A tour of Cambridge’s surroundings

Girton

Why do I have any relationship to Girton? Well, my college is there. According to the Google Maps it is the only college outside Cambridge city district and definitely it is the furthest college from the city centre (or at least from the Chemistry Department).

Girton College, which I attend, was the first Cambridge college to admit women and even today it refers to its past by “giving equal opportunity to all, irrespective of their background”. It was founded in 1869 (thus, will celebrate 150th anniversary soon), though it officially joined 22 colleges (at that time, nowadays 31) of the University of Cambridge by the end of 1940s. Nonetheless, in the meantime the staff collaborated with the University and therefore, for example, female students had to take the same tests as the male students at other colleges.

Since it is located outside the city, the College could afford an expansion by building new wings and today the main site can accommodate around 350 students. Besides, the College owns vast sports fields and as one of only two colleges has its own swimming pool. In addition, college has a second building, Wolfson Court, which is located closer to the centre and which mostly caters for graduate students.

Ely

If we move northeast to Cambridge, then in about fifteen minutes by train we will get to the village of Ely. When you arrive at the railway station and walk outside the centre, you do not feel as though the village was special in any sense. However, when you get into the centre, you will be astounded by a building which will make you feel insignificant, the Ely cathedral.

It was founded during the era of Anglo-Saxons in the seventh century. Nevertheless, the way it looks today is the results of half a millennium of reconstructions. Still, we can be grateful for the fact that the cathedral is well preserved as after England split from Roman Church, the art referring to the Church was often destroyed. You can get a lot of interesting information in the museum of stained glass which can be found in the cathedral.

As I mentioned before, after the Anglican Communtion became dominant a lot of symbols of the Roman Church were destroyed, including stained glass. That is why for subsequent three hundred years the art of stained glass was abandoned. It was not until 18th and 19th century when the stained glass was rediscovered and the art of stained glass has been practiced until now, the only difference being the design, which often resembles cubism.

Besides the cathedral there is another, quite inconspicuous building, which serves as an information centre today and which used to be the house of Oliver Cromwell.

Grantchester

Once, on the way to the lectures, our way was blocked by film shooting. We had to wait until the artificial rain stopped dripping on the umbrella of a lady in old clothes, who went by a couple talking about something. They were shooting Grantchester TV series, so let’s end the tour in this village southwest to Cambridge.

The village is, due to its proximity to Cambridge, related to the Cambridge personalities because a lot of them used to visit local café, The Orchard. Besides Watson and Crick, who discovered the structure of DNA, or Ernst Rutherford, who studied radioactivity, this place was frequented by writers and poets of the Grantchester Group, a few of whom were also members of another literary group, the Bloomsbury Group. One of the most authors is probably Virginia Woolf.

These days you can lie in the folding chair, sip the tea under the trees and absorb the relaxing atmosphere, which is really useful after the exams.

By the way Grantchester as well as Cambridge are on the river Cam, which you can sail on using so called punts, which are boats propelled by punter using a pole to push off the bottom of the river.

Acknowledgement

In the end, I would like to thank all, who made the first year abroad, the year of new things possible. Namely my parents, The Kellner Family Foundation, Girton College and my supervisors because all that has happened would be impossible without them.