We'd decided to visit Cambridge today and I'd pre-booked a parking space with JustPark near the centre of the town. I'd also reserved a table at a pub called The Mitre for 2.30pm so we set off at 11am for the hour's journey to the city.
It was a dry day with the sun trying to peep through the clouds but there was no rain forecast, thank goodness! We made the journey in great time and found our space very easily - it was a covered spot underneath a building and was lovely and secure.
We walked towards the town and came to Trinity College and although it was closed to the public, we were still able to walk along the river and have a look at the beautiful grounds.
We saw some people punting on the rive Cam and I looked out for the Bridge of Sighs, but it was further up the river and out of bounds due to the closure of the college.
We found our way into the centre and stopped for a hot chocolate at Caffe Nero. This enabled us to get our bearings and locate Bridge Street where The Mitre is. There were quite a few tourists about and it was lovely to get out into the sunshine and admire the gorgeous architecture of the famous colleges.
All the colleges were closed, though but it was still lovely to imagine studying at one of them and being a student!
We meandered into the market square which was a bit shabbier than the area around the colleges and made our way to Bridge Street. However, we took a wrong turning as I thought we'd be able to access the street through one of the colleges! We did walk up Trinity Lane, though, and I was intrigued by the buildings, each with tall chimneys in a row! They did remind me of a street in Bruges, for some reason!
By now the sky had darkened and I could feel the odd drop of rain so we decided to get to the pub a bit earlier and see if they could accommodate us. It was lucky we did as one of the staff had tried to contact us to say the pub was closing early and last orders were at the time we'd booked!
We ordered some drinks at the bar and I ordered a half of Old Dairy Snow Top which was a lovely dark, winter beer. The boys each had a pint and Sophie enjoyed a glass of wine.
We chose a table in their dining area and had a good look at the menu, choosing nachos and garlic bread to start as a sharing platter and the usual suspects for our mains - fish and chips, burgers and a turkey dinner pie for me. The food was delicious and the service excellent so it was a good choice!
When we emerged at almost 3pm the weather had cleared again and we wandered up Bridge Street watching people on the punts:
Opposite was Magdalene College (pronounced Maudlyn) which was founded in 1428! It looked beautiful.
Before we left to go home we called into The Punter pub and had a last drink. I had looked at this for our meal, but the menu was a little small so decided on The Mitre instead. However, it was a lovely, cosy pub with art for sale on the whitewashed walls and lots of black beams and quirky furnishings everywhere. I'd definitely like to come back!
Our journey home was fine and we called into Tesco briefly before popping around to see Mum and Dad as they had left their phone in my car. We had a New Year's Day drink with them and a good chat and then returned home to relax and watch E.T. - a great film and one that Sophie had never seen before!
Later in the evening we watched Luther - that was a bit disturbing!
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