I’d put the Botanic Gardens down on my weather dependent list and thankfully while there was a lot of heavy rain during my visit to Cambridge all of it occured in the evening long after I’d returned to my hotel. Thus I was able to spend several hours walking around the gardens without needing to worry about seeking shelter from the elements. The gardens contain over 8,000 plant species primarily as a teaching and research resource.
This war memorial can be found just outside the Botanic Gardens and is a rather well done figure of a marching soldier by Canadian sculptor Robert Tait McKenzie. He also designed the Scots American War Memorial in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
Long time readers will know that one of my favourite things to do is visit churches – not for any spiritual reason but architecturally and historically, and if it’s possible I take the opportunity to climb up into towers and onto roofs. Great St Mary’s is often recommended because its tower gives great views of the city, so I duly put it on my list of things I wanted to do.
To visit King’s College Chapel you must show your ticket at the Gate House and then walk around to the right and the entrance to the chapel. After you’ve finished in the Chapel though you are free to walk around some of the grounds. Note that the college buildings themselves are private but you can take photos outside and walk around the Back Lawn and down to the River Cam – basically the view you get from walking along the Backs as I had done previously, only this gives you a better close up of the exterior to the chapel.
The Round Church was modelled after the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as was the Temple Church in London and was built by crusaders in the 12th century. The rather striking polygonal tower sitting on top of the church was added during the 15th century.
I don’t often do audio tours when I’m travelling, I suppose because I always have a rough plan of what I want to see on any particular day and between that I enjoy wandering around the area following whatever route strikes my interest. On this occasion I had no real plan for the day I arrived in Cambridge and Booking.com was offering me a deal on this particular audio tour so after checking in at my hotel I headed out to explore the Cambridge Backs.
Eltham Palace and Gardens is an English Heritage property in London that has been on my to visit list for a very long time. Finally last October I set aside a day to visit. I travelled via train from London Bridge to Mottingham (about 20 minutes) then it was an easy 15 minute or so walk from the station to the Palace. As an English Heritage member admission was free. From the entrance with the car park (there is another entrance around the corner) you walk along a path by the side of the gardens until you’re crossing over the bridge and the moat as it was in the 14th century.
Another February, another Light Night event. This is a real highlight of the arts calendar in Nottingham and as ever there was so much going on that we always have to be quite selective about what we visit. We started off as we have before at Sneinton Market which had an interesting light display in a box named Geist, the design of which is based off of a neutrino or “ghost particle”.
This interesting monument just outside the centre of Cambridge and not far from the Fitzwilliam Museum was named for Thomas Hobson a local entrepreneur who carried goods between London and Cambridge and he gave money towards this project, a man-made watercourse providing clean water to the city. He’s also where the expression Hobson’s choice comes from*.
I’m on the Lakeside Arts mailing list so when I saw this exhibition advertised I immediately knew that I wanted to see it, and then proceeded to not find time to do so until it was nearly over (it ended on 7th January). Contemporary artists have come together to reimagine the Victorians through modern photography, sculpture and a surprising amount of taxidermy.
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