A wet and soggy Cambridge...

...but still beautiful. Rain was forecast all day today, typical Bank Holiday weather, but we decided to still go visit Cambridge. An easy drive there of about 1 hour 40 minutes from home with no unexpected delays on the motorways.

Despite the rain there were still many enthusiastic tourists, taking walking tours, riding on open top bus tours and as you see here, punting in the rain. It has been quite a few years since Gavin was last here so he enjoyed seeing the town again, and then we went up to Adam's college (Churchill) where the porter was extremely friendly and let us roam around the college campus. This college is not in the very central part of town so is usually free from tourists and the porter does not have to act like a night club bouncer preventing access to the college.

Churchill is not one of the beautiful 15th century colleges as it was founded in 1958 by Winston Churchill who felt that the UK needed a science college like MIT in the USA. Unusually for a Cambridge college, about 75% of its students are Natural Science students which makes it more competitive on entry but once there, having so many students of one discipline makes it a great supportive environment for them as they have to work harder than in any other course offered at Cambridge due to the volume of work and  more frequent tests and exams. (They even have Saturday lectures!) It is a statutory requirement of the college to have at least 70% of its students studying natural or medical sciences.

Being a modernist building the rooms are large and bright with big windows, proper heating and are very comfortable. On applying for his room through the ballot system Adam had the choice of an en suite bathroom, double bed, piano in the room...it sounded like a hotel booking! He may not get any of those amenities, it depends on the ballot results. He is very much looking forward to going there and it was good to see everything today when it was less busy than during term time.

I have some extra photos of the tourists in the rain and the empty punts due to lack of interest in the weather.