Welcome to Cambridge

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single girl in search of a handsome young lad of good fortune, intelligence and an assuredly successful future, must search in Cambridge.

I mean, how could you not be assured of a successful future when you got your degree from a place that looks more like a castle than a university? And all that perfect green grass with "Keep off the Grass" signs all over it. Nothing oozes money like perfect grass.



All right, so I'm kidding. But there is certainly something about Cambridge that inspires aspirations.




See above for assorted photos of punts (which look wickedly difficult to manoeuvre, and who wants to fall in on a day like this?), a pub with 14th century origins and various views around the town.

The Eagle is actually a very famous pub. It is famous because Francis Crick announced, on 28 February 1953 - probably over a pint and a very bad Sunday roast - that he and James Watson had "discovered the secret of life" after they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA.



It also has an entire ceiling covered with signatures of American RAF airforce pilots from the second world war. The special thing is that the signatures were made with cigarettes, cigarette lighters and lipstick. You can see the signatures on the ceiling in the photo just above.




Above are: the Cambridge Market, bicycles, the Bridge of Sighs and my flatmate, Trang.

I mostly wanted to see the Bridge of Sighs for its romantic name, but also because there's a good story about it. According to the Lonely Planet, the architect who designed the bridge got paid a pittance. So, in a particularly reserved fashion, he expressed his annoyance by chipping a slice out of one of the balls on the bridge, so that it would effectively never be finished.

These days we'd probably just slap a bit of concrete in and voila! Complete! It's just another example of how they just don't do things the way they used to. Which in the end, is the best part of Cambridge's charm.