Anuvicarati: Cambridge

Something I’ve always wanted to do in Cambridge was to go punting.

Punting refers to boating in a punt. A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. It reminds me of a gondola but that is propelled by an oar rather than a pole.

Punting is down Cam River. In guided tours mostly behind colleges to look at the college grounds as well as the bridges.

Last time I was in Cambridge, I was obsessed in seeing all the bridges. One I couldn’t find was the bridge of Sighs. I later found out that for a tourist it can only be seen on a river trip.

Wikipedia tells me that this is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, but only common architecture being they are both covered.

Our guide said that a common myth was that it was the students who named this bridge "bridge of sighs," as it was the "sighs" are those of pre-exam students as they go from their quarters on the to the main college.

Apparently twice the students have pulled the prank of dangling a car under the bridge. In the first in 1963 Austin 7 was punted down the river using four punts that had been lashed together, then hoisted up under the bridge using ropes. The second in 1968 a Bond or Reliant Regal three-wheeler car was dangled under the bridge.

Currently the oldest bridge in Cambridge is Clare bridge. The missing section of the globe second from the left on the south side of the bridge is rumored because the builder of the bridge received (what he considered to be) insufficient payment, and in his anger, removed a segment of the globe

Another is that complete bridges were subject to a tax at the time it was built, and the missing segment made the bridge incomplete and hence untaxed, and last the builder just forgot as he was never seen sober!

My other favourite - the Mathematical Bridge. I think I loved it as I was told it was built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts. But not true as Newton died in 1727, twenty-two years before the bridge was constructed.

Other stories are how at some point either students or fellows of the University attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together, and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts.

In reality, bolts or the equivalent are an inherent part of the design. When it was first built, iron spikes were driven into the joints from the outer side, where they could not be seen from the inside of the parapets, hence thinking that bolts were thought to be an addition to the original.

Magdalene bridge, can’t remember why it’s called that.

This was our guide, Sam. Funny and very informative.

This somewhat ugly college building is one of the few (only?) modern designs. I am not the only one who thinks it’s ugly. Apparently Prince Charles who was invited to open the building said so as well!

I am glad we did this with a guide. There were a lot of boats punted by tourists/civilians and they were bumping into each other and the walls. Our guide said they were the greatest hazard in the river!

But the ducks didn’t seem to think so. They seem to be adept at skirting by the novices and seem to hope for falling crumbs.