Cambridge: The Backs

When we were told by some locals on the 'Park and Ride' bus into Cambridge that we should see The Backs, we naturally assumed they were referring to the more intelligent players of the university rugby team. As it turns out, The Backs is the area where many of the colleges back onto the River Cam.
(Of course, if you want to see the Fronts of the colleges, take a look at our previous blog entry).

The River Cam is, as you may know, a punter's delight; what with all the betting shops and boat races. You can alternatively blow your hard-earned on taking a ride in a boat while some poor punter pushes a pole along the river bed. It all looked a bit too sedate for our kid's liking, so instead we walked a lap around the river path, over a couple of the lovely old bridges, and all the while snapped away happily away....



Poor pole-pushing punters are particulary popular


We liked this view of Kings College so much, everyone wanted to be in on the action!!!





Another bit of Kings College


Nice view of the buildings and more pole-pushers. If I'm not mistaken, that nice building there is the back of Gonville and Caius.
I may be mistaken.


A punting traffic jam


Another view of the picturesque River Cam

A Study of Cambridge

Another witty blog title means another lovely town to visit! Cambridge has certainly been one of our favourite places to visit so far. The streets are great for walking, the shopping's pretty good, and the architecture is quite spectacular. In fact we took so many photos, there were too many to post in one sitting, so we hope you enjoy these for now.


Here we are in St John's Street - lots of gorgeous colleges on this street


There's St John's for starters....


Here's the girls outside the chapel at St John's


Trinity College has a post box on the street out front




And the inside of Trinity is quite beautiful too.


We wandered past a nice college and took a look at map inside the passageway to find out we were at the legendary Gonville and Caius College... here's the map.


Lucy decided to waltz straight past the porter and through the college entrance...


....and waltzed right on through the courtyard.


This is us in Tree Court


...and here's us again in Cauis Court (it's pronounced 'keys').


As a gardener herself, Nanny Dawn admired the borders.


A wobbly moment.


Another happy couple shot (we got a grown up to take it this time).


More of the Keezees at Caius


The stone engraving on top of the passageway tells us where we are in Latin (in case we don't speak English) - it's "CAIVS"


A nice quiet and shady moment


And here's Gonville and Caius from the main street.


The girls stopped outside St Mary's Church to admire the junior orchestra. Some of the players were as young as Lucy.


The entrance to King's College is very grand....


... from whatever angle you view it.


St Catharine's College (I believe that is the correct spelling, by the way)


Corpus Christi College was closed apparently, but we still snuck a shot in.


Not sure who these people are... perhaps some American tourists.


Not much of a photo this, but notable due to the fact that we spotted Stirling Mortlock in town, when he should have been back home preparing for the big test against the All Blacks.

Bits and Bobs

Here's a few pics we found lying around of things we've been up to over summer (if you could call it that). Enjoy.


Here we are at the Abinger Hammer Cricket Club having a picnic, sunglasses on, waiting for the game to begin.
Yes, the town is called Abinger Hammer and the town clock has a bloke with a hammer banging on a bell (not sure why, but it looks very symbolic).


Still waiting for the game to start, but thumbs up for a nice lunch


The players made it out just in time for Lucy to take control of the camera


Here's Lucy winning the 20m dash at her school sports day. Actually I think there was more to it than just running 20m, but she is definitely showing some speed here.....


.... not to mention a cheesy grin for first place!


we are happy to announce that Caiti's toilet training is coming along very nicely..... this is the sort of photo that appears at 21st's


And here we are enjoying the lake at Frensham Great Pond. It's a man-made lake (or pond), dug up in the 14th century (or thereabouts). Nice for a sunbake and a sail... the swimming is a bit dodgy though.

Brighton is right on!

Firstly.... yes, I know my blog title is like a bad tabloid headline, but it's late and I'm out of practice with this blogging caper - but that is soon to change as I plan to post lots and lots of snaps in the near future.

Anyway, we drove down to Brighton the other week to check out what goes on there - apparently lots does. It seemed like a nice warm day and we had visions of swimming and lying in the sun. The sun was out most of the time, but the chilly wind meant that it wasn't much of a day for swimming and sunbaking.

We checked out the pier, the rides and the shops before heading down to the pebbly beach. The pebbles are a bit hard on the feet, but surprising nice to lie on - a bit like a full-body masseur sandal, and by strategically placing ourselves between the pier and the prevailing sou'-westerly breeze, we managed to get out of the wind and did in the end have a nice lie on the beach - which is something we hadn't done in a long time!


No points for guessing, but here we are at Brighton Pier...


... and from another angle.


We didn't use the towels for swimming, but they did come in handy on the windward side of the pier


Go Brighton!


There's lots of rides on The Pier, even a kids dodgems. Jo was fascinated by the "Super Dooper" where punters pay £8 to get hurled through the air like a trainee astronaut. Sadly, she didn't have a go herself.


The leeward side of the pier was nice


There's lots of 1920's throwback diversions...


...and rides for the kids.


Relaxing on the beach (with ice creams quickly melting)


At least you don't have to worry about getting sand off the kids, aren't we happy about that?...


.... the seaweed of course is another matter.


Artistic watery shot


The girls were getting a bit tired by the time we visited the Royal Pavilion


The locals seem to love it though.