Half term, 2016, October.
Not had much of an update on this for a while, not really sure why I have stopped updating, I guess I am just far too lazy which is a shame. Anyway – we went to two University Cities this half term.
I always take this week off, as my birthday always falls within it, and its a good excuse to go away for a few days. Initially we ummed and arred about going abroad, but because we always leave things until late, the only places were Ibiza and Corfu, anywhere near in budget, and both of them have rain (potentially), so why fly miles away when we can have rain here…
Left on Sunday morning, for the three and a half hour drive across to Cambridge, it’s been many years since I came here last, which was when I was working on a project in work based in Cambridge. Mrs Sat Nav really wanted us to go across the M4/M25/M11 but I was insistent that we go up to Birmingham and do M5/M42/M6/A14 which meant we had a frosty half an hour in the car whilst she insinuated that my navigational skills were rubbish, in the end I won though. Ha! Take that TomTom..
Missed a turning and ended up coming into Cambridge from Arbury side, which meant I could bore the passengers with a very quick detour to Perse Way, where I first rented a house for my short time in Pipex at the Science Park – around twenty years ago! Quicker than expected we were into the center and after a slight queue and me being completely confused we arrived at the hotel. Another Premier Inn, but as we will see later perhaps the last?
Far too early to check in, we got our bearings and took the shortish walk down New Street to the Grafton Center. Gosh, it looked a little different – as I tried to work out just what I expected to be there we walked down the road towards Parker’s Piece. Straight across here and you are on the main drag into the town center.
Watch out for bikes! They are everywhere and anywhere and no-surely-not-there, but we navigated the cycle-tide and managed to get ourselves to a place that pretty much summed up what they sold – Bread and Meat.
We had some bread and meat.
After that we mooched around the corner to spend £11 climbing some spiral stairs to have a crap view from the top of “Great” St Marys church, it was closed for visitors on the Monday onward, such a shame they hadn’t started on the Sunday…
After this, a little bit more of a walk North, then down Trinity Lane and over the Cam to walk along the backs. Luckily, it was a pretty nice day for us, so after ear-wigging the punters (and not so secretly hoping one of them would fall in), we had a nice little stroll down the back of the uni’s.
Once complete we went to find the old Crown Plaza (which is now a Hilton) and took a stroll out across the town to the “North side”. We stopped here for a quick beverage, but as time was getting on, we decided to head back to the hotel to check in.
Once back, we had a sit down, and at 5:45 decided that we didn’t have the energy to head back to town, so went to visit the bar. They had no Vodka, which is quite amazing, and no Coffee – however they did have a happy hour, so we had four Miguels and four buds for fifteen quid – can’t knock that. Then, as we had beer, Pizza was the favored supper, so next door to a very tasty Pizza Hut. Then bed.
Next day we arose early, then waited around for 2 hours whilst daughter got her act together, then we headed back into town, with a plan. That plan initially required a visit to The Eagle, where we we going to have breakfast, but there were no punters, so we just walked through and had a look at the RAF bar – but didn’t eat. Instead we went to the Copper Kettle – I used to love the one in H/West, and their Sausage, Chips and gravy – but this one was not so good.
After breakfast we headed right out North as far as possible and looked around all the streets we missed on Sunday. Unfortunately none of the colleges were open to the public today – unless you wanted to part with some folding – so we walked to Silver Street and as luck would have it, waited 5 mins for the “tour bus”. We always go on these as its a good way to see around, but this one was a bit hopeless. For somewhere which is so great, the tour doesn’t have a lot to say, but it took us around, and we listened to some bloke say something about a city or university or something.
After that it was lunch, so daughter suggested we go to Byron’s, which was pretty good – ordered a medium rare burger, which was actually medium rare – and pretty tasty. All good.
Just around the corner from Byron, is the Varsity Hotel and Spa – which has a little entrance hall, and a lift right up to the top which has an roof top bar. Which was great, but cold today (although the supplied blankets!), the view is great (well, you could see a lot of cranes) but the drinks are expensive. We had two, and they cost the same as eight had done yesterday. Good experience though, it’s rammed in the Summer, as you would imagine, but in October – plenty of places.
We walked back into town and popped in the Regal for a quick one – an old haunt of my CPR2 days, and then over to the Vue cinema for a relax. Really fantastic reclining, comfy, massive chairs here – pity the film (Inferno) was shit.
It was now about 8, so we walked down the East Road to see what food we could find down Regent Street, we found an ace little Chinese right at the top – Yim Wah Express , which was nice, and ordered a load of stuff that was really very good.
Then back down the dark streets to the hotel, where we found that the cleaner had stolen one cube of daughters fudge. How odd.