A continuation of a trip which started on Sept 10th
Canterbury - 10-11 (here) Portsmouth -. 15
It took about 2 hours of brave driving on the left side of the road.. from London to Cambridge Town.
Upon our departure from London, the closer we got to Cambridge, the sunny warm weather transformed into a grayish gloomy sky dripping irritating drizzle,
The last touring segment in the UK, after touring Canterbury , Dover, Brighton Portsmouth, Bath and London, was a visit with our dear friends Tali and Suki.
Like us , originally from Haifa , Shuki is a childhood friend of mine, from Leo-Back public School, who recently took a sabbatical leave post in the prestigious
Cambridge university Eng. Depart. of Fitzwilliam college
Founded in 1869, Fitzwilliam is now home to around 500 undergraduates, 400 graduate students and 90 fellows The alumni of Fitzwilliam College include six Nobel laureates, a large number of prominent academics, public officials, business people, clergy judges and heads of state or government,
Overall, more than 120 affiliates of the University of Cambridge have won Nobel Prizes.which is more than any other university in the UK, and more than any other country, except the United States and the United Kingdom.
Cambridge on the Cam
Located in the historic Cambridgeshire county of eastern England , on the River Cam, 89 km northeast of London. the quint town of about 146K inhabitants, is well known as the home of the University of Cambridge,
The University was founded in 1209, following the arrival of scholars who left the University of Oxford for Cambridge after a dispute with local townspeople.
It is the world's third-oldest university in continuous operation and has consistently ranked among the best universities in the world.
The University includes 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and over 150 academic departments, faculties, and other institutions organized into six schools
Cambridge's 116 libraries hold a total of approximately 16 million books,
This over 800 years distinguished university at the core heart of the town’s center, has erected its colleges, right from the marsh and flood bound landscape, carved by the Cam River that pass through it. The city's skyline is dominated by its college buildings.
Kings, Quins, dukes, influential liturgical figures, society dignitaries scientists , industrialists and philanthropists, all left their hands and foot prints, on the remarkable study halls, chapels, Dorms and manicured landscape
Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen or Cambridge Cluster, which contains industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies born out of the university..
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world, includes the headquarters of AstraZeneca and the relocated Royal Papworth Hospital.
Cambridge became already an important trading routes center during the Roman and Viking ages, The principal Roman site is a small fort (castrum) Duroliponte on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city center
Their vigorous trading habits resulted in rapid growth of the town.
In 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror erected a castle on Castle Hill, the motte of which non survived
Our own first encounter with the River Cam which the college city stretches along, was when having a traditional "Fish and Chips" lunch with our friends at the historic Fort St George Pub the oldest Pub on the Cam,
Midsummer Common 11, Cambridge
It is named after another Fort St George – the original being the first British fortress in India
Great oak wood decor , an historic ambiance, and stunning views of the river have earned the pub its claim to fame, more than the food served.
The relatively warm drizzly weather, made the visit to the pub and Punt boating -in a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, on the calm shallow Cam River a very special encounter.
This pastoral town is doted with many huge green loans and parks which can be a sheer joy to walk through on a dry warm weather.
One as such is Jesus Green
which is off the city center, in an open parkland grass, divided by trails and horse chestnut trees. and is bordered by the River Cam, Victoria Avenue and Jesus College.
The Jesus Green Swimming Pool is a lido next to the River Cam. and is one of the few remaining examples of the lidos built across the country in the 1920s.
It is among the longest outdoor swimming pools in Europe at 100 yards (91 m) in length.
Jesus College, established in 1496 on the site of the 12C Benedictine nunnery, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund,
This Cambridge's fourth-wealthiest college is known for its particularly expansive grounds which include its sporting fields and for its proximity to its boathouse.which is most successful Cambridge college Rowing boat club
Jesus College chapel founded in 1157 and took until 1245 to complete, is the oldest university building in Cambridge still in use and predates the foundation of the college by half a century.
Jesus College admits undergraduate and graduate students to all subjects at the university though typically accepts a larger number of students for engineering, medicine, law, natural sciences, mathematics, economics, history, languages, and human, social and political sciences. It offers a wide range of scholarships.
