Back to the UK after 50 years

[OZDUCK]

That evening we had a more formal meal. Cambridge is a vey walkable city. Most of the venues were only 4 or 5 km away so we walked there.

Kings College Chapel from another angle at dusk. Looking across the Cam River.







St John's College Gate



Clare College





Kings College Gate





The meal was held at an old mill





The pond in front





There was still an operative water wheel inside

Again not really an occasion for photos to put on here.

My wife had bought a lot of packets of Caramello Koalas from Australia so everyone got a taste of an Oz treat. One of the attendees was about 9 and he spent a bit of time finding any that had not been claimed.

The meal was just ok

Choice of soup or salad nicoise





Then choice of various roasts with Yorkshire pudding or Steak & Ale Pie. We both chose Beef thinking it was the traditional English one to go with. The meat was tender but with absolutely no taste. It was a bit like if 'roast beef' from the Coles deli counter had been warmed up.



Nice sticky toffee pudding to finish

 

[OZDUCK]

For the final morning we had a mass punting expedition with four punts chartered. I had been disinclined to do this anyway because of my suspect knees. But after I had injured my back early on there was no way I could sit down in one or more importantly get up without much screaming. Even getting out of bed was a big effort. Once I was on my feet I was able to walk all day but lowering to or rising from a low place was incredibly painful.

On the way there we came across a 'fun run'. we were starting from Silver St bridge but pedestrian traffic was allowed.





The starting point





Not exactly raised seating





Some of our travellers. Luckily the weather was pretty much perfect that day

 

[OZDUCK]

My wife took plenty of photos from her punt. It looked to have been a really nice trip.





Not much headroom under some of the bridges





The Bridge of Sighs. Linking parts of St Johns College. It is so named because of its perceived resemblance to the one in Venice.

Bridge of Sighs - St John's College, Cambridge

www.joh.cam.ac.uk

With a traffic jam



The Mathematical Bridge Queens College. Originally built in 1749. But is a type of Ship of Theseus as - "It has subsequently been repaired in 1866 and rebuilt to the same design in 1905."

Although it appears to be an arch, it is composed entirely of straight timbers built to an unusually sophisticated engineering design, hence the name.

• The design is a minor triumph of mid-18th century engineering, for which credit must go to James King (d. 1744);
• The bridge spans a 50-foot river using multiple shorter lengths of timber: for instance, the horizontal element which appears to span the entire river is made of six shorter timbers jointed end-to-end;
• The design is an implementation in timber of a voussoir arch bridge, in which the individual elements are held in a state of compression by the action of gravity on the whole structure: a voussoir bridge requires strong abutments to balance the compressive forces at the springing of the arch;

Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia

Mathematical Bridge | Queens' College History Archive

history.queens.cam.ac.uk

The back of Kings College with runners



Some with unusual garb





New Court - St John's College

 

[MARTINE]

Really loving being along for the ride @OZDUCK - and how wonderful to have these special international reunions. thankyou for including us (PS be kind to yourself about weight and age/you both look so happy together and what a wonderful life)

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks Martine the reunions have usually been fun. With have made a number of friends there some of whom have visited us in Australia and the same for us in Europe..

The other reunions not shown earlier were :-

Perth 2007 - from the Fremantle Roundhouse



Kempton Germany 2011





Ottawa Victoria Island - 2016



Berlin 2022 - from the top of the Humboldt Forum

 

[kookaburra75]

Thanks again for putting together your report. The photos remind me of the places we visited back in the 70s. Certainly, I think Cambridge is one of the most interesting places to visit in the UK, much better than Oxford.

The idea of a very-extended family get together is appealing. I have some German heritage on my mother's side - the Baums who emigrated from Clausthal-Zellerfeld in Hannover, in 1851. I should see where they all spread to.

 

[Flyfrequently]

. I should see where they all spread to.

Surfer Flyfrequently knows one from Geelong @kookaburra75

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks again for putting together your report. The photos remind me of the places we visited back in the 70s. Certainly, I think Cambridge is one of the most interesting places to visit in the UK, much better than Oxford.

The idea of a very-extended family get together is appealing. I have some German heritage on my mother's side - the Baums who emigrated from Clausthal-Zellerfeld in Hannover, in 1851. I should see where they all spread to.

Thanks. I think I saw about a quarter, if that, of what I would have liked to see in Cambridge. I underestimated how interesting the place is. Three nights was too short a stay especially being built around the reunion.

At this reunion we had people from the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Canada, Singapore and Australia. At other reunions there have been attendees from New Zealand and Malaysia - with a lot from Sabah,

This below might be a good place to start your search on-line. I know that the people looking at the Neubronner family got some information from it. To my disgrace we didn't visit it when we were in Bremerhaven. I accidentally went to the local museum instead - which was a nice small place. But we did get to the excellent German Maritime Museum.

Home

Deutsches Auswandererhaus - Erlebnismuseum, Bremerhaven.

dah-bremerhaven.de

 

[VPS]

Thanks again for putting together your report. The photos remind me of the places we visited back in the 70s. Certainly, I think Cambridge is one of the most interesting places to visit in the UK, much better than Oxford.

The idea of a very-extended family get together is appealing. I have some German heritage on my mother's side - the Baums who emigrated from Clausthal-Zellerfeld in Hannover, in 1851. I should see where they all spread to.

and there are some in the Clare Valley in SA

 

[kookaburra75]

and there are some in the Clare Valley in SA

They first settled in SA as they were miners, and some left for Victoria at the start of the 1900s where my line comes from. As a funny aside, on Shaun Micallef's series Origin Odyssey, Denise Scott's ancestors also came from the same area in what is now Germany. My mother called me to see if I had seen the episode as she got quite excited that someone else had a connection to that area.

