Tag Archives: Cambridge

The Round Church Cambridge

This will be the last post of our travel journal for our time in Cambridge from March 8th-March 14th, 2026. This post will cover Friday late afternoon and evening into Saturday March 14th.

On Friday afternoon as we made our way back to The Wilde, we noticed the Round Church was open to visitors.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, universally known as the Round Church, is one of only four surviving medieval round churches in England. Built around 1130 by the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre, its iconic circular design was directly modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is currently managed by the educational charity, Christian Heritage.

This panel was such a great presentation of Christianity.

I missed seeing the images in the tiles.

The historical panels were extensive and so well done. You could spend a lot of time reading the history through the centuries.

 

This brings me to the wrap up of our Cambridge travel journal.

I loved walking in a town with Jesus Lane, All Saints Passage, Jesus Green, Trinity Lane, Trinity College, Christ College, Emmanuel College, Jesus College.

Such rich history and foundation of Christianity in the past. In the present day you wonder how many students have an inkling of all of this.

As is always the case, we came, we wandered, and in no way did we see all there is to see or learn all there is to learn. We are grateful for what we did see and what we did learn. Time will tell if we will ever return.

Our bus ticket was for 9:20 on Saturday March 14th. We were up early and had our showers and were all packed up and ready to go. I went down to the lobby to see what pastries were available to purchase to have with our coffee. The almond croissants were huge. (One would have been good to split) March 14th happens to be my birthday so the hotel manager of the morning gave us two on the house!

Our taxi got us to the National bus stop on Parkside and we were off for our 2-1/2 hour bus ride to Heathrow Airport.

We had time at the airport to enjoy a bite to eat before boarding our plane for our 11+ hour flight home. One weird thing about our boarding was that we were bused to the plane and had to climb up the stairs to board. Thinking back on that, we should have asked for assistance with our carry-ons! (Being over 70)

Woohoo! We had a window row to ourselves so we were able to stretch out our legs over the course of the flight. The attendants found out (I told them) that it was my birthday so champagne arrived almost immediately and then when we got off the plane in Seattle, a Happy Birthday announcement was made over the speakers. Arriving in Seattle, we went through customs and then waited for our short hop flight to Spokane.

In Spokane, our son was waiting to drive us home with our car decorated and stuffed with balloons to wish me a Happy Birthday. Our Grands included these sweet cards.

And that my friends, is the end of this travel story.

Life goes on and the ordinary continues and we thank God for that, too.

Along Trumpington St. in Cambridge

Our Danube/Cambridge travel journal is creeping to it’s end. On Thursday the 12th of March we managed a variety of experiences. After our tour of Trinity College we popped into Gail’s Bakery for a fortifying treat before we continued. This was a cooler day than we had experienced so far.

After being fortified we continued along Trumpington Street. We noticed that Great St. Mary’s University Church was accessible. There was work on the church tower while we were in town and the main entrance had been sealed off most days. We decided to enter in while we could. The tower was not accessible during our short visit.

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One of the features of the church when you first walk into the building is the large East window (the stained glass window above the Altar). This was installed in 1872, and tells the story of Jesus’ birth, from the angel’s visit to Mary, to the nativity scene, to the flight into Egypt.

I was taken with the wood carvings on the ends of the pews.

Great St Mary’s has played a central role in many of England’s religious transformations. During the Reformation, sermons preached here influenced the spread of Protestant ideas, while leading figures including Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer and later university preachers addressed congregations from its pulpit. 

We moved further along Trumpington and saw the open door at St. Botolph’s church and walked in.

The church is dedicated to Botolph, a seventh-century abbot in East Anglia, who is a patron saint of travelers. The church was built by the long-demolished south gate of medieval Cambridge, through which travelers from the south and west entered the town.

This church had their kneeling pads on display.

Moving along we spotted this bookstore and we would come back to it once it opened.

Pembroke College was open to visitors so we ventured in to check out their Chapel.

