To Cambridge

We spent today (Saturday) in Cambridge. On the map, Oxford and Cambridge do not appear to be that far apart—probably less than 100 miles. But there is no direct way to get from one to the other. The train goes from Oxford to London's Paddington Station, then take the tube to Kings Cross Station, then another train from Kings Cross to Cambridge. We decided against that and signed up for a tour bus instead. Most of the people on the tour were international students and we had a lot of free time to wander around in Cambridge so it worked out well. The trip there was about two hours on the freeway, which looks similar to main highways in other places. We did note a few things to comment on.

First, we saw our first gas stations (petrol in the UK) since we have been here. There are none near us or in our regular walking circuit. Petrol was listed at 1.189 so you have to do the conversion. One pound nineteen pence is about $2.30. The price is listed per liter and there are slightly less than four liters to the gallon, so the total price is about $9 per gallon. Have we mentioned how many people bicycle? Second, we saw a horse van exiting the highway and headed for Newmarket. Those of you who read Dick Francis will recognize the significance of that.

(Speaking of Dick Francis, we have not mentioned that this week is the Royal Ascot horse races. We don’t know much about horse racing, but it seems to be an occasion for people to appear on the BBC wearing silly hats. All of the men are wearing top hats—it looks like the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club only not so distinguished—and the women are wearing a diverse selection of large floppy hats, similar to the type that bridesmaids are sometimes forced to wear. No one seems to be embarrassed by their hats, so perhaps we are missing something.)

Oh, and we also went to Cambridge. We crossed the bridge over the River Cam, even seeing the mathematical bridge between the halves of Queens College. (We had never heard of the mathematical bridge, and now we have seen the original at Cambridge and a copy at Iffley on consecutive Saturdays.)

Realizing that we have some regular readers who are graduates of the University of Cambridge, we will keep all comparisons between Oxford and Cambridge to ourselves except to comment that the University was founded in 1209 so it is coming up on its nona-centennial (its millennial minus a century? Its CM?) anniversary celebration next year. Second, Cambridge has produced many more Nobel winners but Oxford has produced more prime ministers. To us as visitors, Oxford is a small city with a university—it has had industries such as Oxford University Press and the Morris Motor Car Company (makers of the MG, among others)—while Cambridge seems like a university town. Albeit an old town, founded by the Romans, and an old and distinguished university. Missoula, Montana is also a university town, but even a casual visitor could tell it from Cambridge.

Trinity College, Cambridge

This post is getting long and I have barely described what we saw. Perhaps we need another posting with the facts. One important thing is that we had lunch in the Eagle Pub, which is where Watson and Crick hung out. It is also where Crick told everyone that he and Watson should get a pint on the house since they had solved the secret of life after they figured out the structure of DNA.


So now Phil has become one of the few geneticists who has made the pilgrimage to two of the birthplaces of genetics—Mendel’s pea garden in Brno and the Eagle Pub in Cambridge. If you ask how many geneticists have been to both of those places AND to Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, well, he may be one of a kind.

Encaenia

Right about now, you are probably surfing over to Websters online dictionary to figure out what the title of this post means. No need-- just click this link: Encaenia for an explanation. In plain English, it is the presentation of honorary degrees to distinguished Oxford alums at the end of the academic year. At US colleges, it is usually a part of commencement ceremonies. There is quite a bit of pomp and circumstance associated with this event here at Oxford-- what would you expect from the oldest academic institution in the world?

I had questioned the library guide the day before about the exact route of the procession (it changes every year), and I was pleased to have gotten accurate information from her-- I had a front row space along the barricade to get pictures. When I arrived on campus, the streets were full of English bobbies, plainclothes policemen with earpieces scanning rooftops, and a noisy group of animal rights protestors. At precisely 11:30, the bells of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin began ringing and the procession started, the university chancellor and vice-chancellors in the lead as marshalls.


The remainder of the group followed through Radcliffe Square in their scarlet and blue academic regalia, depending on their degree and area of discipline. They went through the big wooden doors of Bodliean Library's quadrangle, through the Divinity School (see yesterday's entry), and entered the Sheldonian Theatre for the ceremony.


Attendance at this ceremony is by invitation only--closed to the public-- but it was fun to catch a bit of Oxford's grand academic tradition.
--Deb

Librarian's Turn

Yesterday was a typical work day for Philip-- he's making good progress on the book's glossary and should finish it in the next few days. So I took advantage of the day to re-visit the Bodleian Library for a guided tour. (Something I didn't imagine any of our future visitors would have a remote interest in seeing)

The architecture of the library is a wonderful example of English Gothic, built in 1602. Unfortunately, they don't allow photographs taken of the reading rooms, but I did get this photo of the Divinity School.




