visit cambridge

Visit Cambridge, like Oxford, is forever linked with the venerable university that has flourished here on the banks of the River Cam for 7 centuries. Before the great university took root here, Cambridge was known to the Romans as a place to ford the River Cam, and housed several monastic settlements in the Middle Ages. Obviously,
the chance to step into a few of the 31 colleges and view their architectural wonders is what brings many visitors to Cambridge. But you’re in for a pleasant surprise—this
town that rises from marshy lands known as fens is itself a gem, an appealing blend of
busy markets and shops, medieval architecture, and grassy riverside meadows and
parklands. There’s even a nice 21st-century buzz to the place, as dot-commers settle
into what has become known as “Silicon Fen.”

Getting from London to Cambridge:

Train to Cambridge:

Trains depart from London as often as every 15 minutes throughout the
day. (Other trains take a bit over an hour.)
The first direct train from London departs at 4:45am and the last direct train returns
to London at 11:21pm. The standard day return fare is £17 ($31).
The Cambridge train station is located south of town on Station Road.
You can walk or take a bus or taxi from the train station to Market Square and the
center of town, about a mile (1.5km) away; buses run about every 15 minutes and the fare is 90p ($1.70).

Bus to Cambridge:

Buses operated by National Express leave London’s Victoria Coach Station for Cambridge every half-hour to hour
throughout the day. Try to take a bus that makes the trip in less than 2 hours—some
make more stops and take quite a bit longer. The day return fare is £10 ($19). An
advantage to taking the bus rather than the train is the central location of the Cambridge bus station, on Drummer Street at the edge of the city-center pedestrian zone.

Cambridge by car:

Cambridge is about 60 miles (97km) north of London on the M11. Parking in Cambridge is scarce and rather expensive.
There are public lots scattered throughout the city center; these include Lion Yard
Car Park, Grafton Centre Car Park, Park Street Car Park, and Queen Anne Terrace
Car Park. You’ll pay about £1.40 ($2.30) per hour for parking, and about £12 ($22) for 4 or 5 hours. The park-and-ride sites in outlying areas (well marked from entrances to the city) are less expensive, and regular bus service connects them with the city center.

GETTING AROUND Cambridge:

Cambridge (pop. 111,000) is an easily walkable city with two main streets. Trumpington Road—which becomes Trumpington Street, King’s Parade, Trinity Street, and finally St. John’s Street—runs parallel to the River Cam and provides easy access to several of the colleges. Bridge Street, the city’s main shopping zone, starts at Magdalene
Bridge; it becomes Sidney Street, St. Andrew’s Street, and finally Regent Street.
Taxis are available at the train station; if you need one elsewhere in town, call A1 Taxis.

Cambridge hotels:

There are plenty of Good hotels in Cambridge and cheap hotels in cambridge, just use our search box to get one.

A Day in Cambridge:

