Europe Trip: Cambridge

**Note: There may be references to previous posts because this is an ongoing story. If you feel confused, it might help to look back at the rest of the story.**

One part of traveling that Jeremy and I really enjoy is making fun of observing the cultural stereotypes that seem to be based on at least some truth (because they all are, in our humble but accurate opinion). Thank you, cultures of the world, for providing some entertainment for my husband and I. "Cheerio!" "Mind the gap!" and "Lovely" seem so stereotypical...like how I would talk if I was pretending to be British, but we heard them a lot. Instead of "Yield", you are to "Give Way", and instead of "Exit", the signs say "Way Out." On the screen at an ATM, Jeremy was asked (the machine talks with a British accent in my imagination), "Do you require an advice slip?" and out came a receipt. One of the displays at the British Museum was closed "For the cause of refurbishment." I said "bummer" (in disappointment) to a British person and got an embarrassed reaction...I won't offer a further explanation of that here. I heard a mother say about her daughter "she just had a wee" and a sign for disabled vehicles on the road said "Free Recovery/Await Rescue" (it sounds so chivalrous!). Many people quoted Winston Churchill who (might have) said that America and England were "two countries separated by a common language." I don't know, but we sure made a lot of Monty-Python-style jokes while we were there.

Ever since I was in a production of Oliver Twist when I was a girl, I have loved Cockney English. One of my goals (besides Morris Dancing and Bagpipes) was to hear people speaking it. Can you imagine my delight upon arriving in Cambridge and going into the public water closet (hee hee), I mean the loo (hee), at the train station and seeing these words etched on the door:

Arriving in Cambridge wasn't without some sweat...we pulled the same Amazing Race FAIL at the train station as we had done at the airport--we left my train tickets in the automatic ticket dispenser because we walked away with Jeremy's TWO tickets not realizing we would each get 2. We missed our train and had some stress...and then some more relational stress (to Starbucks or not to Starbucks, that was the question). I guess we were pretty stressed. But someone did tell Jeremy that he looked like Prince Harry.

Cambridge was rainy. I was teary. It was a little hard to enjoy at first. We passed these charming little boats that you could rent to punt in the river, but we didn't...because of the rain...and the tears (and the British book salesman in Flagstaff had warned us they were more work than fun). We had heard of a house near the University called Tyndale House where a lot of American theology students live and study, and Jeremy had an acquaintance there, so we happened upon it and someone happened to invite us in and we spent the next 3 charming hours there with interesting people talking about interesting things.



We left and walked back to the city center centre for some doner (I was thankful for the Middle Eastern food, at least) and then caught a bus out to an American Military Cemetery on the edge of town (my idea, but Jeremy supportively agreed to go). A lady told us not to get off at our stop but to wait for the next one which caused us to sail past the cemetery in the rain on a rural road in the opposite direction. This is when I wished we didn't speak the same language.

We tried to hitchhike back to the cemetery but those proper Brits (who also like to speed on rural roads) wouldn't have it, so we walked probably over a mile...and Jeremy was wearing his one pair of shoes--Doc Martens--that were not fully broken in. The cemetery was closing, but we happened to catch some kind American retired military personnel who gave us a lovely tour. It was touching and inspiring to think of the sacrifice that so many Americans gave for freedom, not even in their own country. Many of the fallen were pilots and air crews because of the bombing raids into Nazi territory at the end part of WWII.

There are 25 of these cemeteries in Europe

3,812 American graves, 5, 127 American names recorded on the Tablets of the Missing

Door to the chapel with military vehicles and ships on it

Chapel with mosaic representing airmen and crews flying to their heavenly home

Replicas of aircraft and bombing missions

We successfully caught our bus back to the centre and had more stress, this time about dinner/ice cream, managed to find Jeremy a new pair of shoes at TJ Maxx (yes we were in an amazing city full of historic buildings and we were shopping at TJ Maxx. But it was IN a historic building.). Cambridge (and Oxford) are both so full of interesting buildings because they weren't bombed in WWII--many Nazi soldiers had graduated from the universities and Hitler was enamored with the Oxbridge area and wanted to set up his capitol in Oxford when he took over. Thankfully that didn't happen!

I was impacted by the stories of brave Reformers in all the cities we visited who were killed for trying to bring the Bible to the people in their own languages. If you click on this picture, you can read the sign.

There were bikes with wicker baskets everywhere! I guess it's the most common mode of transportation for the students. We knew we were in a prestigious university town when we heard students chatting about physics, the Nephilim, and whistling Mozart while casually walking around town. Also, only university fellows are allowed to walk on the grass (there are signs everywhere)...because "that's how it's been done for 400 years."

More stress. Money. Food. Schedule. Mostly my fault, I think. We're one flesh...sometimes that means glorious union and reading each others' thoughts and finishing each others' sentences. Sometimes it means going where you don't want to go or eating when you're not hungry or walking 2 miles in the rain in blistering shoes because your other heart is set on seeing an American Military Cemetery. Thanks for putting up with me.

Oh, and we returned to our attic room hotel to find that they had moved all of our stuff to another room without telling us. We were too tired to care.

Next stop: Oxford, Hitchhiker, Cotswolds, Palace, and Yorkshire Pudding