Walking tour of Camebridge

This weekend I decided to take the short train trip to visit Cambridge. The city that is known around the world for its universities and I thought it would be worth a visit now when I was in the area. And it was. Although lockdown still is in place here in UK it was worth it. My walking tour this day in the city became 25 000+ steps long and although it would have been great to also visit some shops and have the coffee indoors it was all fine. Weather turned out to be as perfect as it could be a day in November I guess. Around 15 degrees and sunny. So let me show you what I found in the city.

City center

My walkingtour started with a visit to one of the local bakeries. There were lines outside all of them but I felt I needed some energy so got a freshly baked brownie and a drink to start with. Outside of course.

When energy levels were resettled I headed towards the main street. It felt international and the student vibe was there. I got a flashback to the days when I was a university student myself. Those were fun times. Especially when I was on exchange abroad. Alongside the streets there were cute historical buildings like the Round church below, cute right?

Waterways of Camebridge

River Cam is floating throughout the city and I took the walking path towards the technological museum. It was a nice walk and loads of people were outside enjoying the weather. I did though had some sights on my list. Among those was to see the classical Cambridge boats. Although November students were out on the river but they were closed for tourists like me.

Another sight I had planned to see were the two famous bridges. The Mathematical bridge (below) and also bridge of sighs, which was closed for restauration.

Chesterton road

There was a circle road around the city center called Chesterton road from where you could pass by the famous collages and get a nice view of Kings collage. However, due to the pandemic only students could enter the collage areas so I couldn’t get the perfect view I had in my mind.

The city still offered stunning buildings and like so many other places here a lot of churches. I thought they would all be closed now but they wasn’t. I didn’t entered any though.

I kept on walking, walking and walking. It was nice. Its though not logic to me at all with all these lockdown rules. Clothes and small shops selling crafts are not allowed to be open but huge grocery stores selling everything you can imagine as well as health shops selling teas, bars etc, and make-up shops selling multiple brands are allowed to stay open while the ones selling one brand isn’t. Although I needed a new mascara I didn’t got one. My shopping list of nice to have stuff is growing and growing and this year I have almost bought nothing due to no shopping motivation thanks to corona. Anyone else that have been running into the same shopping pattern this year?

Jesus green & Midsummer common

Walking around is energy demanding. I was planning on visiting one of the many shops at the market and get something to snack on but it was very crowded so instead I got a takeaway coffee and yoghurt from Starbucks and brought with me to enjoy while looking at people doing exercise at Jesus green. Then I walked a bit more and ended up visiting Midsummer common also before heading back to the train station wrapping up my visit to Cambridge.

So although lockdown I managed to do a small outdoor fieldtrip here in UK. It doesn’t feel like lockdown here at all it just feels like a Sunday every day in the medium sized city where I grew up.

/ Pernilla exploring outdoor UK during lockdown