You won’t have time to see all the colleges, and some are not of great architectural interest anyway. To see a nice swath of colleges from the outside and to get a sense of the university’s grandeur, take a stroll along the Backs—the meadows between the colleges
and the River Cam.
Start at 1 Market Square . From there, follow King’s Parade and take a right on
Silver Street to 2 Queens’ College (& 01223/335-511), founded in 1448 and
named for Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry VI, and Elizabeth, wife of Edward
IV. The college straddles both banks of the River Cam, which you cross using the
famous wooden Mathematical Bridge—or infamous, as unfounded stories hold that
students have taken it apart and been unable to reconstruct it. The bridge is one of
many architectural landmarks at Queens’ College that include the handsome brick
16th-century President’s Lodge, and The Tower, where the great scholar, Erasmus,
lived from 1510 to 1514. Hours vary, but the college is generally open to the public
from October 20 to March 21, daily from 1:45 to 4:30pm; at other times, from 10 or
11am to 4:30pm—check at the porter’s lodge. The entrance fee is £1.50 ($2.75).
Head back down King’s Parade to 3 King’s College (& 01223/331-100,
or 01223/331-155 for the chapel), founded by Henry VI in 1441 and justifiably
famous for its choir and the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is
broadcast every Christmas Eve. Even without the presence of these heavenly voices,
the chapel is a fairly transcendental place, with its incredible fan vaulting, stained-glass
windows, and, behind the altar, Rubens’s glorious Adoration of the Magi, painted in
1634. Step into the small exhibition room to read about the chapel’s history.
Try to attend a choral service for the full experience. You can normally hear Evensong
Monday through Saturday at 5:30pm and Sunday at 10:30am and 3:30pm, but only during university terms and during the first half of July; call to check. The chapel is closed December 26 through January 1, and
often without notice for recording sessions and rehearsals. King’s Parade turns into Trinity Street, which will lead you to 4Trinity College
the largest and wealthiest of Cambridge’s colleges, founded by
Henry VIII in 1546. (The king is irreverently commemorated in a statue on the Great
Gate in which he clutches a chair leg instead of a sword—the alteration was a student
prank.) Trinity has produced 31 Nobel Laureates and famous alumni include former
Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru; the scientist Sir Isaac Newton; poets and
writers Francis Bacon, Lord Tennyson, Lord Byron, Andrew Marvell, and John Dryden;
and philosopher Bertrand Russell. The 2-acre (.8-hectare) Great Court—the
largest enclosed courtyard in Europe—is the scene of the Great Court Run, the point
of which is to run around the court in the time it takes the clock to strike noon, a
scene you may remember from the movie Chariots of Fire. Pass through the hall at the
west end of the court to Nevile’s Cloister and the impressive Wren Library, designed
by Sir Christopher Wren, the 17th-century architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Wren also designed many of the furnishings in the library, and among busts of Sir Isaac Newton and other famous alumni you’ll come upon a statue of Lord Byron,sculpted by Danish Neoclassicist Bertel Thorvaldsen in the early 19th century and intended for Westminster Abbey. The college (not including the library) is open to the public daily from 10am to 5pm, but it closes during exams and at other periods, and
certain parts may be closed the day you visit; ask at the porter’s lodge before you pay admission, which is £2.20 ($4.10) for adults, £1.30 ($2.40) for seniors and students.
The library is open free of charge to the public Monday to Friday from noon to 2pm and Saturday from 10:30am to 12:30pm.
From the library, head toward the Backs and follow the Cam up to 5 St. John’s Bridge , a replica of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice; the span joins the New Court of St. John’s College, a 19th-century neo-Gothic fantasy of pinnacle and towers students
call the “Wedding Cake,” with the older, authentically Tudor section of the college,founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII, in 1511; the poet William Wordsworth was an alumnus of St. John’s. Take St. John’s Street to Magdalene (pronounced “maud-len”) Street. It leads to 6 Magdalene College (& 01223/
332-100), where the Pepys Library houses the diarist’s collection of 3,000 volumes
(open to the public 2 hr. a day; check with the porter); and Jesus College (& 01223/
339-339), founded in 1492 on the site of a nunnery. The chapel has been enlivened
with stained-glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones and a ceiling by William.

restaurants in cambridge:

The Anchor PUB Looking out on a raft of punts and the willow-fringed river
from a position opposite Queen’s College, the Anchor is loaded with atmosphere—
inside you’ll find wooden beams, sloping ceilings, and odds and ends such as cider
pots and prints. It serves such traditional homemade English pub grub as battered cod
and plaice; lamb-and-vegetable or leek-and-potato pies; or sausage, eggs, and chips.
Come here for real ale, as well as the usual selection of lagers and bitters.

What to do in Cambridge:

• A concert by the internationally famous King’s College Choir.
• The eclectic Fitzwilliam Museum, where you can see the first draft of
Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.”
• The Tower at beautiful Queens’ College, where the great scholar, Erasmus,
lived from 1510 to 1514.
• Punting along the River Cam

 willow-fringed river
from a position opposite Queen’s