July 18, 2017 Second Rest Day Cambridge

Cambridge is a really interesting city. It is set on a really beautiful setting along the banks of the River Cam.  Downtown is filled with wonderful old buildings and colleges dating back to the early 1700’s.  Just walking around downtown is a real treat.

This morning Agnes and I packed up early and took the bus downtown to explore the museums.  There are a total of 12 different museums each representing different fields of study.  Agnes wanted to see the Sedgewick Earth Sciences museum so it was the first stop.  This museum was founded as the Woodwardian Museum in 1728 and renamed after Adam Sedgewick as he was a major contributor to the collection.   This museum has collected major fossil collections and other geological collections to that they now have over 10,000 fossils and over two million rock samples.  One of the very interesting collections on display is the Darwin collection.  It was quite amazing to see Darwin’s actual note books on display.   They had a fossilized sider which was 18 inches across.  Scary.   It was a very interesting museum and by time we had gotten through it we were pretty much museum’ed out. 

Agnes and I had a quick sandwich in the park and then started wandering through the  art galleries.  We bought a very interesting print and a few souvenirs.  By now it was bus time and we walked back to the bus depot and caught a ride home.

Patrick and Jos were just finishing boxing their bikes when we arrived.  Jos headed downtown to attend a religious service in one of the cathedrals.  Patrick and I headed over to the local supermarket and picked up super.

Tomorrow we are off to Gatwick. Jos will drop the three of us so that  we will be poised to jump on the plane home first thing Thursday morning. Jos will then drop the van and head over to Heathrow for his flight.   It seems strange that this huge tour which had so much work put into it is all but over.

Terry