Off to the English Channel
Our month here has taken us to almost all of England’s coastlines; the Irish Sea, Bristol Channel and, the North Sea. Today we’ll hit another one, the southern coast along the English Channel. The drive is not bad, 4 hours or so, but we want to stop at Cambridge to tour the university along the way, so it may take a little longer.
The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209 and is the second oldest college in England, and the top ranked university. The university consists of 31 semi-autonomous colleges including King’s College founded by 1441 by King Henry VI; Trinity College founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII; and Downing College founded in 1869 making it the newest of the oldest colleges in Cambridge.
First up, King’s College.
A bit of a surprise once we got to Cambridge. To visit King’s College, one must pony up a few quid, 8GBP to be exact, just to have the pleasure of walking around the quad and into the chapel. But this should have been expected. The University of Cambridge is big business, make no mistake. In 2018, the University had a total income of 1.96B GBP and total assets worth 12B GBP ($15.4B USD)! Not bad for higher education. BTW- one of the benefits of being a British citizen is that your tuition at Cambridge is paid for by the Government. Upon graduation, the student will be required to repay the Government once they become employed in a position that pays more than 25,000GBP per year. (Average salary for full-time workers in the UK is 35,400GBP/yr.)
King’s College (chapel on the right)
Side view of chapel
The Quad
Entrance to King’s College
Yes, we paid the fee because we wanted to see the chapel. The chapel at King’s College is the oldest surviving building on campus, started in 1446 it would take more than 100 years to complete. Wars, murders, imprisonment, all impacted the building of the chapel. It wasn’t until King Henry VII and King Henry VIII (not a Willie or a Sam) were the funds mandated to finish building the chapel. What an amazing chapel it is.
As the English would say, “a proper fan vault ceiling”
The rood screen
The chancel
The altar
Fan vault
After our tour of King’s, we decided to stroll down to Trinity College, the largest college in the university. Here we drew the line. We paid for the opportunity to see the chapel but we decided not to pay for the privilege of going into Trinity College. It was getting late in the day and we still had a couple of hours to go before getting to Brighton. We settled for a few pictures of the entrance gate and then headed for the car.
Entrance to Trinity College
Sculpture of Henry VIII on the gate of Trinity College
We arrived in Brighton early evening and checked in to our hotel, the Jurys Inn. Nice hotel located beachfront with several restaurants nearby. Since it was cocktail hour, time to relax before heading out in search of a nice dinner.
Brighton Beach Pier
Dinner time so off to explore the city and find a good steakhouse. Things have changed since our first visit to England in 1982. Steaks have actually become more common place for dinner and steakhouses have greatly improved. Our choice for tonight, Il Bistro Steakhouse.
Il Bistro
Excellent dinner, steak cooked perfectly and really good colcannon. Mom-bear’s dinner was also good, seafood chowder with everything from the bottom of the ocean a seafood lover would expect.
A quick walk around the area and then back to the hotel to call it a night. Tomorrow morning we’re off to see the Seven Sisters cliffs. Rain is in the forecast but hopefully it will be light or hold off until we can get a few pics.
