I woke my dad up at the agreed upon time and they all went down for breakfast in the restaurant. Instead of joining them I decided to look at nearby alternatives. I walked around the block and checked out the convenience store above the tube station. I picked up some fresh fruit and other things for much less than I would have paid for the hotel breakfast and it suited me just fine while the rest of the family enjoyed their breakfast.

Train to Cambridge

This was the day we had designated as our day trip to Cambridge. Since it was a Sunday the train tickets were cheaper and would hopefully be less crowded. The train left from Victoria Station, which is one the many train stations in the city. We took the tube to that stop and found the ticket counter.

We bought round trip tickets for all of us which cost about 40 pounds total. We headed to the track indicated on our ticket to claim our seats. The train we were taking was an express train and would have a limited number of stops.

After about 15 minutes of sitting in our car, there was an announcement and train was on its way. Being from the US, going for a train ride was a newer experience, and the trains are much nicer than the commuter trains we have in the Boston area. The seats were relatively comfortable, the ride was smooth, and the views of the countryside were excellent once we quickly got out of the city. The ride to Cambridge was about an hour and went by quickly.

Getting to the City Center

When we arrived we quickly stopped in a cafe just outside the train station to get a snack for the kids. Our plan was to go punting on the river and my wife had the names and addresses of some companies that do that. We could have taken a taxi, but google maps showed the address was nearby so we started walking in that direction. There wasn’t really any other public transportation objects as it’s a smaller city.

The walk was a little further than we had expected and when we arrived, we realized it was the home address for the company, not where they actually did the punting. There was no river in sight and being a residential area there weren’t any taxi stands. We continued to walk towards what looked like a more active area. On the way the kids spied a playground so we went there for a few minutes while we figured out what we wanted to do next.

We noticed there was a park and taxi stand across the street so we headed there to get a taxi into the city center. The taxi drivers all said we were verry close. It was probably true, but they also didn’t seem interested in taking us such a relatively short distance so they suggested we walk there instead. They pointed us in the right direction and said it was a 5 minute walk. After 10 minutes we were within sight of the shops and restaurants in the area we wanted to be in. In hindsight, we definitely should have taken a taxi from the train station where there were van taxis that could have held all of us. At least we got a good walk and in the end it was only about 30 minutes of walking.

Punting

Downtown Cambridge is an interesting and vibrant place with lots of shops, restaurants, bars and winding alleys. We eventually found our way to the river and found a place to hire a boat to go punting. A punt is a type of boat that is essentially a flat-bottomed canoe where the driver uses a pole to push the boat up and down the river.

At Trinity College we saw signs for punting. This is one of the locations that’s properly licensed for the activity. We had the option or renting one and pushing it around ourselves or hiring one with a punter who could give us a tour of the river. We had no interest in doing it ourselves so we hired a boat for about 40 pounds (cash) for about a one our ride.

The driver was fantastic. He told us all about the history of the river, the University and the area. He was entertaining and informative and well worth the cost. He answered all our questions and the kids absolutely loved it. The driver told us about the life of University students which is quite different in the UK than in the US.

While the day was on the cooler side, the weather was clear and it wasn’t too crowded. I would definitely recommend the experience as a must-do if you’re visiting Cambridge. The guide was well worth the money and earned a healthy tip. He also recommended some places to go in town. There is one bar that is a gathering spot for world famous scientists and professors we were definitely going to check out.

Lunch and the Afternoon

For lunch we wandered into the town and found the place the driver had recommended but the wait to get in was very long. We ended up at an Italian place that wasn’t the greatest so after that we found a section of town that was a sort of farmers market. In it there were several food stalls and Tomatico and my wife found some Brazilian food they really liked. Afterwards we got some gelato. My dad thought it was fantastic, though we had been to Rome just a couple months before and knew better. It was okay, but paled in comparison to the best gelato we had found in Rome.

After our dessert we walked in the town some more. We ended up buying tickets to go inside Kings College Chapel. It was beautiful and had a lot of history, though luckily we didn’t stay as long as we did in Westminster Abby.

By this time the weather was getting more threatening and we had a few small showers. They only lasted for a few minutes but were enough to get us thinking about getting back to London.

We walked through the town and eventually found a taxi stand. They had van taxis that were vans which allowed us all to fit in one. Cambridge has traditional taxis instead of the iconic black cabs of London. While the London cabs take credit cards, the van we took unfortunately did not, but I fortunately had enough cash and coins with me to pay for it.

The Slow Train to London

Back at the train station in Cambridge we found the track where the next train to London was departing. We only had a few minutes and rushed over to get on. Unfortunately we didn’t notice that the train was one that made stops at all the stations and was NOT an express train. This meant that the train ride back to Victoria station took nearly 2 hours instead of the 65 minutes it took to get to Cambridge on the express train. In fact we saw the express train pass us just over half way to London.

Fortunately we weren’t in a hurry, but next time we’d pay more attention to get the faster train. Once back to Victoria Station we took the tube back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner.

Dinner in Covent Garden

When it was dinner time I went knocking on my dad’s door he was feeling tired and not very hungry so he was going to turn in for the night. The jet lag was really getting to him so we were on our own for dinner.

We decided to head to Covent Garden which is a trendy area with shops and lots of restaurants. It was a short ride on the tube and we arrived at the dinner rush. We went to a few different places to check out the menus and prices. One place looked like it was an interesting menu until we looked at the prices. A hamburger burger cost 25 pounds!! No wonder it was empty! The other sit down places we looked at all had long waits which wasn’t going to work with the kids.

My wife ended up getting her own thing as the kids wanted to go to Shake Shack of all places. It’s funny that we’ve been to 5 Guys and Shake Shack several times, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been to one in the in the US!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. I had purchased tickets for the Tower of London for the next morning which I needed to print out the vouchers for. I apparently couldn’t use my phone. The hotel has some computers near the front desk for guests to use but of course the printer they were attached to wasn’t working. The staff was very helpful and was able to print out the tickets on a different printer for me.

It would be an earlier morning as we needed to get to the Tower of London when it opened to beat the crowds so I’m glad I was able to do it in the evening rather than rushing to figure it out in the morning.