A Few Colleges

Cambridge University is made up of thirty-one individual, autonomous colleges. To get a degree from Cambridge University, a student must be accepted by one of the 31 colleges, take the appropriate courses, and pass the Examinations. Here are a few rules of the University:
1) all undergraduates must live on campus, in campus housing.
2) no cars (or pets) are allowed by the undergraduates, hence the 17,000 bicycles in the city.
3) students are not permitted to hold jobs during their stay at Cambridge University. Actually, there is not much time for jobs since many colleges have lectures 6 days a week.
4) Examinations are graded in the following manner: 2-1 is the highest grade (Prince Andrew's score), 2-2 is average (what Prince Charles received), 2-3 is below average but still passing. At the Senate House, there is no privacy act. Student's names are listed, their major and their exam scores. Everyone knows everyone else's score. If your name does not appear on the list, then you failed your examination.

After the Tuesday Coffee Mornings, Deb is given a tour of several of the colleges in town. Below are some of the pictures of the schools.

The Chapel at Emmanuel College, pictured here, was Christopher Wren's second building in Cambridge (after Pembroke College Chapel).




Emmanuel College, founded in 1584, was a Dominican friary that King Henry VIII dissolved. It was the first college whose students had to be Protestant. All were trained for the priesthood, left the college in three years and were required to go preach for a congregation. The most famous Emmanuel fellow was John Harvard (of Harvard Univ.). When Harvard died, he gave his complete library (and half his estate) to 'The New School' in Boston. The school renamed itself Harvard, after it's most generous benefactor.




At one time this fish pond was the source of food for Emmanuel students during winter months.

















This is the front gate to Corpus Christi College. It was founded in 1352 by two of the Cambridge guilds.














Here is a picture of Corpus Christi College's courtyard. The Parker Library is housed in this college. It is home to the OLDEST manuscripts in all of England, including St. Augustine's Bible. It was amazing for us to see these 1000+ year old manuscripts and be able to turn the pages (without gloves!) as if they were normal library books. We were shocked!







This is the medieval courtyard of Corpus Christi College. It is situated inside of the main courtyard, pictured above.









Here is the gate to Gonville and Caius (pronounced Keys) College. It is situated behind the Senate House where all students take their Examinations to get a degree. Gonville and Caius (usually just called 'Caius') was founded the year the Black Death broke out in England, 1348.











These are the walls surrounding Clare College. The college's gardens are suppose to be the prettiest in the spring. We'll have to wait and see. Clare College is the second oldest of Cambridge's 31 colleges. It was founded in 1326.









Peterhouse College is the oldest of Cambridge University's 31 colleges. It was founded in 1284 or thereabouts. This is a picture of the inner courtyard.









This is a view of the gardens at Peterhouse. See how green it is, even in the middle of winter!









This is the gate to St. John's College. It was founded by King Henry VII's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, around the year 1508.













This beautiful building is the Chapel for St. John's College.














Here is the main gate to Trinity College. Trinity is both the largest and wealthiest of the 31 colleges that make up Cambridge University. It was founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII.









Here is one descendent (of only 3) of Newton's famous apple tree. It stands right outside of Trinity's main gate. Of course, Newton was a Trinity man.












This is an outside view of the beautiful stained glass windows adorning Trinity College Chapel.













Pictured here is the courtyard of Trinity College. Trinity is best known for: 1)the Wren Library, which houses, among other things, Newton's original notes, as well as writings (in original script) by Byron, Tennyson and A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh), and 2) Prince Charles and Prince Andrew's school. Both were good students, it is said, although Andrew scored higher on his exams.







King's College Chapel, pictured here, is probably the most recognizable building in all of Cambridge. Evensong is sung every night at 5:30 pm by the college choir. King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI.












This is the gate to King's College.

Fun Pictures

The pictures below are of several fun/interesting/different things we've found since living in Cambridge. Enjoy them.


This is the British way of saying 'Exit.' Danny really likes these signs.











Rising Bollards! These posts are in the middle of the street to prevent unauthorized cars from passing through. Cambridge city centre is a pedestrian way. There is a sensor on the windshield of authorized cars that lowers the bollards and allows those cars through.











