DAY 8 JUNE 2 CAMBRIDGE

GUIDED BUS
Next stop Cambridge.  Keith's back is acting up so he used it as an excuse to pass on another university visit today.  So  Jason and I set out for a trip to Cambridge via the Guided Bus.  The what?  This progressive transport opened here in 2011- the largest in the world.  It is made up of 2 concrete beams with curbs and guide wheels on the bus which connect the bus with the curb to run along and steer it.  They ripped out the old train tracks to put in this bus highway- no traffic, no stop lights  and NO ROUNDABOUTS!  Very quick, inexpensive way to get over to Cambridge.  A pretty ride through the country side and no problems with having too many pints in Cambridge as the Guided Bus is the designated driver.  Yahoo.





















The University of Cambridge is a public research University in Cambridge, England which was founded in 1209.  It grew from of a walk out of scholars at Oxford after a little dispute with the townsfolk....and some refer to both of them as "Oxbridge".  There are 31 colleges and over 100 academic departments organised into 6 schools.  The buildings are historical and oh so handsome.  The grounds are impeccable...the budget is astounding- a bit shy of $3 Billion bucks.  The endowment is the largest of any university outside the US.


  Hello Sir  Isaac Newton and don't forget about the beloved DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE-no they didn't attend but a whole lotta other smart folk did....lest we not mention Chas Darwin, Stephen Hawking,  John Maynard Keynes, John Milton, Dr. Abdus Salam, Bertrand Russell, Lord Byron, Jawahaial Nehru, Oliver Cromwell, Alfred Lord Tennyson and the list goes on and on...





The town and the university buildings all intertwine...so clean and very quiet.  "This place has 114 libraries Aunt Pam...right up your alley".  It is what they call a "legal library" entitling it to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland.- holding over 8 million books.  And don't forget the Cambridge Press is the oldest printer and publisher in the world.

Yes that professor is wearing a gown...and this is where the expression was coined  "town and gown".  The latest dust up involves exams...a poem without words and a risque set of questions based on Fifty Shades of Grey...flummoxing the students during the exam period.  English finalists were stunned du4ring the Practical Criticism exam last week when they were asked to analyze a passage by South African writer KoosKombul made up solely of punctuation.  Now that might be a poem Boca could relate to-!!!!!!!

And a question in the law school referimg to a scene in 50 Shades...holy crapperoo.  And this place is ranked numero uno in the country....more Phd's than any  other British university (30% more than Oxford).  The U is closely linked with the development of the high-tech biz cluster in and around Cambridge..."Silicon Fen"...sound familiar?  They say that the  Fen was the second largest venture capital market in the world, after Silicon Valley.  Clean and green.  Not a gum wrapper to be found on the ground.  Indeed, the grounds and gardens are impeccable.  Boca's kind of place.


Anyone up for a little punting?  A flat bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water as in "boating in a punt".  The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole....do not confuse this with a gondola.  Punishable by death.  More punts on the Cam than any other river in England.  Guess those college kids go out for a Pint and a Punt.  Carry on,


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But Pleep would have nothing to do with a Punt.  He felt he was more suited for a ride from his Mum.

LUNCH AT THE EAGLE


The Eagle is one of the oldest inns in Cambridge dating back to the 14th century.  Take your pick of English cask ales and some delicious grub.  Not your typical pub grub served here.  We sat where Watson and Crick announced to the world that they had discoverer the "secret of life"...hello DNA.










  But we also enjoyed the famous RAF ceiling which boasts signatures of RAF pilots fro all over the world who returned from the second World War and signed their names on the ceiling using only cigarette lighters, candle smoke and lipstick.  A cool pub with a lot of history Aunt Pam.













and Boca never tires of a book store...Jason pleads with his Aunt Pam "no books.  I promised Uncle Keith, no books."  Yeah, righto Jay.  Hey, is this like a selfie???

Sounds like something Boca could write...

and if that one doesn't do it for you, how about this for size?










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BUT NO MATTER HOW SMART AND BRILLIANT THESE STUDENTS ARE, THEY ARE STILL KIDS AND ENJOY STUPID CRAP LIKE EVERY OTHER KID IN THE WORLD!

  Anybody up for some BREAKING BAD?