Day trip to Cambridge

"Cambridge, 60 miles north of London, is world-famous for its prestigious university.  Wordsworth, Isaac Newton, Tennyson, Darwin, and Prince Charles are a few of its illustrious alumni.  The university dominates - and owns - most of Cambridge, a historic town of 100,000 people that's more pleasant than its rival Oxford.  Its the epitome of a university town, with busy bikers, stately residence halls, plenty of bookshops, and proud locals who can point out where DNA was originally modeled, the first atom was split, and electrons were initially discovered."

You'll have to excuse me for the above quote from Rick Steves, but he said it so well.  Now the Rick Steves London edition I own is 2008, so things may have changed a bit, so we'll have to verify things like timetables, and whether there are still plenty of bookshops.

Cambridge is an easy day trip.  We'll want to schedule a walking tour with the Cambridge Visitor Centre.  Ricky says that's an essential part of any visit and directs us to the Visit Cambridge website.  Surprise!  There isn't just one tour, but NINE!  Oh, but wait!  When I start selecting dates they don’t all appear.  I’m choosing Sunday, Sept. 16 because I would really, really like to hear evensong at 15:30 in Kings Chapel.

So, on that Sunday the first tour listed is Kings College and the Backs ( 2 hours/ 20 pounds) at 11 am

See the best that Cambridge has to offer in the company of an official Blue Badge Guide. This two-hour walking tour takes in some of the most famous city centre sights, with a specific focus on the magnificent 15th century King’s College and Chapel as well as the picturesque Cambridge Backs.

There is also a Cambridge Highlights Tour at 13:00 (90 minutes/12 pounds) which might even be better although I’d like an earlier hour.

This is the perfect tour for first-time visitors to Cambridge or those who are only here for a short time. See all the central, iconic sights in just 90 minutes: the Old Cavendish Laboratory where important scientific discoveries were made, the Corpus Clock, the Senate House and many of the beautiful central colleges* including Corpus Christi, King’s, Gonville & Caius and Trinity.

Official University and City Tour including King's College and Queens' College  (2 hours/ 23 pounds)

From the intimate courtyards of Queens’ College to the majestic beauty of King’s College Chapel, this 2-hour tour covers two very different royal Cambridge foundations.  Your route will meander through city streets and beautiful, riverside colleges, immersing you in the true Cambridge experience.

Any of these would be good although we should reserve before we go, and there appears to be lots of other things to do.
Here’s a list of 16 of the best things to  do in Cambridge, England from handluggageonly.co.uk
How about punting on the River Cam?  We can make a reservation for that, too, through the Visit Cambridge site.

But how do we get there?  Simple, take the train from King’s Cross.  Tripsavvy.comTripsavvy is happy to give us some options.  Looks like an off peak ticket is 17.20 pounds and it takes about an hour to get there.  And how do we get to Kings Cross?  My handy dandy London transit map says bus 414 and the Piccadilly line, and that takes about 45 minutes. 

 So, are you up for Cambridge?