Mitten in Britain: Cambridge

A couple weekends ago, Brandon and I took a 45 minute train ride up to Cambridge - one of the oldest universities in the world (since the 13th century!) Cambridge is made up of 31 colleges, all with adorable architecture. We took a walking tour of the city to get a good feel for the college town. DNA and gravity was discovered here! And Stephen Hawking lives and works in the mathematics department at two of the colleges! And the student acceptance rate is 20%... We took some photos of the more famous colleges, Queens' (named for multiple queen patrons):

The Dining Hall (previously for students, now for special events)

William Morris fireplace in Dining Hall

And Kings! Famous alumni include Florence Nightingale, the poet John Keats, novelist Virginia Woolf, and Wilkins & Franklin (DNA discoverers).

The best part of King's College (I think) is the Chapel, built over a century - started by King Henry VI and finished by Henry VIII (the one with 6 wives.) The choir screen in the center of the chapel has Anne Boleyn's initials, so historians date the completion of the chapel to her years as Queen: 1433-1436. The chapel has the largest fan-vaulted ceiling in the world and some of the most pristine medieval stained-glass. The glass was put into storage during World War II and painstakingly reassembled in the 1950s.

King's College Chapel

Roses are symbols of the Tudor dynasty (King Henry VIII)

Notice the crowns - Henry VIII wanted visitors to know who was in charge!

The greyhound on the right of the crest below the glass is also a Tudor symbol

Cambridge had the prettiest grounds of any university I've ever seen - but you weren't allowed to step on the grass! Michigan students would protest. No frisbee, outdoor classes or drum circles? :(