Punting on the Cam

Friday 22^nd August,

Today’s pedometer reading is a meagre 4.09 k’s

Here’s why…we caught the tube to Bayswater and picked up our hire car…it was supposed to be a VW Golf but we ended up with a 6 speed manual, turbo charged Vauxhall Meriva, it has a bigger boot than the Golf so we can fit all our luggage in it…just perfect. We set off for Cambridge, 100 k’s north of London. The further along we went the more comfortable Andrew felt driving a manual car again.

We arrived in Cambridge feeling a bit peckish and headed to Mill Lane where we enjoyed lunch at the Anchor Hotel on the banks of the River Cam. Watching people trying to self-punt on the river provided a great deal of amusement as we ate. 

It also helped us make our decision to take a 45-minute tour of the College Backs in a 12-seater punt. The 1.6 km section of the river known as the College Backs meanders past spacious lawns and some of Cambridge’s grandest buildings, including King’s College Chapel, the Wren Library and the Bridge of Sighs.

The punter explained the buildings and their fascinating stories as we travelled down the river.

We wandered around the streets, soaked up the atmosphere and particularly loved the Cricket Clock at the Corpus Christi Library and College...

& King’s College and Chapel.

We’re happy with our accommodation at the Premier Inn and feel quite relieved because we’ll be staying in 2 or 3 more Premier Inn’s in the coming weeks.

However we’re not so happy with the voice on the GPS…Bob has an annoying American accent! Andrew has changed it to Howard who has a lovely and more appropriate English accent.