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| King's College Chapel |
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| Jason at King's College Chapel |
July 4, 2010 - In the UK, it's just 4 July 2010, but in the US it's the Fourth of July! It was a little weird not seeing people wearing red, white, and blue and there was no fireworks, but we did have some breathtaking experiences!
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| The Quire |
found that our plan was changed for us when we arrived at the parking lot early this Sunday morning to find hundreds of cars and hundreds of people lined up wearing pink. As we joined the end of the line we learned that there was a major cancer research fundraising run happening in Cambridge that day. On top of having to wait 1 1/2 hours for a bus, we were then dropped off far from King's college in our dress clothes and we were forced to walk (Erika in heels) for at least a couple miles on the cobblestone streets and through parks, needing to wait to cross between clusters of runners.
We did have the fun opportunity to stop into a really fun bazaar in the center of town and look at many beautiful local wares. Nearby there was also a drum corps that was performing throughout the town to advertise for that evening's fundraiser concert. It was quite a treat to see.
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| Erika in the Quire |
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| Life-size carved wooden angels atop organ |
We found Cambridge to be a very friendly college town,
college being the main focus of the town! You'd walk down the street and see signs for college after college. When we finally arrived at King's College, we purchased our admission tickets and a couple souvenirs from the gift shop across the street from the Chapel and then went for a tour. It was an amazing place--taller and deeper than either of us had imagined. When we walked in and looked down the length of the building we were amazed at the distance from the end to the organ which is mounted on top of the screen (wall) between the congregation and the quire and high altar areas. As we explored we found that the other end of the building was just as deep. We enjoyed our time exploring the space looking at and discussing all the symbolism of King Henry, Anne Boleyn, and ever-present Tudor rose. After we finished our tour we took time to out and visit more of the shops in town and have lunch at a little Greek restaurant tucked between buildings on a side street. The food was wonderful!
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| Stone carvings on walls |
Later we made our way back to King's College Chapel for Evensong. We were invited to sit in the quire area (where the choir sits in stalls) where we became part of the choir for the evening as the regular choir was out on a tour. They did have 4 "retired" choir members to sing during worship and lead in chanting, but it was an amazing experience to be able to sit in these stalls where choirs have been singing for hundreds of years. The sound of the organ was beautiful and Jason was very happy to finally have an opportunity to hear this instrument live instead of just on recordings. (In case you didn't know, Jason is quite the pipe organ nerd.)
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| Chancel window at King's |
After worship we walked out the HUGE doors at the rear of the Chapel and down the sidewalk and along the river which flows behind the campus. We enjoyed watching the punts (similar to gondolas in Venice) going down the river. We learned from watching the "professionals" and the tourists trying to maneuver the boats, that if you're ever renting time in a punt, pay for the professional oarsman!
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| Punts on the River |
We finished our time in Cambridge with another walk and then we hitched a ride on the bus back to our car where Erika's feet were very happy to ride without shoes!
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| Panoramic of King's College |
