Our last day before heading into London was one of the best days on the trip. We left Stamford and drove to Cambridge and were able to check into our Airbnb there early which was great! Once we had deposited all our stuff and parked the car, we walked along the river from the Airbnb to the center of the town. Our first stop was the Westfield House and Redeemer Lutheran Church there in Cambridge. The pastor there (who had preached in Oxford at the mission) had invited us to stop by and say hi when we came to Cambridge, and so we did!
The church there is relatively new and simple, but very nice. Pastor Kriger also hosts a radio station called Lutheran Radio UK and he has a studio there where he does his work. He talked to us about the chapel, which is built with 8 sides for the eighth day when Jesus rose, and about Lutheranism and religion in general in the UK. It was very interesting to get to chat with someone from outside the US about Lutheranism and get some different perspectives.
Upon a suggestion from Pastor Kriger, after lunch, we walked over to this very old church called ‘the Round Church’ which has had a church building in that space since the time of William the Conqueror. The church contained detailed history of both Christianity in England and the general history of Cambridge as well. There was an informative video we watched about Cambridge and its religious history where we learned that many of the Puritan leaders who came to America were graduates of Cambridge. We learned quite a bit from all of that.
Once we finished exploring the church, we decided to check out punting on the river. Both our Airbnb host and Pastor Kriger recommended that we do this, so we got tickets for a guided tour where someone else does the actual punting and maneuvering of the boat and everyone else gets to sit and watch. This was great fun! Our guide had a lot of interesting facts about the colleges we saw as well as funny stories. We had a run-in with a few other boats and once our punter’s pole got stuck in the rocks at the bottom of the river and another boat had to fish it out and bring it back to us. We also saw several people who had rented boats, and they were generally entertaining to watch as they weren’t as good and ended up turned all sorts of directions. The tour itself was beautiful though and if you ever go, we highly recommend punting if you can!
After our wonderful boat tour, we walked around a bit more and saw some more of the town. We did not tour any of the colleges in Cambridge, but we were happy with seeing things on our punting tour, so we didn’t feel as though we missed out on seeing things. We at dinner at a yummy burger place before walking back to the Airbnb (which was about three quarters of a mile away). As we walked back along the river, we saw a lot of crew boats heading out as well. Many of them looked like clubs for young adults or recreational boating, so they weren’t traveling at super high speeds the way the professional racers do. However, it did look like a fun way to workout and pass the time. We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing day seeing the sights. Next stop: London!
Musings of Monica 