It was an event organized by the Emmanuel Evangelical Church. We met at Victoria Station at 9am and set off by coach to Cambridge town. It’s a 2-hour drive. Cambridge is a very nice town. On arrival, we had lunch at a local pub. I had huge Fish & Chips for lunch. Yeah! I finally got to try British Fish & Chips!
After lunch, we went on a guided tour to some of the more famous colleges in Cambridge – King’s College and St John’s College. Cambridge started in year 1209 when a group of students from Oxford came down to this part of London, due to a riot between the students and the town people in Oxford, to form a school. In the past, it only accepted male students. Female was not allowed to study. Currently, Cambridge had 31 Colleges and about 17,000 students, with an equal gender ration, except for 3 colleges which accept female students only.
King’s College was founded in year 1441 by King Henry VI, who was very much interested in education and religion. Unfortunately, King Henry VI was killed in a civil war and the construction of King’s was disrupted. After the war, King Henry VII carried on with the work and the building took 100 years in total to complete. At present, there are about 550 students studying in King’s College and there is a huge, magnificent chapel at King’s. St John’s on the other hand, was founded by the mother of King Henry VII. It has beautiful courtyards and vast pastures.
On our way, we also passed by the Trinity College where Isaac Newton was once a student. It is the wealthiest of all the colleges, with an annual income of 20 million pounds!!! An apple tree from Newton’s home town was planted outside the college… but I didn’t see any apples… : P
What is special about Cambridge is that there is a river running across the colleges and the banks of the river are connected by a lot of bridges. There is no walkway along the river and hence, one has to punt along the river. We went punting during our free time and we passed by sites where the movie Harry Porter was filmed and also the Mathematics bridge at Queen’s college. We also had coffee at the town centre. All in all, it has been an enjoyable day!
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