Hey Everyone,
From one English village to another - we have been staying in Bassingbourn, a small village 20 minutes south of Cambridge, with my aunt for the last 11 days. This village contains a shop, a bakery, two pubs, three hairdressers and a park, what more could you ask for from a village. Not much, especially if you need a hair cut, but I am getting a bit bored of English villages now.
Ol and I have actually been on a bit of a cycling holiday while staying here. My aunt lent us two bikes to get around on while they are at work so we have been village exploring. My bum is sore, my legs bruised, my ankle bashed, my arms shredded by the overgrown blackberry bushes, my muscles ache but we have explored the greater Royston area! From village to village we ride. Passing the one shop and pub in each place, avoiding the road-kill badgers and mole hills in the park, being bitten by the thunder flies, tiny insects that cover your flesh and itch like crazy, tearing down the off-road tracks trying not to come off in the pot holes, avoiding the rabbits that leap in your path we have been through Bassingbourn, Lillington, Piggington Abbot, Royston town centre and to Tesco’s Extra.
Royston actually has a town centre. Therefore, we have been there a few times to look in the shops and have lunch at the pub. We also went to the local Bassingbourn pub on Friday night to have a drink but it was like a scene from one of those horror movies where all the locals want to slaughter and mutilate the outsiders. After one watched drink, we left.
On Wednesday, my aunt took the day off work, my cousin came down from Birmingham, and we all went into Cambridge. Unlike our day at Oxford, the sun shone and we were able to look round the city. Some of the university building’s grounds are open to visitors. All the brickwork on the old stone buildings has been cleaned and much of it looks like it inspired Hogsworth school in Harry Potter.
We visited the Fitzwilliam Museum, which has a collection of ancient Greeky artefacts, ceramics and pottery, armoury and paintings from the Dutch to Modern art including some of the rude cartoons from the French Revolution with people cooking babies and mutilating others. The museum is massive, a great Classical building outside and built with marble inside and I saw some real Picasso.
We also went punting on the Cambridge River. Punting is as hard as it looks. You have to balance, standing, on the end of a narrow boat with three people in it, using a long pole to push, from the bottom of the riverbed, the punt forward and as a rudder to steer you in the right direction. All while avoiding the bridges overhead and other boats coming towards you, overtaking you and going sideways because they are as useless as you are. My cousin, Gabi, and Ol punted well but I did not last long. Luckily, though, I gave up before I ended up in the river like the teenage boy and nerdy dad did, or left the pole behind, stuck in the mud, like the Asian student next to us.
We took a day trip out to a National Trust park called Wicken Fen for a picnic. The food was delicious and we choose the nicest day of the English year so far, as stated by the weatherman. The sun though, did not stop my aunt and me wading through ankle-deep, thick, black mud, breaking my jandel and causing the park attendant to exclaim he had not seen anyone get through that way since Christmas.
We have also been to see a good murder-mystery play in Cambridge and are going to see Twelfth Night tonight at a Shakespeare in the Park in Cambridge.
Tomorrow we head off again to go and stay with Ol’s aunt, this time in Suffolk at another English village. However, from the 28th of August we will escape England and its countryside, and its obsession with CCTV and Madeleine McCann for Spain to start exploring Europe. We bought some 1p flights to Almeria, in the south of Spain to go and stay with my other aunt. It was one of those flights you hear about on the cheap airlines, in this case Ryan Air, that cost a penny but then you need to add tax and pay for your baggage. All up, it cost £60 for both of us to fly to Europe one way, about $NZ150, so not too bad at all.
Hope everyone is good, feel free to email or post comments as we would like to hear how you all are and don’t forget to click on the photo link above as I have added all the photos now.
From
Sophie and Ollie.
