Cambridge, England

Sorry for the delay in posting! Between a good book and trying to figure out how to fly easyjet for the first time, I didn't get to in-transit posting about Cambridge. Also didn't take pictures so I'm terribly sorry about the word-heavy post. Arrived in Cambridge by train in late afternoon after watching bunnies frolicking at the station in Stevenage with a fellow traveler. Enjoyed cake and tea (!!) at Hot Numbers Cafe while waiting for a ride from my friendly host Rosie and her mom. Headed to her and her husband's house to enjoy more cake and tea (and curry and laughing) while watching A Knight's Tale and quizzing Rosie (a historian, among other wonderful things) about the realism of the outfits and deciding that the movie is just excellently bad (or badly excellent). 

I headed out the next morning, Wednesday, to explore, finding Rosie and her husband's mildly hidden favorite bakery, another good cafe called Espresso Library (but I didn't drink coffee the whole time I was there, tea only!) and the museum of Anthropology and Archeology. The colleges in Cambridge have an immense wealth of artifacts which they are very good about presenting (for free) to the public. I enjoyed the exhibits about excavations around/near Cambridge (old pots!!), what we can find out about children through artifacts (the sewing samplers through the generations were cool) and fufu in Congo! (I was even wearing my Congolese dress! The museum had a special exhibit as they partner with an NGO in Congo.) The upstairs was full of a stunning array of artifacts from a stunning array of places, including an 14 meter Inuit totem pole that barely fit in the building and so many other fascinating things (hats from Central Asia, amazing Japanese pottery, beadwork, old videos, very cool). We chatted that evening and made Scone Dough Pizza (which sounds like Scondo Pizza and is quite good!) 

The next day I managed to get in to Rosie's gym to work out and then I went to the bakery again to retrieve lunch. I headed to Rosie's office/job/library to eat with her and check out the exhibit of the library's artifacts that she had created educational materials for (history is ALWAYS better when Rosie interprets it!) Saw Little Fanny books for kids (a while ago!) a teeny tiny embroidered bookmark scandalously found in a religious text that did not match the religion of the quotes embroidered on it, hair that men sent Charles Darwin to disprove his hair color theories, and other crazy things! 

Continuing into Cambridge for the Fitzwilliam and Polar Museums, my museum capacity was kind of waning but I enjoyed the really old pottery (have a fish shaped and painted lidded pot to unveil your fish!), cool fans, and pretty landscapes (another one from Norway!) as well as the mummies and interesting spiral staircase only accessible portrait gallery in the cool old building. Paintings arranged slightly more thematically and nationally than by time period (as at other museums on this trip) so that was cool. The Polar Museum was quite small, but very modern and streamlined and I learned more about explorers other than Nansen and Amundsen and continued to marvel at the crazy passion and adventurous spirit that led these people to these immensely inhospitable places, with often dire consequences. Just amazing! Prepared leek roll after another tea at Espresso Library (not terribly original but very tasty time in Cambridge) and then went for a nice swim with Rosie at her gym and ate said leek roll while watching an interesting education documentary. Headed out the next morning after avocado toast at Hot Numbers Cafe and navigated with my previously acquired Oyster Card all the way to Gatwick without incident. Though I was worried, I successfully completed my first trip using a boarding pass downloaded to my phone and got to Stuttgart happily!!!!

Thank you thank you thank you to Rosie and her husband for their kind hospitality and excellent conversation. I appreciate it very much!!!