Adam arrives at university

Today we drove up to Cambridge to take Adam to university. The car was so full, and with his bicycle on the roof of the car, we could not possible fit anything else into the car. (see extra photo) A bicycle is a necessity for him as his college is on the fringe of the main part of town and he has to get to some laboratories that are across the other side of the town. Driving down the A1 we noticed quite a few fully laden cars with bicycles on either roof racks or boot racks, and we knew exactly where they were going!

Adam is very lucky and has been given an enormous room with a double bed and an en suite bathroom with a bath and a shower over the bath. However, there is not much cupboard space and we had fun trying to fit everything in! Churchill College was only built in the 1960's and so has the advantage of having large rooms, parking for parents at the beginning and end of term, good heating, and large windows that make the rooms bright and airy. In the centre of the town we saw many parents struggling with huge amounts of heavy baggage as they negotiated their way to their children's colleges - there is no parking near the central colleges and it all has to be carried from some distance away to the respective colleges.

This is Adam and his shiny new bicycle, standing in front of the Møller Centre, which is the conference centre attached to the college. Although the college is mainly 1960's brutalist styled architecture, this new conference centre is by a Danish architect and was founded with a gift of approximately £10 million to Churchill College, donated by the shipping magnate A.P. Møller.

We found the people at the college to be very welcoming and very friendly. We ate lunch with Adam in his dining hall, a very good chicken tikka masala with a big selection of salads, vegies and puddings.

After lunch we said our goodbyes and left to come back home again. I felt very sad to say goodbye but it is only a short journey to visit him, 1hour 45 minutes by car, and he has asked us to come up to visit him sometime during the term.

Now to get on with packing Luke's stuff as we take him to university tomorrow.