed by anyone, as long as someone else does the punting.


Yesterday, we visited the Camden Market in the morning and the British Museum in the afternoon. Both were pretty great to see. Today, we saw the Tate Modern this morning (after seeing the urinals that had been signed and delcared the creation of the signer, I considered signing the wall of the museum and calling every piece of art within my creation); and the National Gallery this afternoon. I felt a pang of homesickness upon seeing the Canadian Embassy on Trafalgar Square - I almost went in and asked for a double-double. Tomorrow, we're going to visit the Parliament so Jodie can see what the REAL Question Period is like. It should be fun!