Cambridge Colleges

The colleges in Cambridge bear some resemblance to American college dormitories, but they are more. I frankly don't understand all the ways they are different, but it appears that students who want to attend Cambridge University have to be accepted by a college for a particular subject. Somehow lecturers for that subject are based in the colleges. The college we lived in, Westminster College, is actually not a part of Cambridge University. Instead, it's a part of the Cambridge Theological Federation, which is made up of colleges where people train to be ministers or study theology or religion.

Our friends who live in London visited us in Cambridge a few days before we left. Their grandson was to interview at one of the colleges, Gonville and Caius College, a few days later. So I'll start with a few photos of that college, because we walked through it with our friends.

Many of the colleges charge admission to walk through or are simply closed to visitors. Several let visitors walk around in them. In the case of Gonville and Caius, we looked it up on Google Maps and saw that it was arranged around several courtyards, as are most colleges. We went with our friends to the gate (the "porter's lodge") and told the porter that their grandson was going to interview there and asked if we could look at the first courtyard. He told us to look around at all the courtyards if we wanted, but just not to walk up any of the staircases (which lead to the students' rooms).

Here are a photos of a few other colleges.

St John's College

St John's College Chapel

St John's College Chapel inside

Christ College

Pembroke College

Clare College gate with King's College Chapel in background

Punting on the Cam

Many town and city names in England have a logic to them. The Cam River flows through Cambridge, and evidently at some point there was a bridge over the river which gave the town its name. (On our first weekend here, when we rented a car and drove around East Anglia, we came to a sea town called Great Yarmouth. As we drove up the river that dumped into the ocean there, we wondered if it was called the Yar. Turned out to be the Yare River. Close enough.)

One of the tourist attractions in Cambridge is punting on the Cam. A few weeks ago, our next door neighbors had company from New Zealand, and they invited me to come along on a punting expedition. It was amazing how much you could see from the river that you can't see any other way. Here are some of the 127 photos I took in that half hour expedition. Most of the buildings are part of various of the colleges of Cambridge University. In the second photo, you'll see Viv, our neighbor, on the left, her husband Jeremy in front, and their guests behind Jeremy. You'll also see there are a whole lot more than one bridge over the Cam these days.

Westminster College and our flat

We're staying at Westminster College, one of three training places for people who on the road to becoming ministers in the United Reformed Church. (The URC is result of the 1982 merger of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in England.) The building was built in 1899 as the Presbyterian seminary. It's a gorgeous building. 

We live in the former stables in the back, which were converted into two small one-bedroom flats. The couple in the other flat are from New Zealand, and I knew the wife before we came here.

Our bedroom is on the far end, and from our bed we can see the back side of the Westminster College chapel.

One of the highlights of being here for me is the cool labyrinth in the side lawn. I like to walk it and pray and think.

Overview of Cambridge from Castle Mound

East Anglia, the part of England where Cambridge is located, is flat. Cambridge is flat. All except for one hill, called Castle Mound. Here are some pictures that show a bit of an overview of Cambridge. I'll start with two that show Kings College Chapel behind the roof of another building.

The place we're living, Westminster College, has a distinctive and odd tower. You can see it in the distance in the next photo, and then closer in the photo after that. This is still the view from Castle Mound.

Kings College Chapel Cambridge

The iconic building in Cambridge is the chapel at Kings College. "Chapel" is a crazy word for this amazing place. We have gone several times to choral evensong inside the chapel, and unfortunately they don't allow photos during worship. The ceiling has some of the most beautiful fan vaulting I've ever seen. (Click here to see the ceiling.) The chapel was completed in 1515, but the windows were added later. Here are some photos from the back side, which is the best view, and tour busses cluster there for the view. We often ride our bicycles along there, so we've taken photos of it at many different times of day. On the other side of the chapel is downtown Cambridge.

A weekend in Limerick, Ireland

When we lived in Sweden 25 years ago, we made friends with an Irish family who had kids pretty much the same ages as ours. We've visited each other back and forth over the years, and last weekend we flew Ryan Air to Shannon, the airport close to Limerick, where they live. (Travelling on Ryan Air is story in itself. I have never experienced anything like that airline -- they hawk something about every five minutes of the trip, and make you stand outside in lines waiting to climb stairs onto the plane. Anything to save or make money.)

On Saturday morning Dave and Lindy went to the Limerick farmer's market in the rain.

Then in the afternoon we went into town to see an art museum. The Shannon River runs through the middle of Limerick, and the town has a castle and a cathedral, both of which you can see in the next photo, along with kayakers enjoying a place in the river that has a bit of turbulence.

On Sunday we went for a drive up the Shannon River. A few miles up the river from Limerick, the river widens into a big lake, which is a natural lake, made possible by the shallow slope of the river. The sun came out when we stopped at an overlook, so you can see the first photo with gray skies and no light, and then bright skies.

We drove on to a little village on the lake that I think is called Ballyvaughan. Kevin's last name is Ryan (no relation to Ryan Air, mercifully), and one of his Ryan cousins once owned a pub in the village, and it's still named after her. Kevin's father was born near the village. The village is complete with the ruin of a castle of some sort, so common all over Ireland. And lots of ducks and a few swans.

One of the pleasures of being at Lindy and Kevin's home was their back yard. A bit more than a year ago, they had a bunch of landscaping done. It was lovely, with a curving path going around the edges of the flower bed.