Nicholas Ridley was Principal of Pembroke College from 1540-1553 and then became the Bishop of Gloucester. In the Hall at Pembroke (we didn’t gain access) are portraits of Ridley and of John Bradford, a Pembroke graduate martyred in Smithfield in 1555. Bradford was overheard encouraging a younger martyr with the words:

‘Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.’

The Chapel is the first building of Christopher Wren, consecrated in 1665. Its new classical style set the fashion for other College chapels and continues to afford a fine setting for Christian worship and music.

We moved on from Pembroke and noticed Little Mary’s Lane.

Back in my thrifting days I came across a set of three watercolors from the 1980’s that I purchased from Goodwill.

It was fun to spot the inspiration of these watercolors purchased years ago.

Our last stop on Trumpington would be the Fitzwilliam Museum and I’ll leave that for another post.

Cambridge – Tuesday March 10th

Our travel journal of our time in Cambridge continues here from March 2026.

It was nice to enjoy our French press coffee on this morning before we headed out for breakfast at The Copper Kettle on King’s Parade in Cambridge.

It was a lovely morning and I took some photos along the way to breakfast.

We would sign up for a tour of Trinity College later in the week.

Looking out the window of the Copper Kettle.

I’ve never met a scone I didn’t like.

Greg went for the full English.

The Views from breakfast were lovely. This is the college and especially the chapel that would be part of our tour on this day.

This cafe was used in some of the filming for Grantchester. (Possibly as a tea-room?)

After breakfast we met up with our alumni tour guide and group for a 2 hour tour that would include King’s Chapel.

St Bene’t’s church on Bene’t’s street was one of our stops.

St Bene’t’s has been a place of Christian prayer and worship for nearly a thousand years. The exact date is in dispute; estimates vary between the tenth century and the reign of Edward the Confessor, but there are good grounds for placing it in the reign of King Canute about the year 1020. More history at this link.

St. Catharine’s College.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen’s college where the famous Mathematical Bridge spans the River Cam. I was chuckling here as I remembered the new quirky Ludwig murder series filmed in Cambridge. One of the episodes featured the bridge, the building on the left which is part of Queen’s college and a chapel. Have you watched the series. I highly recommend it.

The bridge was designed in 1748 by William Etheridge (1709–76), and was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–84). It has subsequently been repaired in 1866 and rebuilt to the same design in 1905. More info here.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen Street on ‘the backs’ with some nice views of King’s College Chapel.

This is Trinity College Bridge.

St. John’s with the clock tower without an actual clock.

This bridge might be the Kitchen Bridge.

Working our way back to the King’s Parade to King’s College where our tour began and would end except for those of us who paid extra to go into King’s College to be able to visit King’s College Chapel.

The Chapel deserves a post of it’s own and that will come on another day.

Cambridge~ Monday March 9th

I’m working on finishing off my posts about our days in Cambridge. These posts are from Monday March 9th.

I’ve already posted about our early morning walk and seeing the famous clock here.

And I also posted about our lunch at The Eagle and all about it’s history here.

On this same day we visited the beautiful Wren Library.

From the Wren Library we continued on enjoying ‘the backs’. ‘The Backs’ is an area to the east of Queen’s Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam with their grounds covering both banks of the river.

St. John’s College

1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery

1787 William Wordsworth arrives as a 17-year-old Cumbrian undergraduate.  With his sympathy for the common man and love of nature, he becomes a central figure in shaping English Romanticism and perhaps our most famed alumnus

This is a photo of the back of the building where the Wren Library is housed.

Punting along the river Cam which is a major tourist draw. We did not choose to take a ride.

Signs like this were all along the sidewalk along Queen’s Road.

We made our way along the road for our destination for refreshment and along the way we saw many signs of the promise of Spring.

We were beat by the time we found the Pickerel Inn which is now a traditional public house established in 1608.

After our treat we walked back to our lodgings just a short .3 miles from the Pickerel.

The dish towels in our kitchenette had this saying on them.

The door signs made us chuckle, too.

We stayed in for this evening after it seemed we were walking all the day long.

