Day 19: Newmarket to Cambridge

September 25, 2022

We were fast asleep last night when just before 10 the phone rang. I woke up enough to answer it, but had to struggle to understand that I was speaking to PC Evans of the Essex police. PC Evans was calling to talk about the confrontation we had witnessed between a man in a white van and a young woman in a black car, outside of Maldon.

What with the cell phone and the constable's regional (to us) accent, we had a very hard time understanding what was being said. Still we had some sort of conversation, and were able to give our version of events.

Now not to make light of the underlying case of someone uttering threats, after years of watching British mysteries, having someone called PC anything wanting a word was quite a thrill. We were asked if we could give an in person statement, and Dodie suggested we could go in to a police station. Not to question Dodie's motives, but the most likely station for that would be in Oxford. Oxford - home base for Morse and Lewis. Really!

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We were happy that the bikes had such a nice room overnight, and while ours was ok, it really was an imbalance!

The view from our room. Those fans ran continuously and loud!

Last night I walked out on High Street and ordered some takeout Thai food. It took 1/2 hour to prepare, so I got to walk up and down the street for that amount of time. I can attest that at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night, there was nothing to look at or do on the street, except that there were a lot of people in the pubs, which numbered about three per block. This Sunday morning, the street was even quieter than the evening before.

There are a lot of horse references and touches all around town, like this horse statue.

Despite the protestations of various pedestrians, in England walkers and cyclists are united, by the need to cling to the sidewalks.

Among riders, horse riders occupy a higher social niche than cycle riders.

Today was really the best day of our tour so far. In fact, it was so good it will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time. There were two parts to this. Firstly, we had quiet lanes or bike paths all the way in to Cambridge. And next, Cambridge was just fantastic - so scenic, so active, and incidentally with bikes everywhere. Here we go...

Passing out of Newmarket, we did get a look at one or two race horses, enjoying pasture at some distance. There were several well maintained stud farms to look at.

Particularly since this is a weekend morning, we only saw a smattering of people out and about. Each of them was out with a dog. Typically they walk on the network of public footpaths. Some of these directly cross farm fields:

It was just wonderful, having real roadway or path to cycle on. We made rapid progress, and told ourselves that in a whole day of this we could really go far.

Farm fields beside the road have long ago been harvested, but still provide beautiful landscapes.

As we had seen in Bury St Edmunds, there is family home construction quite far out of town. These are three story, but narrow.

These cows were extremely calm and tame.

The cycle path theme continued as we entered the "Cambridge Jubilee Cycleway", opened in 2002 by the Duke of Edinburgh. Later, as the signage rather broke down, I wondered if HRH had actually checked the route before endorsing it!

It seemed almost in no time we came upon the river Cam, and with it our first iconic Cambridge rowers.

We would soon see that these were not just some random rowers, but rather the river is alive with rowers, boaters, punters, and the like.

We had found a place for tonight just north of the river - the city is wrapped by a curve of the river and is concentrated to the south of it. This put us in a great position in quiet and cheaper neighbourhood, but just over a small nearby bridge from all the action. The place was a B&B, for which we successfully found the key and stashed some gear before setting off for town.

This being Sunday, we had talked about finding another Sunday dinner at a pub. Luckily, just over the bridge was the Fort St George, a place wth lots of outdoor seating, so we could park our bikes just by a table. The pub claims to be the oldest pub on the Cam, dating to the 16th century.

A typical pub interior scene. At pubs you order at the bar and they then bring your stuff to your numbered table.

These "Pub Classics" sounded good, but we were intent on the Sunday dinner.

Here is what we got (to share) - a great salad, and the Sunday dinner.

From the pub we looked on our map and located all the nearby famous parts of the town - from the Jesus Green to all the colleges, the Market Square, and the Round Church, to the Mathematical Bridge. We didn't make a plan to deliberately hit a list of spots, but just generally set off across town toward the Mathematical Bridge.

Despite our haphazard approach, it didn't take long to just be totally blown away by the fantastic architecture, the crowded shopping area, the famous name colleges, and the unique upscale shops.

