Our First Weekend, Part I

Today's topic is bicycles, which they call simply, "cycles". To give you an idea, there are 32 colleges which comprise the University of Cambridge, with a combined total of 23,000 students. Each student is given a bicycle when they arrive (it's actually just a loan--they have to return it), so in a town the size that you can just about walk all the way around, there are AT LEAST 23,000 bicycles! And they are confident and determined riders, I might add...that plus the fact that pedestrians don't have the right-of-way, has led to some close calls for us pedestrian-type folk. It's been interesting seeing all the different types of bicycle-ish modes of transportation...our favorite has been an adult-sized bike with 3 wheels--Yes, a giant tricycle, complete with a basket in front!...a great conversation piece!

So, enough about the bikes...they are everywhere and line all the streets, lanes, trees, shrubs, and people who aren't moving. We actually had decided to take a look around Cambridge our first weekend here--there's much to enjoy and explore around here...one of the first not-in-Jackson type of sights we saw was this pantomime. He was entertaining quite a group of folks.

The kids didn't know quite what to make of him...there were lots of people taking photos, and he was inviting someone to come and stand next to him for a photo--no one was taking him up on his offer until Brad Green's quiet and subdued wife said, "BRAD, GO ON UP THERE--IT'LL MAKE A MEMORY!! And so it did. The kids favorite part was the white paint that was left on daddy's head...

For all the kiddos who may be viewing the blog, we wanted to point out a couple of interesting differences we noticed right away. Their mail boxes (I think they call them "post boxes") do not say USPS on them, but rather, "Royal Mail", and there are these red telephone booths everywhere. (How these phone booths would have come in handy for my youth group scavenger hunt days, when there was ALWAYS the mandate to take a Polaroid picture (ask your parents what that is) inside a phone booth!)..

As we explored around, we couldn't help but notice the new with the old. Notice the buildings in the foreground and background below. It's a little hard to tell, but most of Cambridge still looks like it has for, well, centuries, I guess. But just behind the old is the modern, all glass building...the children were glad to see something familiar-looking in the newer building. They are so bewildered that Cambridge is considered such a beautiful city. As Daniel so succinctly put it, "But it's all OLD!!" Yes, yes, young whipper-snapper, 'tis old...and beautiful...

You may recognize the pedestrians in the blue jackets...more about what those very pedestrians discovered their first weekend in the next exciting episode. Stay tuned...