Act XI Hannah and Nana Weekend

Last week and a bit of this one saw us host our first set of over-sees guests here in Cambridge. The first was Kurt's mother, Dale who had just completed a driving tour of England with our sister-in-law Sam's father, Gary. The second was our Gettysburg neighbor Hannah, who is currently spending the year working as an au pair in Amsterdam. With her work schedule, Hannah has only so many opportunities for travel so when we were planning her trip here it was a bit tricky to find a time for her to visit that didn't overlap with one of our other scheduled visitors. In the end, since Hannah was not opposed to sleeping on the couch, we decided that an overlap with Dale might work out well. Plus we would get to call it "Hannah and Nana Weekend!"
  Dale and Gary arrive on Wednesday, a day earlier than originally expected but that nicely gave us a

chance to catch up with Gary and show him around Cambridge before his flight back to the states. While the boys were in school on Thursday I took Dale and Gary on a whirlwind tour of some of the great little college museums and King's College Chapel before embarking on a lovely lunch at The Eagle Pub, where as you may remember from an earlier post, Watson and Crick announced that they had found "the secret to life" DNA. After dinner that evening at the fabulous Indian restaurant down the street, we all bid Gary farewell, wishing him luck on the drive back to London.

On Friday it was Kurt's turn to take over as tour guide. He and Dale walked around some of the city's shopping areas while I went to meet Hannah at the train station. Since the boys get out of school at 1:30 on Fridays, after getting Hannah settled I had to send her off to meet up with Kurt and Dale on her own while I collected the kiddies. Apparently they found a lovely spot to have an official tea (one of Dale's requested activities) at Patisserie Valerie. Later the kids and I met up with the Kurt and the tourists at Great St. Marys Church, a 15th century parish church just across the road from King's College where, for a price, one can climb the main tower and enjoy a panoramic view of  the city. The weather was brilliant with clear skies and golden sunlight and so our entry fee was well-used. Once again, admission came with kid's activity sheets and amused us with interesting tidbits about the church including the fact that it was fined by Queen Elizabeth I for not ringing the bells when she visited it during her reign. 
 

When Dale first gave us the dates for her visit, she noticed that it would fall somewhat near our anniversary and offered to babysit on a night of our choosing so that we could go out to one of the fancier establishments in town to celebrate. So, setting up her, Hannah and the kids with some vittles and a movie, Kurt and I set out on Friday night to Trinity, a fabulous restaurant cozily situated just near Trinity College. We enjoyed oysters, champagne and uninterrupted conversation from our corner booth with nary a complaint (except for Kurt's irritation with the display windows of the store across the street- in his defense it was a poorly constructed advertisement for the clothing within).  After a bit of a stroll down some of Cambridge's charming streets we headed home to rest up for our next day's adventure.

 No visit to Cambridge could be complete without a bit of a punt down the river

Cam. This particular activity was also on Dale's list of requests as was a visit to Grantchester (she too is a fan of the TV series of the same name) so why not put the two of them together?! On Saturday we packed some crackers and brie, activity books for the boys, and rented a punt for the day. Once again the weather was just divine and except for the overly aggressive swans and swarms of stand-up paddle-boarders, we had a lovely punt to Grantchester. Kurt did all the work on this adventure and so we took our time in the little town to give him a rest, stopping for a leisurely tea at The Orchard, touring the grounds of the church and the town's cottage-lined streets. The trickiest bit of the trip was docking the punt; despite The Orchard's position on the Cam it does not have an official dock and the banks are too high to pull the boat ashore. Cleverly Kurt was able to pin the punt to the side of the river using the punting pole, parking that was further shored up by a delightful German couple who "pulled up" next to us in a canoe, out for their own picnic.

  That night, after a hasty dinner at home we scuttled back into the center of the city to hear a free organ concert at King's College Chapel. Dale had wanted to experience an Evensong service sometime during the course of her visit but the timing didn't seem to be on our side. When I saw this event advertised on our tour with Gary I thought it might be a nice alternative, plus I have wanted to hear that enormous instrument played ever since I laid eyes on it. The concert did not disappoint and I think everyone enjoyed the organ's ability to truly rattle their insides on those low notes, most especially Klaus. The Chapel itself was, of course, a beautiful venue and as we listened we could see the sun set through the stained glass and enjoyed the coziness of the candlelight thereafter. England, you are magical.

                                 

 After the concert, Dale and I took the kids home while Kurt and Hannah went to meet up with some of the graduate students from Kurt's lab. Since Hannah plans to go to college someday we considered this something of a college tour for her and so thought it would be nice for her to talk with some grad students while she was here. After putting the kids to bed I joined the crowd and was delighted to meet some of the entertaining members of the Keyser group that I had heard so much about. On the ride home, I was able to convince Hannah to hop in the Bakfiets, another Cambridge experience (Dutch actually) I though she should have. 

 On Sunday morning, thanks to a tip from one of Kurt's co-workers, we got to enjoy brunch in Pembroke College's fine dining hall. The food was nothing extraordinary (aside from the fried brie bites) but was certainly better than anything I got at Penn State and the atmosphere easily allowed the kids to pretend that they were at Hogwarts. The beautiful college grounds were open since the "Freshers" all came to town this week and so we were able to peek into a few buildings including the chapel. Pembroke, founded in 1347, boasts buildings on its campus dating from every century since its inception and, as expected, I loved all of them but the cinder-block monstrosity of our current era. Afterwards, Kurt and guests walked to a few of the other colleges and I took the boys home for some quiet time. 

 Monday, after dropping the kids off at school, Kurt and I escorted our guests to Ely so that they could enjoy the cathedral there that we find so charming. I will admit, being pretty tired from all our weekend adventures, I was tempted to let Kurt handle this on his own again but, in hindsight, that would have become a life-long regret. Without the kids with us (they are too young to be permitted) we were able to take the tower tour of the Cathedral. I still can't believe that the church offers this tour- in 45 minutes the guide takes tourists up the multiple medieval spiraling staircases of its famed 141 foot high "Octagon Tower" lets them prowl around the 700 year old wooden beams, look down upon the nave from the angel doors, and climb all over the lead covered "Lantern" tower. It was amazing a terrifying all at the same time. I couldn't decide which picture to post so here are a gaggle of them and a video.

 
  
                     

 After the cathedral we took Hannah to an official English Pub as was demanded by her father, got her a pint (drinking age here is 18 :) and walked around Ely for a bit. Back in Cambridge I think Kurt took Dale and Hannah to tour even more of the colleges while I picked up the boys from school. All too soon we had to say goodbye to Hannah and put her back on the train to London. Next morning we had to do the same for Dale and thus concluded our wonderful Hannah and Nana Weekend. 

 If you or any of your household are wanting your own weekend with us in Cambridge, contact us soon- places are still available but time is running out :)