a little punting

- A bike in front of St. Mary's College -

This morning Michaele and I left Ted Lewis at 8:30 and walked to Robbins Hall, the other residence hall near the Enfield campus. We met Megan and Damon at Robbins and sat with them in their kitchen as they finished up breakfast and prepared for our day trip to Cambridge. We walked from Robbins to the Ponders End train station and bought a return ticket.

As we were waiting for the train, another train, the Stanstead express would rip past the platform at incredible speeds unannounced, a frightening experience if you were not paying attention. The weather was typical, overcast and bitter cold for the morning. We boarded the train and then changed trains to catch the one to Cambridge. The ride was very scenic as we sped north out of London and into English countryside of sheep and rolling green hills. We arrived in Cambridge about an hour later.



We walked out of the station and immediately noticed the increase of students in the town, they were everywhere. We grabbed a coffee and some munchies at a French café on the corner and began on our walking tour of the city. Cambridge has 32 total colleges within the city. All of the colleges have massive campuses made up of ancient stone architecture and towering cathedrals. After asking, we learned that this week is fresher’s week, a week where freshman are introduced to the workings of the school – we saw tons of tours being lead around the colleges.

We ate lunch on a bench in one of the gardens and then headed towards King’s College. Many of the large colleges are located along a river that winds around the outside of the city and under ancient stone bridges. The river is usually busy with people riding in boats that are being punted. Punting is the act of propelling the boat through the water by sticking a long pole to the bottom of the river and pushing – similar to the gondolas in Venice. The moment we saw the boats travelling down the picturesque river, we knew what our next activity was going to be.



Megan, Damon, Michaele and I headed to the Punting dock where Cambridge University students were all dressed up as pirates boarding the boats. It was quite humorous to watch the new students try and push the long boats through the water, but then we realized that we were next, and probably wouldn’t be laughing when we went in circles. The four of us were given our own boat and punting pole for one hour, and no instruction on how to use it. Damon was the first punter and did an excellent job propelling us down the river.


It was also quite humorous to see the other people punting. Many of the tourists just signed up for the guided punting tour, where they just sit in a luxury boat and have some Cambridge senior punt them down the river, explaining the sights, using the same jokes on each run. Ourselves on the other hand, decided to go for the self guided adventure.

The only close call was when Megan was punting, the boat rocked quite violently and she almost lost her footing – that would have been a chilly swim. I also got kind of tangled into some willow trees while punting, but all was well. It was a very peaceful time and made for some great laughs and beautiful sights. Damon was the champion punter of the day, he credits his English blood.

After returning our boat, we walked to the circle church – a church modelled after the temple in Jerusalem, and headed to Weatherspoons for dinner before catching the 7:30 train back to Enfield. Cambridge is one of the most beautiful cities I have been to, and it was defiantly worth the visit.