Stuart and I went on a day trip to Cambridge. Apparently, so did every child under 15 in Italy. Geez. It was packed! I felt like they had invaded the city. Apart from that, we really enjoyed our day out. Cambridge is compact and easy to walk. We had nice weather which also helped.

I made him take a photo of me with the "holy grail"
of postboxes: the Victoria Regina one!

King's College green (I think)

We went to see the Cathedral at King's College. It was gorgeous. Sadly, after they took our 5£ (each!) it closed about 20 minutes later giving us hardly any time to really see it.

17th century grave stones

Henry VIII. Sort of why it's called King's College...

Exterior stone work

The world's largest example of a fan ceiling

Sadly photos can never do the stained-glass windows full justice.

"Henricus Rex"- aka King Henry!

Extensive grounds behind the college and cathedral

Standing on a bridge over the river Cam. Those folks are
punting behind us. Due to the gorgeous weather (especially
for England!) everyone and their mother was out.

The main street in Cambridge- and 90% of all Italy...

Punting! We got lucky and were in the "private" section facing the back of the boat. The other groups had to share their space. :) This was our rower/punter or whatever he was called. Everyone said we should do this, and I honestly thought it was just riding in a boat. It's not. The whole experience was wonderful. Seeing the city from the river was amazing. The buildings take on a different look from the boat. I would definitely do it again.

A hen do (bachelorette party) passing by

I believe that's the oldest bridge there ahead of us...

This bridge had a funny name due to it being the passage for
students going to their final exams or something. Apparently it was
quite stressful!

Old Norman building

More views of the city

A very strange clock outside one of the shops. If you notice, it's a cricket
on top of the dial. It "moves" by pushing the dial around. Very, very
odd.. and a bit disturbing.

I went to the Dulwich Portrait Gallery just south of London. It is supposedly the oldest portrait gallery in England (maybe UK). It is small, but very nice. It has quite a few masterpieces (Van Dyck and the like) among some other works that are also wonderful!

The entry

We were allowed to take photos inside (yea!). The building
design adds a lot to the presentation of the works I think.

An old clock that was still keeping time. It banged out the
hours and everything.

Portrait of a Woman by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Mrs Elizabeth Moody by Thomas Gainsborough

Elizabeth and Mary Linley by Thomas Gainsborough

The Judde Memorial- Artist unknown

Those are just a few of the works I really liked! Thought I'd share them.

Went out to visit Liz at her weekend home in Windsor. Had a wonderful time. Luckily the weather was nice, as well. Sadly, they still made me pay the (quite hefty) entry fee to the castle. Windsor is a short train trip (about 40 minutes) from London. Well worth the visit. We were not allowed to photograph inside the castle or cathedral, so my photos are mainly outside shots for this reason. I broke down and bought the book....

Partial view of the castle. It is HUGE and pretty difficult
to show in photos. In fact, it's the largest and longest
continually occupied castle in the world!

The oldest part of the castle- the Norman tower which was built
on the site of the original wooden tower. Sadly, this part cannot be visited.

Entrance

The moat of the castle. It's been used as a garden, complete
with a small waterfall (hard to see in this photo, but it's there!)

Another view of the grounds

This is the part where the Queen (et al) live when they are visiting
the castle. This changed about 150 years ago during Queen Victoria's
reign. This area isn't visited either.

Everyone taking photos. It was packed with tourists this day!

Norman archway

Some of Liz's henchmen, uh guards, marching somewhere!

Crest/symbol of the current monarchy

An odd tudor-style section where people associated with
the castle live.

The exterior of St. George's Chapel

After a long day's trip around the castle...

Lookie what I found finally! A Queen Victoria era post box!!

The Last Supper. It was hidden inside a small church near the castle.

Interior detail inside Windsor Parish Church of St John the Baptist

Queen Victoria watching over Windsor. Not sure why her
back is turned to the castle, though.