Cambridge Walk and Lunchtime Concert

Today we had a leisurely stroll around Cambridge and lunch and a lunchtime concert at Newnham College.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"For those that are arriving by train at 10.40am, please make your way to St Michaelhouse Café on Trinity Street. It is a 1.3 mile walk and I will be at the café at 11am waiting for you. 

For those arriving into the city centre via Park N ride bus from Newmarket Road, please also join us at 11am at the above café for morning refreshments. 

After coffee, we will proceed to Castle Hill and then the Selwyn College church and gardens. We are aiming to arrive at Newnham College for a soup lunch (or bring your own packed lunch) approx. 1pm. The other week, the soup was Sweet Potato and Coconut (I have only ever seen vegan soup and it’s about £3 and delicious). They also sell sandwiches. After lunch we will attend the free 30 minute Recital (ends 1.50pm). 

Not a huge amount of walking 7.5 miles approx. for the train people and 8.5 miles for the Park N Ride people. Return to Cambridge train station by 3.30pm and back to buses by 4pm. "

This was our route today.

Here are a few photos.

We all met up at the Michaelhouse café just across the road from the entrance to my old college, Gonville and Caius..

We took over upstairs...

...and several others sat downstairs.

In all there were 16 of us today. Off we go up Trinity Street.

It was quiet on the water at Magdalene Bridge.

Some of us climbed Castle Hill to see the view.

We returned to river level and walked through the sports grounds of St. John's College....

 

...and along Grange Road to Selwyn College, where we had a little look around.

We visited the chapel and its magnificent organ. Newnham College shares Selwyn's Chapel, since its nondenominational foundation means it has no chapel of its own. Services in chapel are in the Christian Anglican tradition, and are open to those of all faiths, of none, and of everything in between. All services are open to the public. There are organ recitals every Thursday lunchtime.

We rather liked this sundial.

There is an explanatory plaque which says...

"This sundial shows the hours since sunrise (golden lines) and the hours 

since the last sunset (white lines). The shadow cast by the disc will lie on 

the central vertical line at noon GMT (1 pm BST) and migrates up and 

down as the seasons change, sitting on the central horizontal line at the 

equinoxes. If you wish to calculate time you must add the golden 

hours to the white hours and divide by 2. You can check the result with 

the time on the clock tower behind you. 

The Greek inscription inside the sunburst reads 'Kairon gnöthi' and means 

'Know the moment'. The Latin inscription translates as 'A Yorkshire 

dairyman gave me as a gift to his College'." 

It was but a short walk through the Sidgwick site to Newnham College, our lunch destination.

After lunch in the Iris café. we headed to the Old Labs for the concert hosted by the Newnham Raleigh Society. Today it was the freshers' concert - i.e. concert given by first year students. This has become a regular date in the diary for us as a walking group - our 3rd year in a row.

Sickness and rearranged supervisions reduced the cast of performers, but we were treated to music by two talented performers, both flautists, with an accompanist drafted in from Corpus Christi college.

Firstly we had, unaccompanied, Telemann's Flute sonata in G Major.

Then we had Paul Hindemith's Flute sonata.

Then, to complete a trio of German Composers, an arrangement for flute and piano of  "Gute Nacht" from Schubert's Winterreise. and the Andantino from Fauré's Fantaisie and Barcarolle.

Lovely playing!

We now headed out around the outskirts of Cambridge towards the station. Lovely autumn leaves underfoot gave a murmuring backdrop to our conversation.

We passed The Granta....

...and walked a short way along the river.

From Coe fen we got a view back towards Corpus Christi college and Great St. Mary's beyond.

Joyce led us through the picturesque  and curiously named Empty Common Allotments.

Dawn spotted someone had some chillis growing. Ours have all been harvested now.

We turned back towards the city centre along the path parallel to the guided busway to  the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (based around Addenbrooke's Hospital).

We passed The Triangle, where I worked for the last couple of years before I retired.

At the station we parted ways, with those who had come by train having 15-20 minutes to get their train home. Good timing Joyce!

After later parting company with Joyce and Steve,  Dawn, Janice, Kim and I headed back towards the bus station, crossing Parker's Piece to head to the shops for Janice. Here we found the Cambridge Eye in the middle of preparations for the Cambridge Christmas Village.

Thank-you to the young ladies of Newnham College (and guest accompanist from Corpus Christi) for the lovely concert, to Joyce for leading us around and the other walkers of the additional company.

You can find more details of our 8.6 mile route here on MapMyWalk (of download a GPX file here) and more of my photos here on Flickr.

Other related walks you can find on my blog include...

• Cambridge and Grantchester Walk (Jan 2020)
• Dinky Doors Discovery Diddle-Daddle (Feb 2020)
• A Cambridge Meander (Jun 2021)
• Cows About Cambridge Part 1 (Jul 2021)
• Cows About Cambridge Part 2 (Jul 2021)
• A Cambridge Amble (Nov 2022)
• A Snowy Cambridge Saunter (Dec 2022)
• A Day Out in Cambridge (Feb 2023)
• Cambridge Walk and Lunchtime Concert (Nov 2023)
• A Rainy Day in Cambridge  (Feb 2024)
• Giraffes in Cambridge (Mar 2024)