Cambridge

My flight left on Wednesday night and was relatively uneventful except for the fact that the movie system wasn't working for more than half the seats, including mine. So, I didn't get to watch any movies during the flight. I did, however, manage to sleep a fair bit, which helped me deal with the jet lag.

I arrived Thursday morning around 11:00am - half an hour early, but we didn't get to leave the plane early because we had to parking spot and had to sit on the tarmac until 11:30 anyway. The passport lineup was insanely long and slow and I must have spent about 45 minutes there. However, this made it really quick to pick up my luggage, which had long-since arrived on the carousel. After collecting my luggage, it was a piece of cake to find Amanda and Ray and head out of Heathrow.

I snoozed a little on the drive back to Cambridge, but not too much - I wanted to stay awake as long as possible! Once in Cambridge, we dropped Amanda back off at work for the afternoon and went back to their house to drop off my stuff. I changed into non-travel clothes and then Ray and I went down to his gym and sat in the hot tub for awhile. Very relaxing!! Next, we stopped in to see Amanda's office and walk home with her, before getting dressed to go to formal hall dinner at Amanda's friend's college. Formal hall is a fancy dinner - drinks, wine, many courses, fancy clothes, distinguished Cambridge scholars. I can't say I was the most lively that evening, since I was feeling pretty tired, but it helped to keep me awake until bed time so I could adapt to England time.

The next day Amanda headed off to work while Ray and I lazed around home in the morning. I was working on applying for a patent on my research project before my conference, so I spent a bunch of time emailing with the lawyers and preparing information for them. Next, we ran some errands in downtown Cambridge and met Amanda for lunch at the Eagle pub. This pub is really cool because it's the place where Watson and Crick, the fathers of DNA, met to discuss and solve the structure of DNA - a very important moment in scientific history. So, I really like going to this pub because I've never been to a place with such an importatn science history! Anyway, after lunch Ray and I went home and relaxed/had a little nap (well, I did, not Ray) while we waited for Mom and Dad to arrive with Iris and Jos, my great aunt and uncle who live in North West England. Once they arrived, we visited for awhile until Amanda got off work and then we headed out for dinner at a restaurant called "The Bridge".
This is in Amanda and Ray's living room.
Our table at The Bridge:After dinner, we dropped off the folks at a nearby B&B and headed to bed ourselves.

The next day we enjoyed some pastries for breakfast (mmmm...pain au chocolat!!) and met the folks for a short walk down to the river and back. We walked down the hill to the main bridge into Cambridge downtown from our direction. You can see the punts lined along the riverbank - shallow boats that are propelled with a long pole, preferably enjoyed with some nice wine or champagne! It's a great way to see Cambridge! Anyway, we didn't partake of them today, but have in the past.There was a black swan in the river near the punts:The other swans don't like him so he's friends with the ducks.
Here I am with Mom and Dad near the river:We continued along the river for a ways, seeing more punts parked along the way. The weather was beautiful this day.
Back across another small footbridge and we started our return trip. I took this picture of Mom and Amanda there:Once back at home, we headed out to Grantchester for lunch at a wonderful place called The Orchard, which will be further detailed in the next entry.