Cambridge: a History and Tradition filled College Town

Being in Cambridge feels a lot like walking through Hogwarts grad school. There are tons of college kids all dressed nicely and some in college dress clothes (colored gowns aka cloaks ;) ). Most older people are quite professorly.

We really enjoyed the town. It’s nice and clean with a lot of old brick buildings and narrow cobblestone streets. There is a river running through town and almost all of the college buildings are right along that river. There are some exceptions with lecture halls dispersed through town as well.

Amanda and I ate at the pub, The Eagle, where Watson and Crick announced the discovery of DNA. Pretty cool!

The Eagle Pub!
The Eagle Pub!

There are 20 something different colleges that make up Cambridge University. Unlike Cal Poly the colleges aren’t specific for majors or focusses (like Orfalea College of Business at Poly). Instead each college offers a vast amount of majors. There is also quite a rivalry it seems among the different colleges academically, socially, and athletically. The University is the second oldest in England behind Oxford and was started in the early 1200’s. Apparently a group of Oxford academics spun off into Cambridge after getting into arguments with the rest of the Oxford town people.

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There is a growing tech and bio tech center around Cambridge known in the UK as Silicon Fen. It seems there are lots of these popping up and always with a name play on silicon valley.

We really enjoyed the academic feel of being in Cambridge, it would be nice to live near a good university, there is just so much they offer…

(Written from the terrace/roof deck of our Spanish apartment in Nerja :) )