Cambridge – April 20, 2013

On Saturday, April 20, T.T.-B. and I hopped on a NationalExpress bus and made our way out to beautiful Cambridge!

It was an absolute georgeous day out, so we walked around town from 11 in the morning till 7 at night! Some of the sights we took included many of the Cambridge University colleges, in particular Kings College with is famous Chapel. We intended to hear the choir sing at the 5pm service but unfortunately it was cancelled that particular day! I was so disappointed.

We also walked along the Cam River and watched the people out punting. Apparently this is the thing to do in Cambridge. You rent a boat, with or without a tour guide/experienced punter, and then push your way leisurely down the river. Some boats (hen parties I think) were popping champagne bottles and enjoying a glass of bubbly in the sunshine.

One of our main stops, which took up most of the afternoon, was checking out the Botanical Gardens! The flower beds were absolutely beautiful and we really enjoyed taking a relax stroll around the HUGE property.

We managed to get into the Eagle for lunch – it is a historic pub where Dr. James Watson and Professor Francis Crick did most of their “thinking” at the time when they discovered DNA. The Eagle also has a really cool ceiling in its back room area, which is covered in writings from the war.

Check out the photos below 🙂

xox

Oxford (March 2, 2013)

This journal entry is WAY over due, but on March 2nd myself, I.F. and T.T-B hopped on a train early one Saturday morning and headed out over the English countryside to the beautiful town of Oxford! It was quite a lovely day!

The main purpose of our trip was to go to the Bodelian Library at Oxford University where we were all going to do some research – for me, I was looking for books on Karlheinz Stockhausen, a composer who’s compositions for flute I just gave a lecture-recital on at Memorial University back on March 28th.

The Bodelian library is absolutely beautiful but we had a bit of an adventure trying to get inside! Apparently non-research students like I.F. and myself aren’t supposed to be allowed in during term time (which it was) but they let us in anyway because our books were already called over and we had made a special trip just to see them!

It ended up being a good research trip, but we also had fun exploring the various markets (T.T.-B. and I found a tack shop even! Having buyers regret now that I didn’t get the gold whip 😦 ), the Oxford University Press book shop and a really great music store where I got some lovely books for young kids and a good Henle Verlag copy of Vivaldi C+ concerto !

T.T.-B. headed back to London a few hours ahead of I.F. and myself – we hit up a wonderful little pub hidden away down a small lane. You’ll see in the pictures, it was just fantastic, if a bit chilly out!

xox

All in all, a LOVELY trip to Oxford.