An English Idyll

Its been a perfect English summer day in which we have somehow packed a whole host of activities.

We walked into Cambridge centre this morning under a perfect, clear, summer sky to partake of a good old English roast and a ploughmans meal. Afterwich we went on a tour of the famous Kings Chapel. The word magnificent is too small a word to describe the overawing architecture and
grandiose, gothic fan vaulted ceilings.
The builing of the chapel & college was initiated by Henry VI in 1441. Kings was one of his two royal and religious foundations, the other being Eton College. However Kings College wasnt fully completed until a century later. The awesome and inspiring nature of this edifice is as impressive today as it mustve been to medieval minds when it was built. Even the large wooden doors inside, and still used today, bear the royal seals of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn carved into them.

After our tour we met up with some of Julies friends and drove out to a charming village called Grantchester. Here we had afternoon tea and scones in a tea room called The Orchard.
The Orchard was, at the start of the century, a meeting place for a group of intellectuals amongst them Virginia Woolf (author), Rupert Brooke (poet), Bertrand Russell (philosopher) and Maynard Keynes (economist).
Right next door is the house and residence of Jeffrey Archer, in the front of which, is a life size bronze statue of Rupert Brooke in WWI military uniform.
Rupert Brooke was sadly to die in 1915 but is immortalized by the words of his poem “The Soldier” ….
” If I should die, think only this of me:
That theres some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England ”

After this we headed off to Ely, a small town north of Cambridge were we able to walk around the towering Ely Cathedral. The countryside around Ely is lush and green, made so by the extremely rich and fertile soil produced by the draining of the fens. It is therefore very flat apart from the so called Isle of Ely, upon which the Cathedral is built. Consequently the Cathedral can be seen from afar. As you approach it the sheer scale and overpowering beauty of it slowly dawns upon you, until you find yourself standing below its towering sides. Its much older than Kings Chapel and built along Romanesque lines. The cathedral dates back to the 11th century (1081) but has been a site of Christian worship for over 1300 years!

We finished up the day with a pub lunch by the river in Ely before returning back to Cambridge.

Truly a memorable and very enjoyable day!

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