Among its notable alumni are Alistair Cooke,- British/American journalist. John Flamsteed, the English astronomer and first Astronomer Royal. and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh,
3 members of Jesus College have received a Nobel Prize. Two fellows of the college have been appointed to the International Court of Justice.
There are few Boat Rental Spots, at which Punt rowing by a qualified guide is offered
The enjoyable river boating in its known punting boats reveal small 9 bridges
a ray of gorgeous old university structures covered by colorful ivy, stretches of green fields, beautiful verdant loans, garden flowers, and many more passing small wooden raw boats with celebrating students and incidental tourists like us
founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort it was established by a charter in 1511 as .a charitable corporation to promote education, religion, learning and research.
It is one of the largest Oxbridge colleges in terms of student numbers, and over 35 per cent of its students earning first-class honours
St John's Main Gate Wren or Kitchen Bridge Chapel
It is the second wealthiest college after its neighbor Trinity College,
Members of St John college include winners of 12 Nobel Prizes, 7 prime ministers,
12 archbishops of various countries, at least 2 princes and 3 saints.
St John Bridge of Sight
Originally known as New Bridge, and seems to resemble the Venice Bridge of Sighs , this St John's bridge connects the college's Third Court to New Court,
Trinity Punts Building
Another historical landmark which the river boating reveals is the charming
Trinity College punts – which is open both to members of College , students and to members of the general public.
People can hire their own boat or hire a chauffeured tour with a guided commentary of the various sights and attractions along the River Cam.
Trinity College
Trinity College, to which Shuki enabled
us special ground entrance, is considered the most prestigious college within Cambridge University
It was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 as one of his last acts of life just 5 weeks prior to his death in 1547.
Sir Issac Newton
The College has been a world leader in the study of natural science since the 17th C. and is the wealthiest college within the 31 colleges.
The world famous physical scientist,
Sir Issac Newton, who spent 35 years within the college began his time at Trinity as an undergraduate student in 1661, becoming a fellow working at the college until 1696
The college has produced additional high number of notable alumni who have shaped the world we live in.
Most notable include philosophers Francis Bacon and Bertrand Russel, physicists James Clerk Maxwell, J Thomson and Ernest Rutherford, the renowned poet Lord Byron and 6 Prime Ministers. Trinity Alumni have collectively won 34 Nobel Prize winners, accounting for a third of Cambridge University’s total of 125.
Dating back to 1350 and updated in the Georgian period, the Dining Hall consists of a beautiful timber framed high-vaulted ceiling and original medieval features including stained glass crests and a Minstrels’ Gallery .
A setting for large dinners accommodates up to 134 guests and 16th more in the gallery, used for events including drinks receptions, networking events, awards ceremonies and wedding breakfasts
One of the college’s most iconic building’s is the Wren Library that can be spotted when approaching Trinity college from the river,
The building was completed in 1695 and the architecture is another great work of Christopher Wren’s. named after him
Sir Christopher Wren. an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England.
Some of the oldest works in the library date back to the 12th and 13th c.
It contains a collection of medieval and modern manuscripts.
Isaac Newton’s personal copy of the Principia Mathematica, which includes handwritten annotations, as well as over 70,000 books printed before 1820.
Modern manuscripts include the first Winnie the Pooh, written by former Trinity student A.A Milne as well as Bertrand’s Russell’s The Implications of the H-bomb.
The Walking Tour of Town's Center
A free guided Walking Tour of the town’s center, which Shuki was kind to arrange with an excellent History major graduate, exposed us to additional university buildings and Cambridge's fascinating academic history
Peterhouse, which was founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. is the oldest existing college
It has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate students, and 54 fellows.
Its notably eminent alumni within the natural sciences, include: scientists:
Lord Kelvin, Henry Cavendish, Charles Babbage, James Clerk Maxwell, James Dewar, Frank Whittle, and five Nobel prize winners in science: Sir John Kendrew, Sir Aaron Klug, Archer Martin, Max Perutz, and Michael Levitt.
