Our first venture to Cambridge

Today was our first "free" weekend day with nothing planned to do, so we planned to head into Cambridge! We went after Charlotte's morning nap. While she was eating breakfast, we looked outside and saw the surprise of snow falling! A rare occurrence around here, they say. Paul got a few pictures.

At the recommendation of friends, and our close friend Rick Steves (ha), we used the Park & Ride system. You park the car, pay a £1 parking fee, and purchase roundtrip tickets for only £2.50 per adult for the bus into town. Then you don't have to worry about driving around narrow Cambridge and trying to find a place to park. We weren't sure, but once we saw Cambridge's layout, we were glad to not be dealing with driving there! The bus driver on the way there was super nice, and [I assume upon hearing our accents] gave us lots of information about which stop to get off, how to get back on, the way to various colleges, etc. So kind! I was happy that we could just leave Charlotte in the "pram" on the bus since there were no wheelchair users on our bus at the time.

Not so sure about this.

I have mittens on.

 We wandered around Cambridge without worrying about looking at the map -- just wanting to get a feel of the town. We walked past a few of the colleges but didn't go in today -- saw Magdalene College, Trinity College, and passed by Kings College Chapel as well. We came upon some picturesque alleys, but felt a little overwhelmed on the full streets with all the pedestrians & bicyclists. We agreed that we will be wary of coming to the city on a nice Saturday during the warmer months -- I'm sure the place is mobbed! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and warm up at one point (just take & go sandwich & drink). My favorite part was walking along the River Cam at the end of our afternoon -- very picturesque, even in the wintertime. It wasn't hard to decline the people trying to sell tickets for punting in the river... way too chilly for that. We had a nice time just walking around -- looking forward to taking a tour another time!