First things first. If I remember correctly, at Cambridge there are 33 colleges organized into one publicly supported university. The University supplies the faculty and lectures and composes and grades exams. The Colleges control admissions but otherwise seem little more than dorms with traditions and rituals. Most were begun in the very distant past, the earliest being 13th century. We took a double decker tour bus to see the town and drove by all the colleges and also by the American cemetery. It was one of those hop on and hop off affairs, and we did just that. We determined that we’d like to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum and King’s College Chapel. We also considered stopping to see the three Christopher Wren buildings in the city, but it turned out to be more difficult to see the inside of them.
The Fitzwilliam has an impressive collection of Egyptian and other archaeological artifacts taken from those countries when England ruled the seas. Makes you aware (again) that the British got there first. Many of the items on display had been donated to the museum by the very people who had uncovered all the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. And it had a nice collection of paintings. Very impressive, and small enough to see without having to kill oneself . That’s not exactly fair. It should read "without killing Adelle", since my walking abilities still leave a great deal to be desired. But we visited the museum and then Kings College Chapel, which is stunning. The stone fan-shaped ceilings were spectacular, and the painted and colored glass windows beautiful.
A highlight of the visit was a long conversation with an English gentleman who had been a structural engineer in his youth. He explained a great deal of the construction details to us. He also was interested in knowing that we were American. He had never been to our country, but he had good memories of his 1941 trip in a U.S. owned and operated troop ship which may have been part of Lend Lease. The British troops were on their way to "the desert" somewhere, but their orders were changed on December 8, 1941, and instead, his entire unit was diverted to Singapore as the Japanese began a serious push through Malaysia. Most of "the chaps" died on the Burma Road. He himself was transferred to India, where he spent the remainder of the war. It was a very interesting conversation.
We could not remain an additional evening in the campground because there was no pitch available, so Adelle picked up her cell phone, and telephoned another campground, and booked one night in a new place. We pulled out this morning, drove to the War Museum, and when we left, simply drove to a new campground about twenty miles from the first one. We love the Caravan Club. Their directions are so easy to follow that even a direction-impaired person like Adelle can find the campgrounds.
. When we left the supermarket at Cherry Hinton to go to Duxford, we were not sure how to get to the main road– the M11. So Ron took a map over to a parked tour bus and asked the driver. He gave him directions on how to go through town to get to the highway – and then hurried over to say that he had to start now, and he’d go the way we needed to go so we could find the M11. He said that when we come to a dead end he would go right and we should go left, and that it is marked by signpost to the M11. We followed him all through Cambridge and when we came to the dead end he did not turn right but turned left and took us all the way to the entrance ramp to the highway. Think that would happen in America?
