Saturday 4 June 2011

Roundup / Cambridge

I know I haven't posted for a while but we've been fairly busy. I had a birthday towards the end of May which was lovely and I got quite spoilt :)
 I now have my first Grandma mug from Alice 
 Claire and I met my friend Alison for coffee and cake in the morning which gave Ali a chance to play with Alice
 In the afternoon the family came round for (more) tea and cake but I didn't actually take many photos. I did get a few shots of Alice and Tyler - he was so sweet with Alice and such a help with handing out plates of food to everyone. Alice thought it was wonderful to have some little people around.
 Alice loves her Jumperoo and has been getting lots of use out of it - it's certainly been a good buy!
 This little toy has to be part of the appeal - it has material wings which she chews/sucks on all the time.
 Emily's half term was this week and we decided to take the opportunity to go on a little trip. We went to stay with my SIL in Thetford. They moved up to Thetford a few months ago and this was the first chance we'd had to go and visit. The  above photo was taken in our room for the time we were there and Beth was happy to see Emily again :)
 On Wednesday morning we caught the train into Cambridge. I warn you now that there are quite a few photos because we loved Cambridge - it's such a pretty place and the buildings are beautiful!
 One of the reasons we wanted to visit (we had been once before in Winter but it was too cold to fully appreciate everything then) is that Emily has her sights set on Oxford or Cambridge as her main choice of University. She's started looking early to get an idea of the Universities she likes (still 4 years before she'd actually be going to any) and I see nothing wrong with setting your sights on the top two :)
 The next few photos are of some of the colleges - mainly Kings College which I just love!
 Kings College

 Kings College on the left with the town on the right.
 We then went on a punt down the river - this was our punt coming in to the side for us to board. I was impressed that neither Emily or I fell into the water lol!
 I had been a bit unsure about the ride but am so glad we went because it was great fun and our punter gave us a running commentary on the different colleges we passed.
 Can you imagine this being your Halls of Residence? What a pleasure!
 The Bridge of Sighs, named after the one in Venice, which joins two parts of one of the colleges. We were told the only sighs heard were the sighs of relief or disappointment from the students who have to cross over the bridge to get their exam results and then back again.
Once the tour had finished, Emily and I crossed one of the bridges and walked along the opposite bank thinking we would cross back over at the next bridge.
 Unfortunately the other bridges were closed because students were writing their final exams and no tourists could enter so we walked round and back in to town again. It did mean we got to see Kings College from the other side of the river - another photo opportunity :)
 Crossing back into town we got a good view of the wooden bridge. 

By the end of the day our feet were aching and we were exhausted but I would do it all again without any hesitation. It was so nice to go somewhere where everyone was friendly and you felt at home as you walked around (even if you didn't know where you were going!).  Our next trip is likely to be to Oxford so we can have a look around the University there too. I imagine there will be more trips to other University towns in the months/years to come - what a good excuse to see some more of the UK! :)
And I'll end off for now with this photo of our lillies. They really have multiplied and are stunning this year. It's just a pity they don't last very long and will have gone over by the time Norma gets here in three weeks.

Now I've got a lot of blog reading to catch up on. I may not get a chance to comment on everyone's posts but will certainly be trying to catch up from where I left off.  I also have Project Life to catch up on as well - I could be busy this weekend :)
xx