Cambridge Autumn Tour

The clock was pointed at 8 on saturday morning when I rushed to The Barber Institute of Arts, Birmingham University. I was going to Cambridge, a place where I called a 'romantic-science' city, along with at least 200 'tourists' from Birmingham University.

Cambridge is a wonderful fusion of the everyday and the extraordinary, a living city that has shaped history, that today reflects the best of historic and contemporary life and is continuing to make its mark on the future.

It is the city of crocuses and daffodils on the Backs, of green open spaces and cattle grazing only 500 yards from the market square. The Cambridge of Brooke, Byron, Newton and Rutherford, of the summer idyll of punts, 'bumps', cool willows and May Balls.

Yet Cambridge was important long before the University existed. Here, at the meeting of dense forests to the south and trackless, marshy Fens to the north, was the lowest reliable fording place of the River Cam, or Granta. In the first century BC an Iron Age Belgic tribe built a settlement on what is now Castle Hill. Around AD40 the Romans took over the site and it became the crossing point for the Via Devana which linked Colchester with the legions in Lincoln and beyond. The Saxons followed, then the Normans under William the Conqueror, who raised a castle on a steep mound as a base for fighting the Saxon rebel, Hereward the Wake, deep in the Fens at Ely. The motte of William's castle still stands and Ely Cathedral is visible from the top on a clear day.

The first scholars didn't arrive in Cambridge until 1209 and another 75 years passed before Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, the first college. Clare (1326), Pembroke (1347), Gonville and Caius (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352) were established in the first half of the fourteenth century. Ten more colleges were founded during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including Christ's (1505), King's (1441), Queens' (1448), Jesus (1496), St. John's (1511), Trinity (1546), and Emmanuel (1584).
Of all the colleges, the most romantic and beautiful college is King's college. Titi (my guide tour) said that the membership of King's college are mostly 'the haves' since the admission fee is so expensive. Well, it is still worthed to be a membership of a such prestigious college .

Although there was not quite a good weather to travel to at that time, yet Cambridge offered so many beautiful sceneries. One thing that should not be forgotten, The Galloway and Porter warehouse. For 'books maniac' (like me), this place is paradise. We can find so many books with a very low price. All books are sold out at 1 and 2 pounds. My eyes were wide open when I saw so many interested books with lowest price. No wonder why I called it "The Book Paradise".

Well, hopefully, I can spend some time again in the 'romantic-science' city.