Saturday, September 15, 2012

Peterborough and Cambridge




We are on the final stages of our trip spending the last 3 days in Cambridge. It is nice to book end the trip with Oxford and Cambridge, two eminent English speaking universities. On our way to Cambridge from Lincoln we stopped in Peterborough to visit St Peter's Cathedral. It is a fine example of Norman architecture with English Gothic adaptations. Three massive arches that grace the west front are unprecedented in Gothic architecture. There was a resemblance to Notre Dame de Paris for me, although certainly not on the same scale. The single story ambulatory was added last and is a beautiful example of fan vaulting.
Getting to our hotel in Cambridge proved to be problematic. The gps took us down a quite narrow, no not narrow, quite teeny impassable ally. Naive as we were we continued following her advice until passage was no longer possible. Ah, shades of Sicily! I jumped out of the car and directed the reversing of our route until we could turn around. We drove around the route about 3 times until we determined a possible alternative to Little St. Mary's Lane and ventured down it. Worming our way through throngs of people on the road we did arrive at the hotel at last. We spent the next 3 hours doing our regular walking down every street we came across. At one point we came across an impressive slow procession of robed children and adults led by a priest carrying a large scepter to Kings Chapel.
More photos at Flickr.