Punting Through Cambridge

Some of the most spectacular features of the great cities of Europe are their canals and waterways. These provide all sorts of modes of water transport as well as allow for some amazing bridge building. Being from New Zealand, the winding canals and rivers through the middle of every city is a novelty.

Of all the ancient modes of water transport used over the years, punting would be one of the more famous. It is used in the watery streets of Venice and in the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge. The last of these was our destination for a weekend getaway to see some family. Duncan's mum's cousin lived in Cambridge and had arranged one of their fancy managed apartments for us to stay in. Being only a couple of hours drive away it was easy to get away after work on friday.

Much like Oxford, Cambridge is a city dominated by students. Cambridge university is one of the richest and most elite universities in the UK. It has many ancient buildings, bridges aledgedly designed by Isaac Newton, and a big famous cathedral. Running through the middle of Cambridge is the river Cam where students punt tourists up and down the river giving them a guided tour. The popularity of punting during the summer reaches crazy levels with the river jam packed full of punters and their boats crashing and scraping into one another. We saw at least 4 punters fall into the river after losing their balance or being knocked off in a collision.

The legend of the Mathematical bridge supposedly built by Isaac Newton turned out to be nothing more than a myth. It was told that Isaac designed the bridge in such a way that it required no fixing bolts or nails. Years later students were told to have pulled it apart and couldnt put it back together again without using bolts. None of this was true of course but it made the unusual bridge all the more interesting as we passed underneath. Our guide propelled our boat forward using a huge pole by pushing off the bottom of the canal. The punters stood on the back of the boat on a flat platform that once wet was very slippery and it was just a matter of time before we saw one or two of them slipping over. It made for some very amusing boating and luckily we escaped any incidents to our boat but we did get into a few collisions and traffic jams.

After our crazy experience on the boat we took a walk through King College where we went into the chapel for a looksy. The chapel had one of the most amazing ceilings we had ever seen. It was an intricate splay of arches and pillars seemingly magically holding up tonnes of stone. It looked so fragile and thin that you felt it might tumble down at any moment. Looking at this you could only think that the archtiects, sculptures and builders of the ancient times were geniuses.

Outside in the college grounds the lawns and gardens were grand and immaculate. Even the acres and acres of grass was mowed in neat patterns. The local parks were full of students lounging around and basking in the sun while old fashioned bicycles rode around the pathways.

Cambridge is an idyllic city and with a great vibrant atmosphere. We felt we could easily live there apart from the fact that many others seem to have the same idea and it's small streets are constantly crowded with tourists and students. Still, there are not many places in the UK like it and we can see why mum's cousin and his wife love it so much.