Travel Spotlight - Cambridge
Story Highlights
- Getting There
- The Top Tourist Spots
- Off The Beaten Track
- Need To Know
Getting There
From London there are two simple and inexpensive ways to reach Cambridge, and they both involve a train. Your chariot may be boarded from Liverpool Street Station in East London or Kings Cross Station in the north of the city. From Liverpool Street the journey takes a little longer at 80 minutes but the ticket is cheaper. From Kings Cross it costs a little more but you’ll be in Cambridge in less than 50 minutes. When you rock up, all the attractions are a mere ten minute walk away or you can jump on a city centre bound bus for a pound.
The Top Tourist Spots
With the nitty gritty of getting there out of the way, I decided to embark up two itineraries ‐ one featuring the unmissable attractions that make it into every guide book and one addled with off the beaten track stops, just to see what was beyond the recommendations made to the masses. First up, the main stream fun.
Ghoulish Punting: Beyond Venice, Cambridge is home to some of the busiest punting waterways in Europe and no trip to this city would be complete without a manpowered jaunt along the River Cam. Most of the boats are driven by precariously balanced students from the university ‐ who happen to make wonderful tour guides because they know the colleges inside and out. My tour guide (let’s call him Bob) was a fellow at Trinity College and I have to admit that in contrast to the warming influences of a thick tweed blanket, a hot water bottle and large glass of complimentary mulled wine, Bob’s tale of a tortured student driven to suicidal distraction, was rather chilling.
Now you can embark upon a punt for an hour or two without supernatural overtones, but the spooked up version is worth it just for said tale ‐ of Michael from the eighteenth century. One evening Michael encountered a strange and somewhat antisocial chap who, after retrospective inspection, turned out to be invisible to everybody else. This other worldly encounter sent Michael into a downward spiral of introverted behaviour and spawned an obsession with bridging the gap between this world, and the next. On his final night in Trinity College Michael was heard screaming at the top of his voice in a wild and panicked fashion from the inside of a locked room. Alas by the time his classmates kicked down the door Michael had departed ‐ scared to death by whatever was in the room with him.
Walking Tours: As part and parcel of your punt, you can book a walking tour that starts immediately after your waterway excursion. Again it doesn’t have to be ghoulish but in the winter months, this makes it all the more fun. My tour guide on this one was armed with the charm and wit of Stephen Fry, which made the story of Black Shuck ‐ the tourist snatching soul of a long dead hellish hound, almost believable. Beyond the next world trivia, this tour was also a great way to discover the hidden, old school back street pubs and nick nak shops of Cambridge. Scudamores arrange the water and land based good times so look them up when you’re in town.
Off The Beaten Track
Stand Up Paddle‐Boarding:On the suggestion of TNT’s long term travel guru Amy Adams, I looked into stand up paddle‐boarding in Cambridge. Essentially this entails combining an oversized surfboard and the principles of punting ‐ on the inner city waterways. It looks like a lot of fun but outside of the summer season, it’s not one of the warmest itinerary fillers around.
Winnie the Pooh: For an equal amount of fun that doesn’t involve a wetsuit and a potential trip to A&E for hyperthermia, check out the Winnie The Pooh manuscript in the Wren Library. I admit it’s not the most macho of pursuits but come on ‐ it’s Winnie the frigging Pooh ‐ the one bear from your childhood that didn’t threaten to eat you for chowing down on his porridge.
The library is part of the Wren College and aside from A.A Milne’s masterpiece it houses many medieval manuscripts, the Capell collection of early Shakespeare editions, a selection of titles from Sir Isaac Newton's bookshelf and the Rothschild collection of 18th Century English literature. The public are allowed in between 12 and 14.00, Monday to Friday, and between 10.30 and 12.30 on Saturdays ‐ all during term time. Outside of the semesters try your best puppy dog face on the caretakers. The exhibition is free and well worth the effort.
More Museums: Beyond this pocket of the culture circuit in Cambridge, both the Fitzwilliam Museum (Trumpington Street) with its impressionist artworks and the Cambridge and Country Folk Museum (Castle Street) with its retrospective on living in the city since 1700, are fun ways to fill an afternoon especially if you’re not a fan of Winnie, paddle‐boarding or spooks.
Need To Know
Getting there: You can grab some great advanced train fairs to Cambridge from London by visiting www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com. They operate out of Liverpool Street and Kings Cross stations. These guys also run coaches to the city, so depending on your time and budget restrictions, check out www.nationalexpress.com/coach. On certain Sundays the train timetable is reduced so be sure to plan ahead with www.nationalrail.co.uk
Where to Stay:There are a number of great accommodation bases in the city including a bog standard YHA on Tenison Road, near the station. However if you want something a lot better in the same convenient location for a tiny bit more moola, then check out the A & B Guesthouse at 124 Tenison Road. This family run business serves up superbly finished rooms, comforting sachets of instant coffee that refreshingly aren’t god awful to taste and you get a great breakfast thrown in too. You can find them at www.aandbguesthouse.co.uk
The Punting and Ghost Tours: Scudamores are your best bet for a guaranteed good time on the man made waterways and on dry land too. If you book in advance on www.scudamores.com you can grab cheaper tickets or alternatively, simply head down to their base in Granta Place near the Silver Street bridge.
Food and Drink: Cambridge is of course a university city which means a fair share of student watering holes, selling their brews at dirt cheap prices. Alas the majority of these are contained within the colleges which pushes up the price of your average city centre pint to around the £3.00 mark. The Anchor pub near the Silver Street bridge has a decent selection on tap and great Wind in the Willows‐esque views of the river. As for the food the Shiraz Restaurant on Regent Street does a decent mix of fusion food at budget friendly prices. Browns restaurant on Trumpington Street is pretty tasty too!
The Top Tourism Guys: If your whistle isn’t quite wet yet and you want to find out a little bit more about Cambridge before you head out there, then take a virtual trip to www.visiteastofengland.com and www.visitcambridge.org. These sites are jam packed with alternative time occupiers and the location of the tourist office, to help out when you get there.
‐ Rob Savage
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