 

[OZDUCK]

Here are a couple of videos my wife took on her punt. We only got an action camera just before we left on this trip so we are still novices at using it

Some other photos from around Cambridge

Senate House Passage







Old Court of Clare College



Kings College Chapple









New Court Christs College

















The cloisters beneath the Wren Library at Nevile's Court in Trinity College,

 

[kookaburra75]

Surfer Flyfrequently knows one from Geelong @kookaburra75

That might be from the two brothers who came across to the Wimmera in Victoria when it opened up for settlement in the 1890s around Horsham. They quite many children who would have moved around the place. While I have researched my father's surname line back into the UK (and a seafaring trigamist g-g-grandfather), there are other lines like the Baums that I need to follow up.

 

[OZDUCK]

That last night a couple of the participants asked a few of us to their houses about 20 minutes out of Cambridge.

We got taken to the village pub



The bar area





Dinner at one off their houses was either fish and chips - apparently much better than those served on the first night - or some excellent curry.

And now for something completely different -

The Dinky Doors

Dinky Doors

Some of Cambridge’s most charming architecture is tucked away at ankle level. Since 2019, an anonymous couple has been working toward their mission of “Saving the World” by installing little portal…

thecambridgeplacebook.com

Dinky Doors

www.dinkydoors.co.uk

WEs saw a few of them








But our German friend who visited us in Perth in 2024 made it her mission to see them all
















And that was the end of the reunion. It wasn't as well organised as previous ones. The person doing it became snowed under at work.

 

[OZDUCK]

Our next stop was at York. We had booked seven nights here so, like Manchester, we could do day trips.

There is no direct train between Cambridge and York so we had to backtrack to Stevenage on Thameslink to pick up the LNER train to York.

The first train on our trip had a very light load. It started in York and terminated in Brighton going via London. It had better luggage capacity than the intercity trains we used.





We went via Letchworth Garden City. this was the first Garden City in the UK. It was built in the early 20th C.



Although the UK hasn't got an really high speed train the trains still go by the station pretty quickly

Th legroom was reasonable for 2nd class but the seat was still only ok.



The train wasn't very busy but we did have a group of about sixteen 9 - 10 year olds in front of us. They were obviously on a school excursion and were pretty noisy. But it was 'happy' noise so it wasn't really a problem.



The closer we got to York the greener the countryside got. We told on our bus trip later that week that the drought hadn't affected Yorkshire as much as other areas.



Another canal

 

[VPS]

That last night a couple of the participants asked a few of us to their houses about 20 minutes out of Cambridge.

We got taken to the village pub

View attachment 529320

The bar area

View attachment 529321

View attachment 529322

Dinner at one off their houses was either fish and chips - apparently much better than those served on the first night - or some excellent curry.

And now for something completely different -

The Dinky Doors

Dinky Doors

Some of Cambridge’s most charming architecture is tucked away at ankle level. Since 2019, an anonymous couple has been working toward their mission of “Saving the World” by installing little portal…

thecambridgeplacebook.com

Dinky Doors

www.dinkydoors.co.uk

WEs saw a few of them

View attachment 529327 View attachment 529328


View attachment 529329

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But our German friend who visited us in Perth in 2024 made it her mission to see them all

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And that was the end of the reunion. It wasn't as well organised as previous ones. The person doing it became snowed under at work.

ooh a challenge for me to see all the dinky doors

 

[OZDUCK]

York Railway Station opened in 1887 with - "a distinctive curved train shed. Upon its opening on 25 June 1877, it was the largest railway station in the world"









That damned advertising company is chasing me around the UK!



The walls of York are just across the road from the station



Our apartment was only about 200 metres from the station. It was the best spot we stopped at on our trip.





It was a two bedroom apartment and the 'second' bedroom was locked. However the second bathroom was open - luxury when on holidays.



The ensuite

 

[OZDUCK]

ooh a challenge for me to see all the dinky doors

Some of them were a couple of km out of the centre but our friend found then all easily on foot

 

[VPS]

York Railway Station opened in 1887 with - "a distinctive curved train shed. Upon its opening on 25 June 1877, it was the largest railway station in the world"

View attachment 529385

View attachment 529384

View attachment 529386

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That damned advertising company is chasing me around the UK!

View attachment 529388

The walls of York are just across the road from the station

View attachment 529389

Our apartment was only about 200 metres from the station. It was the best spot we stopped at on our trip.

View attachment 529396

View attachment 529400

It was a two bedroom apartment and the 'second' bedroom was locked. However the second bathroom was open - luxury when on holidays.

View attachment 529394

The ensuite

View attachment 529393

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can you share the link to your apartment please?

 

[OZDUCK]

The view from the bedroom window - across the River Ouse towards the Museum Gardens



From the lounge room window



But we also had the view most treasured of all by AFF members - a car park. But not only did we have a view of a car park from the kitchen window it was a Post Office Car Park



We were only about 1 km from the York Minster so we had a quick wander in that evening.

Through the walls



Up the hill



Across the river where we got a lovely sunset later on





Past the Museum Gardens



To the Minster







And my wife got to meet another new best friend in the Minster Gardens

 

[OZDUCK]

can you share the link to your apartment please?

I will send you a DM