Cambridge, Bicycles and Guilden Morden Posted by gentlementakepictures on November 13, 2012 · 2 Comments

Our Little tour of the uk continues, as we ventured out from London to the heart of Cambridgeshire, to spend a few days in the tranquil English countryside (which never fails to impress me) with Laura’s amazingly fun and hospitable Aunty, Uncle and their two kids.

The countryside here in England is beyond belief. If there’s dirt it seems, anything will grow. Having come from a very dry and barren place it still amazes me that there is such a verdant land out there, everything is so green, as opposed to the faded out colours of the countryside in Australia which I’m familiar with. There’s something vaguely menacing about the bush back home, but being here is like being inside an innocent story novel. Both have their sense of aesthetics which I love and appreciate, but there is something so miraculous about being out in the country here.

Guilden Morden was to be our base of operations for this weekend; a small village which is so so quintessentially English. Milkmen still deliver in this world, bridle ways (read: paths) criss-cross through the village in the form of lanes and into open fields lines with hedges of blackberry bushes (no not the phone, the other one). Old iconic red telephone boxes have been converted into mini tourist information centres or book exchanges; and honest trade tables where you can pick up a bag of fresh apples for a tidy sum of £1.50.

Accompanying us on our little sojourns were the two resident canine members of the family, which I instantly became fast friends with. I miss having a dog around, so I was glad to get some dog appreciation time in.

We ambled along the countryside with Laura and her relatives and spent the better part of a day walking around Cambridge, the town that is synonymous with the world-famous university. Again, the sense and scope of history astounds me. It was so easy to imagine what it would have been like in this town a hundred years ago or more because it has been so impeccably and meticulously maintained. The aforementioned university is completely insinuated into the town; like it has been woven into the cloth of the place; there are university colleges on almost every corner it seems, or a large cathedral next to a giant university hall. Unlike the larger universities of Sydney, which do their utmost to set themselves apart from the rest of the city, here the university in essence was the city.

A neat river runs though the centre of town, where you can go ‘punting’, (which for me as an Australian I took to mean gambling, as to punt means to wager), but turned out to be far less sinister, rather it is going up and down the picturesque river on small flat bottom boats or ‘punts’; apparently a lot of the students here make a living through punting tours.

Being a massive student city, there was so much life and buzz in Cambridge, and a really youthful and vigorous sentiment floated in the air. The other thing that was noticeable was the fact that along with students come bicycles. Lots and lots of bikes, which Adrian managed to capture well with the accompanying photos.

Not to be outdone, I have to mention Laura’s Aunty due to her absolutely amazing cooking which we were completely in love with. I really miss my mum and dads cooking, there’s something that lacks when you’re not with family for meals, so it was nice to be able to be a part of that again, even if it was just for a short time.

We had such a great stay, we’ve been so lucky to be able to go up and down the country and visit places I know we wouldn’t have otherwise.