We were looking forward to being able to make our own coffee in our room on Tuesday morning since we purchased a French Press and coffee while out and about this day.

Adios April Hodgepodge

We’ve had some beautiful days as April ends.

May is coming and the Hodgepodge is here. Thank you, Joyce!

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why. 

We have to reset. A dear friend of ours passed away and we will now be traveling for his memorial.

Other opportunities have arisen this month, too, and we are shifting our plans to accommodate. We can plan but we do not know what tomorrow holds.

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music…what’s your favorite form of art? Elaborate. 
Music is at the very top for me but the kind of music is specific. Music that honors God is what I appreciate the most. I’m not a fan of music that yells or goes down roads I don’t want to follow. Story music isn’t at the top of my list, either.
I also appreciate painting, sculpture, architecture and literature. These forms are most appreciated outside of the modern realm. I’m not a fan of modern art in most of these forms. Cinema and Theatre are my least favorites.
These photos are from the House of Strauss in Vienna and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers? 

These days we call it Linner. We tend to eat between two and three unless we are meeting up for dinner or having our kids over for dinner. If that is the case dinner is usually between five and six. I’m a fan of leftovers!

4.What’s the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating? 

When I research places to visit or have visited, I can go down many rabbit holes! I was doing some extra history searches for Český Krumlov this past week. In travels, you can’t learn all about a town in a four hour visit. I try to learn what I can before but when I work on a post, after the fact, there is so much more to learn! It always makes me want to go back to places we’ve been for a second look. 🙂

Vienna will be the next place I’ll go down rabbit holes for my research and my next river cruise post.

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me…

At what are you ‘self-taught?’ 

Our mom cooked 99% of all our meals growing up and she did a lot of baking but it was never with any help from me. I didn’t do a lot of watching of this process, either. I ate all the good things she made but I had a lot of learning to do on my own. My mom’s efforts and her being open to try new things gave me confidence but the hands on learning came after I was married. Trial and error has worked well for me. Our sister Vera has preserved many of our mom’s recipes and I’m thankful for that.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m so thankful to the LORD for these two and the fact that they have so much room to roam and enjoy the outdoors!

They peddle to the end of the driveway to wave goodbye when our visits are over and we are heading home. See you soon!

Postcards from the Danube

On Monday March 2nd,  we docked and visited Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia situated on the Danube by the border of Austria and Hungary. It has a pedestrian only old town center.

On Tuesday March 3rd,  we passed the little village we were going to visit and docked further on. We had a short bus ride back to the village of Durnstein.

We also visited the Melk Abbey on this same day.

On Wednesday March 4th, we chose to travel by bus from the boat to the Czech Republic to visit the picturesque town of Český Krumlov.

Here is a sneak peek of the town surrounded by water.

Thursday March 5th and Friday March 6th we were in Vienna.

Carriage rides and Apple Strudel and a whole lot more.

Saturday we cruised back to Budapest.

Throughout our River cruise we were blessed with very decent weather. That was not a guarantee for this time of the year. Looking forward to putting my thoughts together for each stop of our cruise and to post all my photos. That will have to wait for when we get home. Thanks for traveling along with us!

On Sunday March 8th we disembarked from the AmaMagna and were bused to the airport.  We flew to London boarded a bus to Cambridge and checked into our apart/hotel for 6 nights in the college town.

Once checked into our hotel we found a pub close to the apart/hotel for some comfort food before we turned in for the night.

Goodnight Budapest

We sailed away from Budapest Sunday evening of March 1st. Last Sunday. I am finally able to upload my photos from the past week!

We arrived in Cambridge on Sunday the 8th and my internet connections are good so I’ll add a postcard from each village/town we visited on our days on the Danube soon. We are going to take it easy on this Monday after a long day of traveling yesterday. We flew from Budapest to London and boarded a bus to Cambridge. After being dropped off at the bus stop we walked to our Apart/Hotel and checked in. We had a meal at the Baron of Beef and will now hopefully have a good nights sleep.

Happy Monday to you all.