Cambridge - Part Deux - The punting adventures

The River Cam runs through Cambridge. We went punting on this river along a section called "The Backs". It is so named because one can see the backs of the colleges. Punting is a fun but slow method of transportation. The punter stands on the back of the punt and pushes off the bottom of the river using a long pole to make the punt move forward. The pole is also used as a rudder to stear the punt. Normally tourists will hire (rent) punts on the river. Darwin College is situated on The Backs and has punts which members of Darwin can use. Kevin, who is friends with Greg and Chantelle, is a member of Darwin so booked the punt and punted for us. I like the word punt because it sounds both violent and cute so I will try to use it as much as possible.

This photo shows punts on the Cam River and the Bridge of Sighs which is a part of St. John's College. One can hire professional punters who will punt you around the backs using long punting poles. The tourist punters are usually very poor at punting so there tend to be a lot punt crashes on the river.

Bryan and Chantelle in the punt.

This is the Mathematical Bridge which is part of Queen's College. Stories that the bridge was held together without nails or other fastening devices are not true. The bridge pictured here is held together using nuts and bolts.

One of the hazards of punting is losing the punting pole. Although Greg, Bryan and I all punted, Kevin (the dude in the blue shirt) did most of the punting.

Cambridge (Part 1)

I think this blog is another two parter. Last weekend we went to Cambridge to visit our friends Greg and Chantelle. From what I can tell Cambridge is essentially a city dominated by a university made of colleges. It is a very pretty place with loads of old buildings. Many of history's most notable intellectuals were educated or worked at Cambridge including Issac Newton, J.J. Thompson, Francis Crick, James Watson, Valdamir Nobokov, Bertrand Russel, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking to name just a few. I was dishearten when I compared the list of notable members at Cambridge to the alumni lists at my alma maters but then I remembered that Cambridge has been established since 1209 and given about 800 years I think UW and UVic would catch up.

This is the chapel at King's Collage viewed from the west end. The university consists of 31 colleges which vary in terms of the size of their endowments, grounds and enrollment. Students are accepted into a collage after an intensive selection process. King's was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. Construction of the chapel started in 1443 but the exterior was not completed until 1508 due to lack of funds. When Henry VI's money ran out, the west wall was only 8 ft high. The two phases of construction are marked by the lighter stone on the bottom of the building and the darker stone on top (both visible in the photo). King Henry VIII finished the interior of the building according to his own design in 1544. People are not allowed to walk on the grass at any of the collages unless you are a fellow of the collage or are invited onto the grass by a fellow. Needless to say, the grass in Cambridge is gorgeous. The green spaces in the city are clearly visible from the satellite view using google maps.

This is the main gate at St. John's Collage. The three people are Bryan, Greg and Chantelle. St. John's and Trinity colleges are arch rivals.

This is the Cam River which flows through Cambridge.


This apple tree is reputed to be a decendent of the tree which inspired Newton's insight into gravity. It is located outside of Trinity Collage where Newton was a student. Trinity is the wealthiest Oxbridge collage with an estimated wealth of ~1.4 billion pounds.


Ceiling in the atrium leading into the chapel at Trinity College. This room also houses statues some of Trinity's distingushed alumi (see wikipedia for a giant list).


This was taken inside the greenhouse at the university's botanic gardens which was founded by Professor John Stevens Henslow. In addition to his scientific contributions, Henslow was an influential mentor to Charles Darwin. Teachers are important.


I think the plaque speaks for itself. It is located on an exterior wall of the Old Cavendish Laboratory which was founded by James Clerk Maxwell (member of Trinity College). There are a lot of 'ghosts' for students and researches at this school.

When we were in N. Ireland, we spend most of our time in Belfast. The city looks and feels like Portland, Oregon and we liked it very much. It has a much more Canadian feel than Edinburgh.

Scotland and N. Ireland still print their own bank notes which can only be used locally. British Pounds are the official currency and will be accepted everywhere in Britain. This is a picture of a 5 pound note from the Northern Bank (other banks have different notes). It is printed on plastic and has spots that are transparent for example the star burst shape at the left and the part circle at the bottom. The note feels something like a ziploc freezer bag.

As you know N. Ireland has gone through some pretty rough times. Things have calmed down now but evidence of what is popularly called 'the troubles' is still very abundant. Bombs were often launched through windows and used as a means of killing or destroying property. The bars on these are second and third story windows were used to procect the inhabitants from these types of attack. This picture was taken in Belfast which is considered a neutral city.