After a period of depopulation due to on-going fighting during 1oth and 11 c and later due to the Black Death plague of 1349 and 1361 and merging of church communities, came a period in which 4 new colleges were established at the university over the following years to train new clergymen, namely:Gonville Hall Corpus Christi, Clare.
Trinity Hall, -a smaller, more intimate college. founded in 1350, by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, not to be confused with neighboring Trinity College, is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, established .
Gonville Hall 1348 Corpus Christi 1352 Clare 1326
Cambridge most notable buildings also include :
Cavendish Laboratory, and
Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world.
King's College Chapel was begun in 1446 by King Henry VI. who also opened Eton School for boys and wanted them to continue to Kings college. It was built in phases by a succession of kings of England from 1446 to 1515, a period which spanned the Wars of the Roses and three subsequent decades.
The chapel resembling the Notre Dame Cathedral of France was completed during the reign of King Henry VIII.
The Ceiling's fan vault
The structure is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault
The building would become synonymous with Cambridge, and currently is used in the logo for the Cambridge City Council.
The college, along with most others at the university, had been all-male since its foundation.
The first women students arrived at King's in 1972, one of the first three previously all-male colleges to admit women.
Alan Turing a British mathematician,who is considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and the breaking of the Enigma code, which was used by the German military to encrypt radio communications during World War II, studied and was a fellow here.. as did studied the writer/novelist Edward Morgan Foster ( A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924)
is one of the 16 "old colleges" , founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. and in 1465 re-founded by the rival queen Elizabeth Woodville, thus its named in plural.
Its buildings span the River Cam with the Mathematical Bridge and Silver Street connecting the two sides.
Popular fable has it that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts, and at some point in the past students or fellows attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together.
This story is false: the bridge was built of oak in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–1784) to the design of the master carpenter William Etheridge (1709–1776), 22 years after Newton died.
College notable alumni include Desiderius Erasmus, and writer Stephen Fry
The college is the third-oldest college (1347) one with an highest level of academic performance among all the Cambridge colleges; and one of the university's larger colleges, with over 700 students and fellows and with buildings from almost every century since its founding, as well as extensive gardens.
14th C Oldest Gate House The River's Boat House
Among Pembroke's alumni were William Pitt the Younger, the youngest ever British Prime Minister and Israeli politician Abba Eban
Named after English Henry Cavendish (1731- 1810) the experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air"
The Cavendish Laboratory is part of the School of Physical Sciences and has an extraordinary history of discovery and innovation in Physics, since its opening in 1874 under the direction of James Clerk Maxwell, the University's first Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics., Maxwell, a Scottish physicist and mathematician was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism achieved the second great unification in physics, where the first one had been realized by Isaac Newton. Maxwell was also key in the creation of statistical mechanics
Among the notable discoveries at the Cavendish Laboratory are the discovery of the electron, by JJ Thomson neutron, and structure of DNA.
Robert Oppenheimer , an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, was a research assistant at the Cavendish Laboratory and worked under J.J. Thomson,
The renowned sound engineer Ray Dolby (Dolby System) studied here
Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, was interested in science and industry and supported the Cavendish Laboratory's work through his role as Chancellor of Cambridge University
Prof. Stephen Hawking, the cosmologist and theoretical physicist worked at Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). when it was located at the old Cavendish Laboratory on Free School Lane.
The laboratory moved to its present site in West Cambridge in 1974
In the 19th c, in common with many other English towns, Cambridge expanded rapidly, due in part to increased life expectancy and improved agricultural production, bringing
the railway to Cambridge in 1845
During World War II, Cambridge was an important center for defense of the East coast.
This main research library of the University of Cambridge. is the largest of over 100 libraries within the university and is one of six legal deposit libraries under UK law.
It holds about 9 million items including: maps and sheet music. Through legal deposit, purchase and donations it receives around 100,000 items every year.
The University Library's original location was at the Old Schools which now houses the Cambridge University Offices and form the main administration for the University, near the Senate House , until it outgrew the space there.
