Cambridge

Today NYU took us to Cambridge. I was amazed by the history of the university and town. The Romans were the first to settle here, to be followed by the Vikings and the Saxons. However, the date our tour guide stressed was 1209, when dissident students from Oxford arrived. It distinctly remains a student town. In the center of town, there were more bikes on the road than cars. Students were carrying field hockey (boys in this case) and lacrosse (thought it was an American sport) sticks. With the juxtaposition of the history and architecture, I can only imagine how cool it would be to go to school there.

The university (aka uni) system is interesting. There are 31 colleges within Cambridge University, but you can only apply to one. In fact, you can only apply to either Oxford or Cambridge, not both. Each college within Cambridge is more or less qualified to teach every major so there's no business school like Stern. There's no requirement to attend university classes, but you must attend weekly one-on-one supervision from your college.

Mathematical Bridge over River Cam. Its name derives from the fact that all its boards are straight though the bridge is curved. Of course the boards are tangent to the circle. I would take a picture of this bridge.

A courtyard in one of the colleges. Each college seemed to have one, and it made me miss grass.

The Cavendish Laboratory where the electron, proton, and neutron were discoveredA in chronological order. Cambridge is known for its scientific research. Apparently its staff at the time of award has won over 30 Nobel Prizes, which my tour guide made clear is more than some countries like Russia. Why he chose Russia and not one of the other 200 countries, I don't know.

A popular pub. I never know pub was the short form of "public house." Apparently Watson and Crick were known to hang out here and publicly announced that they had discovered the structure of DNA here. Also, this pub was frequented by many American soldiers during WWII due to its name.

The gap between the Senate House and Corpus Christi College. Apparently there's a group called the Night Climbers at Cambridge who climb the old buildings, and this jump is a favorite. I would love to try it, hopefully successfully.


King's College, home of countless notable alumni.

The ceiling of King's College Chapel. Eleven buttresses on each side of the chapel allow it to have stained glass windows and no internal supports. This chapel blew me away; it was the most memorable part of Cambridge. It was started by Henry VI but finished five monarchs later by Henry VIII, and you can tell the transformation of the architectural style from one end to the other. The chapel is immense (88 m in length), and the carvings on the Henry VIII western end are intricate. As our tour guide explained it, the chapel was meant to remind you that God would protect you in your next life, but that your king (Henry VIII at the time) would protect in this life so you should be a loyal subject.

One of the stain glass windows. All the windows took 30 years to put into place, and even their later restoration took five years. The top half depicts scenes from the Old Testament and the bottom half from the New Testament. Apparently the kings thought there was a direct correlation between the two texts.

There's also a vibrant marketplace, which has stood in the same spot for over 500 years, and punting (aka river tours by boat) on the River Cam. As you can see, I enjoyed Cambridge, well worth the day trip. We'll see what Oxford has to offer in a few weeks...lol