Punting on the Cam Part 2 and Grantchester

Anson (eating a banana) and Lauren in the front end of the punt

Paul, Julia, and Jon in the back end of the punt

On September 2, we went with my sister to the train station to rent 2 bikes. Paul has a bike and baby trailer that our landlord is letting us use, so we rented bikes for Lauren and me and rode down to Pembroke College. There we met up with one of our friends, Jon, who was a Programme Assistant during our Cambridge PKP Programme. He took us down to Scudmore's and we went punting. Both Lauren and Paul had never been punting before, so it was a really great time. Jon did all of the punting tours during the programme (sometimes twice a day, 5 days a week), so he was a great tour guide. He taught Paul how to do it as well! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, one of the very few days we have had sun, so it was very enjoyable. Pictures from our punting trip are on my Flickr account.
After that relaxing trip down the river, we went to a nearby pub and ate fish and chips and "proper prawn scampi", as the lady behind the counter called it. In England shrimp are called prawns. The food was so delicious and seemed an appropriate meal after spending the afternoon on the river. Then we got on our bikes and rode out to the English countryside to Grantchester. Our programme assistants described it below:

"During much of Cambridge’s history, Grantchester village served as a haven for students who wanted to get away from hectic social life of the colleges. During the early 20th century, Grantchester famously became the home of the ‘Pagans’, a forerunner of the Bloomsbury Group. Here Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell and many others would gather over a pot of tea in the Orchard Tea Garden to discuss philosophy and literature in an environment less rigid than that of the university. Brooke even moved to the village, taking up lodgings in a cottage and commuting to his lectures via boat. Tea was not the end of it, of course, and the Pagans were famed for their skinny-dipping and freedom-enhancing activities. Anything to liberate the mind!"

We did end up going to the Orchard Tea Garden for some Lemon Ginger tea and desserts. It was a lovely time. We were only able to stay for about 45 minutes before our bikes were due, so it was a bit of a whirlwind. Paul and I are considering revisiting before we leave next week. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of us there because my camera batteries died :( Lame.