Folks here have been/are being so kind to us...take for instance Will and Vanessa Kynes. They are a delightful young couple from the States, expecting their first baby, and he's working on his PhD here at Cambridge. One of our first Saturdays here they invited us over for brunch, and then spent the entire afternoon showing us an "insider's view" of Cambridge. Oh, the fun we had! This was our first stop: King's College Chapel. This is the most visited site in Cambridge, with over 230,000 visitors per year. The chapel was the brainchild of King Henry VI, and was begun in 1446. The chapel was finally completed in 1547--101 years--and many kings (hence the name "Kings College")-- later! It took 30 years to install the stained glass windows--26 breathtaking sets-- alone!
Remember how I shared about all the symbols on all the buildings...I'll give you just a couple from this back entrance to King's College. Do you see all the roses just in this small section of the building--see if you can find five clearly shown...they are Tudor Roses, which are the traditional emblem of England. They represent when Henry Tudor took the crown of England from Richard III in battle, thus bringing about the end of the War of the Roses between the House of Lancaster (whose badge was a red rose) and the House of York (whose badge was a white rose). On his marriage, Henry adopted the Tudor Rose badge conjoining the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. These Tutor Roses are ALL OVER the old city.
OK, this is the front of Trinity College. Do you see King Henry VIII, in statue form, standing above the great gate? Well, he originally had his sword up there with him, but the students kept stealing it as a prank, so finally a chair leg was placed there instead...hasn't been stolen since :)... Also, note the two sets of doors--one is much larger than the other--any guesses as to why? I thought perhaps one was for royalty and one for commoners, but actually, originally, these were two separate colleges, King's Hall and Michaelhouse, but King Henry VIII merged them forming Trinity College (Cambridge's largest). He wanted to be remembered for the greatest college, thus his statue over both doors. Also do you notice the six crests below his statue? These represent his 6 children, but one of the crests is missing...any idea why? Because that child died very young.
On to St. John's College, where Will Kynes, our friend and tour guide for the day, is a student. Only if you are a student at St. John's can you get the key to go in this very small, obscure door...and beyond this door is a dark, steep, narrow, winding staircase, complete with slit windows and 203 steps to the top of... a real tower from the Middle Ages! It was SO much fun to climb with three children with very active imiginations! The dark, dank, and somewhat scary climb to the top made medieval Europe come to life--it was FASCINATING!!
Here we are at the top--you may notice two things right away...King's College Chapel in the background, and the LARGE openings all around where we are standing, thru which any one of the children could have very easily fallen. I was "quite fussy" up there, which is a British way of saying, "scared to death" for the children. Even as I type this, my hands are sweating as I remember how I was terrified that one misstep and someone could go thru--AAHH!! Needless, to say, we did NOT go ANYWHERE near the edge!! And here's another view from up there...you can somewhat see the rolling countryside just outside Cambridge.
Finally, we ended our day the same way we began...by crossing the River Cam over one of the famous bridges...CAM river, famous BRIDGEs...thus the name Cam-bridge...Cambridge...what a grand day...we are so thankful to be here...