A new library building was constructed in the 1930s.
The library took over the site of a former military hospital (1879) on the western side of Cambridge city center.
The current building, which opened in 1934 was designed by the known architect Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designing the iconic red telephone box.
Women were first admitted to Cambridge University in 1869 when Girton College was established, but they weren't allowed to earn degrees until 1948.
Girton college was established by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge
Named after one of the university's most famous families and alumni, that of Charles Darwin, it was founded in 1964, was first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and women. Between 650 and 800 students, mostly studying for PhD or MPhil degrees with strengths in the sciences, humanities, and law.
Among its alumni are several Nobel prize winners, prominent heads of government and state, politicians, diplomats, and scientists.
The college's buildings are known for their Georgian and Victorian architecture, gardens, and college site which is integrated into the nearby River Cam.
The city gained its second university in 1992 when Anglia Polytechnic became Anglia Polytechnic University. Renamed Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in 2005, the institution has its origins in the Cambridge School of Art opened in 1858 by John Ruskin.
Cambridge's two universities, the collegiate University of Cambridge and the local campus of Anglia Ruskin University, serve around 30,000 students,
90% of property in Cambridge belongs to the colleges.
More from the walk in Town Center
During the walk through Cambridge center one can not miss a large sculptural clock at street level on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, in the junction of Bene't Street and Trumpington Stree
A product of traditional mechanical clockmaking. it is entirely mechanically controlled, without any computer programming, and electricity is used only to power a motor, which winds up the mechanism, and Led lighting.
The clock's face is a rippling 24-carat gold-plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in diameter. without hands or numerals,
Time is displaced by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs; these slits are arranged in three concentric rings displaying hours, minutes, and seconds. It also features the world's largest grasshopper escapement an invention of the renowned 18-c clockmaker John Harrison, and John C Taylor, ( Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) who intended the Corpus Clock meant to be a homage to Harrison's work.
The Corpus Clock unveiled to the public in 2008 by Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking.
The clock was named one of Time's Best Inventions of 2008
Cambridge, has many historical churches, including parish churches, college chapels, and other churches. History has bequeathed 39 churches to the city and the surrounding area, In addition to King's Chapel mentioned earlier, another we passed on the walk worth mentioning is the oldest one.
The most notable aspect of this oldest (13C) parish Church of England in town, as well as the oldest building in Cambridge is its Anglo-Saxon, tower
The church is dedicated to Saint Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictine order of monasticism
Located on the south side of Bene't Street next to Corpus Christi College. Benet was the College's chapel until 1579. The College remains the church's patron, and there are continuing links between the church and the College chapel.
Shuki made sure we don't miss the experience of dinning in this iconic place
Located opposite Benet's church on the North side of Bene't Street the Pub originally opened in 1667, as a coaching inn
It is the second oldest pub in Cambridge, after the Pickerell Inn. (1608)
Among the regulars at Eagle were Watson and Crick, who discovered DNA and celebrated that phenomenon here,
which is commemorated on a blue plaque next to the entrance, and two plaques are in the middle room by the table where Crick and Watson lunched regularly
Also in 1953 Watson and Crick worked over lunch in the Eagle to draw up a list of the 20 canonical amino acids.
When the university's Cavendish Laboratory was still at its old site at nearby Free School Lane, the pub was a popular lunch destination for staff working there. Thus, it became the place where Francis Crick interrupted patrons' lunchtime on 28 February 1953 to announce that he and James Watson had "discovered the "secret of life" after they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA.
