As time goes by(Adventures in Cambridge)

I arrived at Cambridge on a surprisingly sunny November morning by British Rails who decided I should be late for my upcoming conference.As I stepped out of the station without modern gadgetry I set course for Kings College at the city center.
After quite a bit of help from the locals I found my way to the place where Newton dreamt under the apple, Hawking found new universes and Charles Darwin gave the theory of our existence.Inside these sacred walls I took a breather from my travels and treated myself to a Cambridge tradition of having tea and English breakfast in The Copper Kettle cafe ,just across the road from Kings College a stone chiseled giant sleeping on moist English lawns with its large chapel hovering over the small cafe like a big brother.I took my table on the small terrace and gazed at passer by ,realizing why such a small cafe gained such a cult following and was described from Sylvia Plath's journals to Clive James's best-selling autobiographies.
As my order arrived the only other table on the terrace was occupied by an old man with a beard light as the snow.After a couple of minutes I struck up a conversation with the old man who introduced himself as Paul.As we talked about the history of Kings College in front of us. I was surprised at all the knowledge he possessed,but for a moment even sceptical thinking that the old man might just be insane as he claimed that the giant golden Corpus clock at the end of the street was his possession.The aforementioned clock was a rippling 24-carat gold-plated disc, conceived as a work of public art that reminds viewers in a dramatic way of the inevitable passing of time. I grew weary of Paul's claims but then the waitress arrived and addressed the old man as Sir Paul(no it's not the one from The Beatles) and I finally found out that the bearded old man was actually Sir Paul Mellars a Professor Emeritus and a former master of the Corpus Christi College ,which in-turn made him for a time an owner and the keeper of the aforementioned clock.
As i chatted away with Sir Paul about the history of Cambridge and its storied structures time inevitably passed by and we had to bid our farewells.When I walked out of the cafe I indeed realized The Copper Kettle is one of those cafes, bars, which is hard to define. It couldn't possibly have more on the menu and they probably couldn't get another table in ,but you feel it has a certain mystique, it is a place where friendships are made and experiences are shared.