Cambridge; Sunday, 20 June, 2021

With all the Covid regulations in place it’s not possible to just turn up at a museum and visit these days (with some exceptions), so I’d had the full day planned out in advance making sure I had booked tickets for all the museums that I wanted to visit and that I’d left sufficient time between bookings.

After breakfast I hopped on a bus out to the edge of the city centre and my first stop of the morning at the Centre for Computing History. This museum tells the story of computing, from the difference engine and mechanical devices through to the modern computers, consoles and mobile devices of today. It was slightly disturbing to see so many devices that I’ve used myself – some not that long ago – now count as museum pieces.

From the Computing museum it was about a 15 minutes walk over to my next stop of the morning – the Cambridge Museum of Technology. This is located in the former town sewage pumping station and traces the history of the site, as well as the history of technology and industry in Cambridge.

I had a long look round the site, taking in the various exhibits, before heading back over to the bus stop and catching the bus back into town to grab a quick lunch. From lunch I had a wander through town and ended up at Great St Mary’s Church. This is the University church and along with the impressive inside , there are also some impressive views to be had from the top of the tower – so, having not learnt my lesson from Durham a couple of weeks earlier – I paid my money and spent several unpleasant minutes giving my lungs, knees and legs a good workout on the 123 steps to the top.

The climb is worth it as the views over the colleges are some of the best in the city – in particular the view of the Kings College. I descended back down to ground level and rewarded myself with an ice cream from a small cart that was located just outside the church – almost certainly doing a roaring trade from idiots like me climbing up the tower and then regretting it.

I walked back past the colleges and onto the Fitzwilliam Museum, this is the main museum of the university, housed in a suitably impressive building with a wide ranging collection from paintings and potters to ancient Egypt and classical civilisations.

With the Fitzwilliam Museum completed I was seriously starting to question my sanity on booking so many museums into the day, as my feet were aching from that very specific slow walk that you do as you look round a museum, but I pressed on and headed over to my fourth and final museum of the day – the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Housed over three floors this museum has some of the more interesting artefacts from the universities collection, with the museum itself acknowledging that some of them have been obtained in ways that you wouldn’t today. The top two floors deal with Anthropology and house exhibits, not all obtained in the most ethical of ways, from indigenous peoples across the globe. On the lower floor there is a more ethical display of archaeology from the Cambridgeshire region.

When I caught the bus first thing in the morning it was easiest to get a day ticket rather than trying to work out singles or returns, and I was thankful of that now as it meant I could sit down on the bus for about 10 minutes as it took me across the centre of Cambridge and up a hill – which in itself was a bit of a shock as I was pretty certain Cambridge was flat – to the shire hall. The Cambridgeshire County Council building occupies a site that has housed the administration of the are for nearly a 1000 years, as next to the building is a large mound that was previously topped by a castle. The castle is long since gone, but the high mound still provides an excellent viewpoint across the city.

I walked back down the hill from the castle and through the city centre, taking in some more of the sites – including stopping by Newton’s Apple tree. The claim is that this is the very tree that Isaac Newton was sat under when an apple fell and he came up with his theory of gravity. The fact that the tree was actually at his home is Lincolnshire and this is actually a more recent graft from that tree is gently overlooked. A short walk further on and I found myself back in the very centre of the city, near all the restaurants at about dinner time, so after a quick look at options I grabbed a table and had an early dinner, before heading back to the bus station and catching the bus back to the hotel.

Weather

Cloudy Cloudy
AM PM
Warm (10-20C, 50-68F)
16ºC/61ºF