Archive for the 'Places to visit' Category

Open Cambridge 2014

Saturday, September 20th, 2014

Open Cambridge was hugely popular this year.The city was absolutely thronged with people. I got a chance to visit the Real Tennis court in Cambridge, have a tour of the

Open Cambridge 2013

Monday, September 16th, 2013

Open Cambridge 2013 was a big success. Sadly I was too busy over the weekend to jump wholeheartedly into it but I did manage to squeeze in a few things. On Friday afternoon I managed to scrape in a visit to Corpus Christi College perhaps best known to tourists because of its clock and it’s […]

Hope Street Yard

Friday, September 13th, 2013

It was Open Cambridge today and I fully intended to go but ended up at the Dutch bike shop in Hope Street Yard with a poorly bike instead. It’s a fascinating and entirely unassuming little hideaway down there. To get there you turn off Mill Road by Limoncello down a little alley. The alley broadens […]

Byron’s Pool

Monday, September 2nd, 2013

Yesterday Andres and I cycled from Lammas Land, along the Grantchester Grind, past Jeffery Archer’s house and along the road to Trumpington to Byron’s Pool, a local nature reserve. Originally an old mill pool (there is evidence of a mill on that site since the C11th) the area now boasts a short circular route through […]

Cambridge Shakespeare Festival 2013

Friday, August 2nd, 2013

The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is back again and as I’ve never actually managed to make it to any performances before I was keen as mustard to make sure I made it this year. Consequently Andres and I have just spent an immensely pleasant evening at Robinson College watching The Two Gentlemen of Verona performed in […]

Schubert at Madingley Hall

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Spring is finally sprung, the trees are in blossom and the t-shirts are out. In celebration of this Andres and I headed up to Madingley Hall to hear Schubert’s song cycle, Die Winterreise, brilliantly performed by Charbel Mattar and Martin Ennis. I guess they knew they might well be performing to a room of non-German […]

Open Cambridge 2012 – a much appreciated peek into hidden places

Saturday, September 8th, 2012

Open Cambridge is immensely popular. Minutes before the website allows bookings, Cambridge residents take time out of their busy lives to sit poised and waiting at desks all over the city. The booking starts and it’s a crazed race to get what you can as quickly as possible. I was quicker off the mark than […]

A walk in Old Warden

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Went on a super walk today. Marie and I drove out to Old Warden village hall where we met up with other walkers. Due to my wonderful direction giving (that you may remember from the St Ives walk) we managed to get lost several times and eventually after driving over crossroads and through a ford […]

A super Sunday

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

There is nothing as good as a lie-in especially if you’ve just worked a six day week. After such a sleepy start to the day you can’t really be expected to leave the house much before 2pm and several cups of hot strong tea. It was, I admit, a nice day when I finally left […]

Anglesey Abbey and a real working water mill

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

Thomas came to visit me today and we drove out to Anglesey Abbey. As the name suggests the area was originally the site of a priory that was established in the C12th. Almost 65 years after the Dissolution of the Monasteries a chap called Thomas Hobson (he of Hobson’s Choice) bought the land. He converted […]