A Rainy Day In Cambridge

Today we had another day out with Kirsty and David, this time in Cambridge.

The weather wasn't great. Compare this with our last visit 2 years ago (see here) when we went to a Gamelan concert (see here). We met up at the Newmarket Road Park & Ride and decided to take the bus rather than walk all the way into the city centre in the rain. Seeing the weather forecast yesterday, I had a look to see what we might do indoors and found there was no Raleigh Society concert in Newnham this week (although there had a been a bagpiper last week). But I found a lunchtime concert was on at the United Reform Church in Downing Place at 1pm- part of an ongoing series of Wednesday lunchtime concerts.

But before that we did a bit of exploring. From the bus station, we headed across Christs Pieces and walked along King Street before stopping at Millers Music Shop to look at the pianos - both traditional and electronic.

Dawn asked the charming sales assistant Catherine about what they use to polish their pianos.

Apparently they use Autoglym, better known for polishing cars..

Then we visited the Michaelhouse café for coffee. I don't think I've ever seen it so quiet.

I used my Camcard to get myself and my 3 guests into my old college to tour the old courts and chapel. The porters seemed quite amused that my card showed I had matriculated as long ago as 1976.

Here are a few photos.

Me in the Gate of Honour, last passed though by me, I think, when I graduated in 1979.

A bit of a further walk to see the the sights. The river, unsurprisingly, was quite high (but not as high as when it flooded while I was a student in 1978- see here).

We arrived in good time for the lunchtime concert. This is the link to the series.

This was the programme.

Francesca the violinist came to chat to the girls in the row in front of us just before going on stage.

She looked very young. Here she is in action. I loved the Hubay piece and the unaccompanied section of the  parts of the Khachaturian in particular. Patrick the pianist was pretty good too but the acoustic didn't suit the Medtner, which was a pity. I said to Kirsty afterwards that it seemed more rewarding to play than to listen to.

But Francesca was terrific! It turned out that the girls in the row in front of us were her schoolmates from the Perse School and that she had just turned 12 years old! Here she is playing in a concert in Paris a year ago...

What a talent!  Afterwards we visited the Old Bicycle Shop for a belated lunch.

We walked through Downing College and up to Magdalen bridge before returning to the bus station for our bus back to the park and ride.

A lovely day our despite the weather. Next time we see Kirsty and David may well be in Scotland. More of that anon.