The anecdote is related in Watson's book The Double Helix,
It should be noted that while Rosalind Franklin - a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer , a graduate in natural sciences from the iconic women Newnham College, Cambridge, (1871) and Maurice Wilkins - a New Zealand-born British biophysicist and Nobel laureate, who also worked on isotope separation at the Manhattan Project at the CA Berkeley U , both conducted also a crucial research on DNA structure using X-ray diffraction,
It was Watson and Crick who published the paper proposing the double helix model of DNA, which is commonly referred to as "the helix," based on data including Franklin's key "Photo 51" image, which Wilkins shared with them without her knowledge; Franklin and Wilkins did publish their own findings alongside Watson and Crick's paper in the same issue of Nature, but their work did not explicitly present the double helix model
Rosalind Franklin. Emma Thomson Sylvia Plath
(By the way the American poet and author. Sylvia Plath and the British actress Emma Thomson were all, also graduates of Newnham College, Cambridge,
The Eagle Pub was also a popular meeting place to the hundreds of WW2 RAF pilots who left behind a wall of messages in the hope they were never forgotten. During the Second World War, Allied airmen, who drank and socialized there, used wax candles, petrol lighters and lipstick to write their names, squadron numbers and other doodles onto the ceiling of the rear bar.
The tradition is believed to have been started by RAF Flight Sergeant P. E. Turner, who climbed up on the table one night to burn his squadron number on the ceiling. The graffiti, in what is now known as the "RAF Bar",was uncovered, deciphered and preserved by former RAF Chief Technician James Chainey during the early 1990s
Other Cambridge's notable Pubs
Cambridge Iconic Restaurants Sampled
City Center, 16 Trinity St, Cambridge
A popular colorful chic place, covered by art with great ambiance and tasty food
We had a great time there.
6 Lensfield Rd, Cambridge
Anther great meal we had in this
more modest establishment but with very good food
We stayed at:
The Fellows House - Curio Collection by Hilton
33 Milton Road., +44 1223 949499
The contemporary designed hotel sits one mile from Cambridge City Center,
and is accessible to car, as parking in city center is impossible.
Jews of Cambridge
Jews have lived in Cambridge, England since the 13th c but the community has been established and re-established multiple times.
Cambridge had a significant Jewish community in the middle ages, centered on what is now known as All Saints Passage, then known as the Jewry. A synagogue stood nearby. In 1275, Eleanor of Provence expelled Jews from all of the towns within her dower lands, and the Jews of Cambridge were ordered to relocate to Norwich
Jews had began to resettle in Cambridge by the mid-18th c and the town is believed to have had an organized community by 1774. However, the community did not continue long into the 19th c and was defunct by the 1830s. It was then re-established in the 1840s.
By the early 21st c there were believed to be about 850 Jews in Cambridge, of whom about 500 were students.
An Orthodox and Reform synagogue existed.
Beth Shalom Reform Synagogue is (established in 1981) located on Auckland Road,
(more on Cambridge Jewish Community)
Edwin Samuel Montagu (1879-1924), British politician and Liberal Member of Parliament, who served as Secretary of State for India (1917-1922), was a graduate of Trinity College,. so was British born actress- Rachel Hannah Weisz (b. 1970),
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks gained a first-class honors degree (MA)
in Philosophy from Gonville & Caius College,
Sacha Baron Cohen (b. 1971), British television personality, comedian, actor, writer and producer, was a graduate of Christ's College,
The Jewish scholar Solomon Schechter is best remembered for his work on the Cairo Geniza. (here) a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents
“Solomon Schechter was only the second Jew to be appointed to a teaching position at Cambridge. St John’s College.
Judah Monis - (1700) born into a family of former Portuguese conversos was a teacher who taught Hebrew to Christian students. He was the first Jewish person to teach at Cambridge, but he was not officially a member of the university staff.
In Summary
Despite the change in weather, the 2 days' visit to this most amazing notable university town, a rival to Oxford, in the caring company of our dear friends was absolutely fabulous. Our friends hospitality attentiveness and knowledge, made the touring of town
so special and accessible. In addition to admiring the architecture, the gardens and the scientific discoveries, the innovations and innovators who have incubated and have risen up through the university's long history, are owe inspiring.
We enjoy the panting boat ride on the river, food tasting at the towns known pubs and restaurants , and the free guided tour of the town’s center, with also an excellent History major Cambridge graduate, But most special was spending the time with dear friends and entering into the premises of 2 notable colleges that our friend's affiliation gained us the access . A truly enchanted dream!!!
So once again a BIG THANK YOU Tali and Shuki for this unique enjoyable experience
THE END
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