OF KINGS AND A VISITOR FROM GIBSONS

Warren from Gibsons came down to stay with us this week; he is on holiday from his teaching position up in Scotland. Poor Warren; it took two different buses, four trains and a taxi to get from his doorstep to ours last night, so he was pretty tired by the time he arrived in Cambridge. Ray and I immediately decided to revive him with in the most British of manners – a visit to the pub! Reading over my entries for the past few weeks you might think that we’re turning into alcoholics but rest assured we indulge sparingly.

Having a guest makes it easier to justify taking the day off to gallivant around town and do some of the touristy things that we haven’t yet got around to seeing ourselves. Today we focused on King’s College Chapel, which is the most famous building in Cambridge. If you look in any tour book and there is only one picture of Cambridge, it will be of this chapel. After today’s visit, I can see why.

In a nutshell, the chapel is this huge gothic structure about the length and 2/3 the width of a football field, with ornate stained glass windows from one end to the other. It was built in the 1500s by four kings starting with Edward (I forget which one) and was completed over 90 years later by Henry VIII. The huge organ inside the chapel was commissioned by Henry VIII for his wife Anne Boylen, who he had executed a few years later (a very fickle king). The vaulted ceiling of the chapel is particularly impressive and it would be impossible to describe with any justice here – so I urge you to see it one day for yourself.

I am still having trouble getting my head around the fact that the near-mythical kings and queens that I’ve heard about since being a child actually had an active presence in this very town. We just don’t have anything that compares with this back home.