The Round Church. This is just one of the fabulous structures that are sprinkled all though the town.

Here is St John's College. Beyond some gates, each college has a "quad" of very green grass, and its buildings arrayed about the perimeter.

We forged on, into the crowded commercial district. There were many interesting shops, such as Hardy's Sweetshop. The heart of the shop is jars and jars of sweets, that the proprietor will recommend, and bag for you. This recalls for us a James Herriot vet story in which the proprietor of such a shop was known for his theatrical recommendation of various sweets, while his cat looked on. But when the cat became ill the proprietor lost heart, and sales plummetted. Only when the cat was well could sweet sales recover.

Dodie came out with a bag of recommended sweets. I had gone in first, but failed because I couldn't decide!

Crowds everywhere in the heart of downtown.

I only discovered Chelsea buns the other day, but look, they are a mainstay for this store, beside Cream Teas and Punt Picnics.

There is a hat shop for us at home, but I think it's a rare category for a stand alone store.

This one is a mystery. Dodie encouraged me to go in and see what it was all about, but alcohol doesn't do it for me. Should have gone in to the Chelsea Bun shop!

More monumental architecture below:

We came next upon the Market Square. This was really something! The main feature was dozens of little stalls selling cooked or hot food. Generally they represented something other than British culture and cooking, and all looked really intriguing, even though we had just finished our huge traditional British Sunday dinner.

We watched an amusing documentary recently about how food authorities in Toronto objected to Jamaicans using the term "patties", which they wanted reserved for hamburgers.

We might be planning a trip to Spain, but the food may not be our favourite.

There were dozens of active stalls like this one.

It was crowded, and exciting.

This stall featured eastern European foods.

The higgledy piggledy market is in the shadow of magnificent buildings.

There was stuff other than food on offer. I liked this crockery.

So many bikes in Cambridge, what a difference from elsewhere in England.

More unique shops. I guess a luggage store is normal. But I liked that it is called a satchel shop.

This place is a Harry Potter reference. Hagrid carried a copper kettle in his coat.

King's College. I climbed a low wall for a peek inside the quad.

The Corpus Clock, at Corpus Christi College. This was unveiled by Stephen Hawking in 2008. It has a unique grasshopper like escapement, and the insect seems to eat up the time.

Here is a look inside Corpus Christi College.

The mathematical bridge, is not all that complicated. It uses only straight members, but is curved.

More and more colleges. This is Pembroke College, founded in 1347!

Finally, Christ's College, one of the places where Charles Darwin studied.

We finally headed back the way we came, naturally passing the Fort St George pub again. After we had finished our Sunday dinner earlier, I lamented not having ordered the sticky caramel date custard pudding. So we fixed that!

Nearby, a Golden Retriever was resting. We have seen quite a few retrievers today. Our favourite dog!

It was easy and quick to return to our B&B, closing what has been the best day of this tour, and one that ranks with any in our other trips. It was an amazing performance from the England we had been ready to ditch.

We still need to use the train, rather than cycle to Oxford, to keep up with our schedule. We have a feeling we may need to go all the way in to London to come out to Oxford. We'll see. Tomorrow is another day!

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 650 km (404 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	7

Scott AndersonGreat to hear it was such a fine day for you. Really, England gets better the further away from the big city you go.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsAs Scott said, glad you finally had a Very Good Day, after all the travails and woes you've suffered so far.
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonSo far, and only time will tell, you seem to be right. We are now looking forward to, instead of dreading, the days to come.
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith AdamsToday was pretty near perfect. Unlike our other "Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days. With thanks to Alexander and his vhildren's story of that name.
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2 years ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Steve Miller/GrampiesOne of my all time favourite books! You would understand my reference whenever I announce “I am moving to Australia”. We are so glad you had such a great day. You were overdue.
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2 years ago

Jill GelineauSo happy the trip has taken a turn for the better!
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2 years ago

Polly LowWhat a great day! I'm glad to see the Fort St George is still going strong, too -- I spent a certain proportion of my student life there...
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2 years ago