Cambridge

To round out my weekend of travel, we visited Cambridge on Sunday, home to Cambridge University. Cambridge falls at number 7 in the World University Rankings, below Oxford which sits at number 3. The number 1 university is the California Institute of Technology, the setting of "The Big Bang Theory." Statistics aside, Cambridge seemed to have a warmer, more welcoming feel than did Oxford. The buildings were a bit more modern, and the actual town was much more so. There was even a decent sized shopping mall. First order of business was to eat lunch, for which we joined our colleagues from the University of Virginia, who have a program similar to our own (although obviously ours is better). However, what I was most excited about was that we ate at "The Eagle," which was the pub from which Watson and Crick first announced their Nobel Prize winning discovery, DNA.

From here, we moved on to King's College, home of one of the most recognizable chapels in the world. The interior was cavernous, and the stained glass, which took 30 years to install, was flawless. It really hammered home that the purpose of churches in this time period were as much to inspire awe and emotion as they were to serve as locations for religious services, and they still accomplish that goal today. The logistics alone of how something like this is accomplished are enough to make my head spin.

From King's College, we split off for time to explore the town, although that I found that although I would probably rather attend Cambridge than Oxford, the town itself seemed to have less to offer, although maybe this was because the colleges of Cambridge are more spread out than they are at Oxford. However, it was definitely worth the trip for the chapel alone!