Latitude: 51° 9'1.57"N; Longitude: 0°10'35.95"WWe flew into London Gatwick Airport and drove straightaway north to Cambridge. We checked into the Cambridge Holiday Inn Express (Latitude: 52°11'36.61"N; Longitude: 0°10'29.56"E) for a ten minute drive into town. Cambridge was so beautiful with every turn a lovely street scene or a window flower box or an outdoor cafe.
What was especially wonderful about Cambridge was to see all of the colleges that comprise the university. The college system of Yale and Harvard is modeled after Cambridge and Oxford, where a student is associated with a college, living there while she or he attends classes at the university, eating meals and attending faith services. The chapels, libraries, central quadrangles, and gardens are amazing. 
The chapel for Trinity College (above) was lovely and there was a student practicing when we walked in. Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and Alfred Tennyson lived in Trinity College. The chapel at Kings College was awe-inspiring from the outside but was not open when we arrived. We saw entry-ways to the Master Houses and felt envious as the House Fellow accommodations at Vassar are not quite up to that caliber. The city of Cambridge is a true academic Disneyland.
We ended the day punting on the Cam River. Punting is when you use a long stick or pole to push a flat-bottomed boat along the river. We hired someone to punt but you can also rent (or let) a boat and go on your own. I don't recommend it because most of those self-punters didn't have any idea of how to make the boat go straight. Plus, our punt driver had some very interesting things to say about the history of Cambridge.These photos and more are located on my Flickr page.
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