Barbed wire is a common site in N. Ireland. I assume that some of it is left over from 'the troubles' however even newer buildings and construction sites will be secured in the same way. Graffitti is everywhere, even in smaller towns, so barbed wired might be a way of detering vandals but I think it is more likely a hint of the conflict that still exsists just beneath the surface.

This is a sculpture at the foot of Queen's Bridge on the east side of Belfast. She is supposed to symbolize hope, community and reconciliation. This is one example of the 'little things' that Belfast city council is trying to do to inject the city with a positive non-partisan culture.


This is a picture of the Lanyon building on the main campus of Queen's University in Belfast. The school was founded in 1845 and became a university in 1908. This campus is quite small but very beautiful. The newer buildings then to be constructed according to more contemporary designs.

This is a stained glass window at the entrance to the Lanyon building. This window was put into place in 1939 and commemorates the contributions of its alumni. The four figures (left to right) personify courage, wisdom, alma mater, temperance and justice.

This weekend we went to Northern Ireland, primarily to go to Giant's Causeway which is a UNESCO world heritage site. My guide book says that according to Irish folklore the Causeway was build by a giant named Finn mac Cumaill who was the leader of the Fianna warriors. Finn mac Cumaill built the Causeway so that a rival giant in Scotland named Benandonner could come to Ireland and they could settle things giant-to-giant. As Brenadonner crossed the Causeway, Finn saw that he was very large. Finn, scarred that he was going to get a pounding, ran home to his wife and asked her to hide him so she put him in a cradle and disguised him as a baby. When Benandonner came to the house and saw the size of the baby, he did not want to hang around to meet the father. Benandonner fled home tearing up the Causeway as he went so that his rival could not follow. Similar features are found on the island of Staffa in northern Scotland.

Giant's Causeway is on the northern tip of Northern Ireland. The very cool rocks have formed from cooling lava ~20 million years ago. The guide book published by the National Trust suggests that it is analogous to drying mud. Cooling of surface lava caused cracks that branch in three directions. This gives the unique shapes you can see in the picture above. As the lava continued to cool, the cracks continue in the same shape to give columns of lava seen below.

These pillar of basalt rock also crack perpendicular to the column. So that you have a sense of scale, Bryan is 6'6". The pictures above were taken near the water so the pilars are much smaller than pillars found on neighbouring cliffs due to erosion.


This feature is known as 'the organ', because it resembles the pipes of a pipe organ. For scale, there are a couple of people in white who are visible on the pedestrian path that bisect this picture. This picture was taken from the Grand Causeway across a bay called Port Noffer which translates as The Giant's Port.

This is 'the organ' up close. Horizontal cracking in the pillars is clearly visible in this picture.

This is a view across Port Noffer. The stikie-uppy bits in the center of the photo are called 'the chimney tops'.

This is in a bay called Portnaboe (The Cow's Port). The formation in the middle looks is called The Camel's Back. Some people refer to it as the Giant's Camel. The little white dots on the top of the cliff are sheep, I am pretty sure they out number people about 5 to 1.


This is a nice bar/restaurant called The Nook. It is located at the entrance just outside of the main park entrance. The bus we took dropped us off here. It used to be an old school house. We had lunch and a snack here.

This is a picture of my trusty bike, which some of you may have heard about. It is very basic in style has very good components and is the perfect size for me. I luv it!

This is a picture of the Sir Walter Scott monument.To be honest, I have not looked the monument up close because I'm not all that interested. I took this picture because the way people were scattered about on the lawn was interesting to me.

I'm back with some more pictures! It seems that I will not be posting pictures everyday like I had thought initially. In anycase, here are my most recent pictures.

This was taken on a bike/walking path which was very pleasent except for incredible amount of trash and broken glass on parts of this otherwise scenic ride. It is very disappointing. I thought this sign was funny because the poop is steaming.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author for the Sherlock Holmes series) was born in and lived in Edinburgh. Doyle's father was an alcoholic and subject to large mood swings. In an effort to keep he and his sister in a more stable and positive enviroment, their mother sent to live in her friend's house which is about 5 minutes (by bike) from where I live. The house is currently gated off and the vegetation has taken over so the house can not be accessed. This is a view of the house from the side walk on Liberton Road. He is not generally publicized as a resident of Edinburgh, I'm not sure why. Perhaps he is too modern.

This little creek is about 20 m from the house. From what Bryan had found out about this area, this used to be a much larger body of water which sustained a mill about 50-100m from this spot.

This is a view of the house from the same spot where I took the last picture.