Guinea Pig...

All day Saturday, our friend Reuben graciously agreed to be our guinea pig as Matthew and I tested our abilities as Cambridge tour guides. Our experiment confirmed two things: 1. Cambridge can be covered sufficiently in a day. There is plenty to see, but a day is enough to get 'er done. 2. We were thankful to have a test run with Reuben so that we now have a better idea of what to do when our parents come to visit.

Most of our time was spent just walking around through the different colleges taking pictures. Reuben enjoys taking pictures as much as Matthew and I do, so we had fun hunting for the perfect shots. I guess we were feeling pretty confident and bold because we followed Matthew's "act-like-you-know-where-you-are-going-and-you-can-walk-in-anywhere" philosophy. So, we strolled pretentiously through Downing, Pembroke, Peterhouse, King's, Trinity, and St. John's Colleges before the day ended. We took a nice midday break for lunch at the Copper Kettle cafe on King's Parade and then went back to our flat for a classy teatime involving Reese's peanut butter cups. Once we had rested and digested sufficiently, we went back out to finish our sight seeing. All in all, it was a relaxed, yet fulfilling day. Thanks to Reuben for visiting and letting us lead him blindly through our temporary hometown!

I think the best way to recount the day is in photographs. Sorry, these aren't necessarily in chronological order, but here goes:

Inside the King's courtyard, we had a nice stranger take our picture, which turned out pretty well considering that I told him to push the wrong button on the camera.

Stairs to nowhere behind St. John's. I think I must have walked past them a hundred times and never noticed them until Reuben pointed them out.

Narnia. When it snows, I'm coming back to this spot to look for a large wardrobe full of fur coats.

The peak of autumnal foliage has long gone, but you can still spot remnants of lovely vine-covered walls if you keep your eyes open.

Wish we could have found this one before all the leaves fell off. You can tell from the few red and gold patches that this expanse of naked vines would have been spectacularly colorful a couple weeks ago.

A young tree stands in the middle of Peterhouse College, the smallest and oldest college in Cambridge. It was founded in 1284!

This is the courtyard nearest the entrance to Peterhouse.

Same courtyard, different angle. I'm noticing that lamp posts keep cropping up in some of my favorite photos. Maybe I'm becoming obsessed with them instead of flowers.

I told you that if we ever got inside King's College Chapel you would see pictures of the famed fan-vaulted ceiling...tah dah! We got inside!!! (And admission was free, thanks to Matthew's Cambridge ID.) It really was an impressive place. Very tall, very long, and very narrow.

The foundation for the chapel was laid by King Henry VI way back in 1441 on Passion Sunday. His dream was that his chapel would not be rivaled by any other in Oxford or Cambridge, and it would seem that his dream came true. Can you believe the entire ceiling was constructed in only 3 years between 1512 and 1515?

King's College Chapel had some of the most distinct stained glass I have ever come across. A lot of it was empty clear glass with various etchings and few colors. Like the flower above, a lot of the glass looked like it came straight out of someone's sketch book. A lot of it was also weird. VERY weird. See the following 3 pictures for examples.

Lady Justice about to be eaten by the evil monster version of the character from Where the Wild Things Are.

Really, what can I say about this one? I think someone put it in the window of the baptismal room as a joke. Critter with bat wings, tail, pee hole, cross eyes, and pointy tongue? It must be symbolic, but I am clearly missing the proper interpretation.

And finally, this scary troll man with a fruit basket over his head just gives me the heebie jeebies.

At least there were more familiar and less frightening elements to be found in the chapel, like this pretty angel atop the massive organ.

St. John's Chapel had a much different feel. It had a wooden ceiling that was painted red and gold. We didn't learn much about this one. Only walked through it briefly. It's more attractive from the outside, but I don't think we actually took any pictures of the exterior.

This is the Bridge of Sighs that spans the river and connects two parts of St. John's. It is another quintessential Cambridge landmark, like Mathematical Bridge off the back of Queen's College.

This was a random walkway between St. John's and our flat, but I thought the reflection in the water was worth capturing.

Hogwarts??? Not quite, but very similar. This is the dining hall at Trinity College. An unverified rumor has it that Trinity is supposedly the third largest landowner in England behind the government and the royal family.

I was getting artsy with my shadow, but my main goal was to get a picture like the next one...

I ride my bike by this quaint little driveway on my way into town. Charming is the only word that describes it for me.

This is Sidgwick Avenue, which we did not take Reuben down, but it one of the streets we use almost daily. I really like it because it stays pretty quiet, and of course, I love the trees lining each side of the road. They are really big, and the canopy of leaves overhead is nice until a lone falling leaf decides to smack you in the face on its way down.

Welp, that concludes another pictorial rummage through Cambridge. Besides hosting Reuben, the last few days have been pretty packed with church, a dinner with some of Matt's classmates, some retail therapy at a vintage booth at the market, and another international tea at the Coopers' house. I'll have to record the amazing stories I heard at the tea and share them with you tomorrow. Cheerio.