Those of you who are Harry Potter fans will recognize this as Hogwarts Infirmary and the room where Professor McGonagall taught dancing.

The Bodleian Library is strictly a reference library--no books are lent. And it is what is called "a legal deposit" library, meaning it is entitled to a free copy of every book published in Britain. As a person who spends her days cataloging books, I found that to be a bit intimidating. (I could only imagine the folks somewhere in the bowels of the library toiling away at their computers...) They have 120 miles of shelves between several buildings and have a unique pneumatic tube system (like at a drive-up bank teller) whereby you write on a piece of paper what book you want and within 3 hours it will be delivered to you! Some of the books are housed off-site... in abandoned saltmines in Cheshire-- they found the saltmines to be a perfect environment to store books! If you need one of those books, it will take 3 days. (Newtown Public Library needs its own saltmine for withdrawals...)

Later in the evening, it happened that Alison, Andy and I were all at our computers at the same time, so we had an impromptu Skype 3-way conference call. For those of you who aren't familiar with Skype, it is a program which allows you to call other computers anywhere in the world for free and you speak through your computer's microphone. Phil snapped this picture of me talking with them. Fun!


--Deb

Addison's Walk

Having done some investigating on the web about where we might attend a Sunday worship service, we were delighted to find an Evangelical Free Church nearby. It seems that Magdalen Road Church had outgrown their church building and are now meeting in the local elementary school --and that school is about 50 yards down Meadow Lane from us! They were warm and welcoming-- a great congregation with a wonderful mix of ages and we felt very at home there. We chatted with the pastor on our way out-- I suspect we will go back next Sunday.

We spent a sunny afternoon walking the path at Magdalen College (one of the 39 colleges that comprise Oxford University) called Addison's Walk. The gardens at the beginning of the nature walk are in their their glory right now.

The walk takes you along the River Cherwell where we spent a fair amount of time watching people out punting-- some people are definitely better at this than others! This photo was taken at the landing, where it was amusing to see everyone trying to navigate around one another.


To celebrate our anniversary, we stopped at the Mirch Masala , an Indian restaurant in our neighborhood and enjoyed their Sunday buffet. Another fun day in Oxford.

Iffley

We have spent the first ten days in Oxford itself so we thought that we should try going a bit out-of-town yesterday. It was a day of discovery. We walked the towpath south along the Thames downstream to the village of Iffley. It is a very pleasant stroll of about a mile with the river on one side and meadows on the other. There were boats and people crewing on the river, as well as a steady flow of ducks and geese. Based on our observations, the goal in crewing is to be the person who sits in the back shouting directions—the other people seem to be working pretty hard. We then came to the Iffley lock, one of three locks on this part of the Thames built in 1632. (Although the current lock is pretty new—only about 1820.) The lock was surprisingly (to us at least) busy on Saturday morning. This lock will never be confused with the Hiram Chittenden locks that we used to go to Seattle—and still a favorite of Alison’s—but it is still fascinating to watch.


After watching the boats for awhile, we crossed over a bridge to the village of Iffley. It is the picture of an English village, at least as we imagine it. There are stone walls along narrow lanes, inns with thatched roofs, and a pub named the Prince of Wales (we did not stop today). We also discovered the Norman church, built in 1160 and remaining in use for more than 800 years. (We “discovered” it in the sense that we had not heard or read much about it. It holds services every Sunday morning so clearly the locals had never lost it.) It is a spectacular old stone church, with elaborate carvings, stained glass windows, and imposing thick walls. We sat there and had our lunch (of Cheshire cheese—another in our continuing efforts to live like the locals) and wandered around inside and out. It is such an easy walk and so close by that we expect to go back.

Today at the church was an arts and crafts festival to raise money for some local charity, so naturally we had to see what that was like. The crafts were not so different than what we would see in the states—tables with handmade jewelry, sewing and knitting, some flower arrangements, some pottery, some stained glass, handmade cards and stationery. Our one-pound admission gained us complimentary tea so we sat and drank tea and ate strawberries and cream. We also purchased some of the baked goods for a treat tonight.

Then we walked home. It is amazing how a quiet and peaceful stroll can occur not far from busy highways. In the distance we could hear sirens and cars, but in the foreground, it was the lapping water, the birds, and the ding of bicycle bells as they passed. (And one American student who talked, loudly and non-stop, most of the walk back. You can always identify Americans because we are so noisy—you can tell an American, but you can’t tell us much.) We have also enjoyed another beautiful day—temperatures in the 60s, some clouds but no rain. So far we have had only one day with rain. We could not have asked for a much more pleasant day.