In the UK this is the sign for a 'roundabout' (a rotary).











The Sir Isaac Newton is, so far, our favorite place to get Fish and Chips. Don't you love the name? Newton was a Cambridge man.

















Of course, anything with a mathematician's name on it, like this street sign in Rome, must be photographed. Interestingly, the map we were carrying said this was Viale Fibonacci, not Euler. You gotta love Rome.









These accordion buses in Rome are cool. It's interesting seeing them navigate the very narrow streets (and corners).









This SmartCar is the car of Deb's dreams! It is only about six feet long. There are quite a few in Cambridge; Rome, however, is FULL of them.









Double-decker buses are all over both Cambridge and Rome.













Cambridge Police car. There's no 'blending in' with these cars.












Sign: Caution: Elderly people present. The Brits certainly are concerned about the treatment of their seniors.












Cute sign at Ely train station.












Humps!We would call this 'rough road ahead.'

Returning from Rome - Thursday, 2/2/06

Arrivederci, Roma! As if our tour of Rome wasn't beautiful enough, here are some views from the airplane flying back to London.

The Italian coast at Ostia and Fiumicino (we are flying over Da Vinci airport).








This is the island of Giglio, off the Italian coast, and just south of the famous isle of Elba, the site of Napoleon's exile.







And these photos show the north coast of the island of Corsica. Note the snow caps.
















A, mon Dieu! The Côte D'Azur! We are flying over Monaco, at the foot of La Trinité, the first of the French Alps. In the middle of the photo is Nice.






Off in the distance above is Cannes.
























This a lovely sight: flying over the French Alps, this is the Lac de Serre-Ponçon, near the Italian-French border. (Torino is about 100 miles away from here, to the northeast.)


When we got back to England, the weather was frigid, gray and foggy, in sharp contrast to what we had just left. But we were still glowing from this great excursion. And ready for a long nap, too!

Rome-Wednesday, 2/1/06

Happy Birthday, Deb! Boy, what a day we had! We were up with the sun, had breakfast at 7:00 am and headed straight for St. Peter's Basilica, where we picked up our tickets to the papal audience at 10:30am. They were gold tickets (instead of blue, like most) which got us seated near the front. We then spent the next two hours, before the audience was to start, inside the basillica.

It really is impossible to describe the emotions while walking through St. Peter's. The enormity of everything was almost overwhelming, and pictures wouldn't capture it correctly. (So we bought a book with professional photography that did a better job than we could.) The basillica is more than two football fields long and contains 50 different altars. Even the angels adorning the tops of the arches inside were larger than life. We saw crypts with more popes than we ever imagined existed. A few are pictured in this blog. Some that aren't pictured here, but which we did see, were: St. Gregory the Great, St. Leo the Great, Nicholas III, Pius XII, John Paul I.


Here are two views of St. Peter's taken during the daytime. The first is looking up the Via della Conciliazione and the second is a close-up from the square behind the Creche. It really is an imposing sight.









After walking through the Porta Santa (the Jubilee Year doors) and having your breath taken away by the view, you turn to the right, and what you see but Michelangelo's Pieta. It is gorgeous!






Of course,the Dome is absolutely spectacular.














This is the Choir, located behind the High Altar.

















The Baldacchino, pictured here, is breathtaking.


















This is a picture of the nave.
















It was a very emotional experience walking through the Crypt beneath the church, as the tombs of the recent popes are all within yards of each other in a particular area of the Crypt. We've included photos of a few of these crypts here, but even ancient popes were buried here.

Also in the Crypt, but just underneath the High Altar, are St. Peter's bones. There was no way to get close enough for a good picture, as pilgrims are not given a close access, so the one above will have to do.

Here is Paul VI's crypt.


















And here is the crypt of John Paul II. There was a small group of people praying at his crypt the whole time we were there.














This is the crypt of Pius XI with a mosaic of St. Therese of Lisieux, whom he canonized in 1925, on the wall above.





How do we describe the papal audience? As Danny put it, it's like a cross between a rock concert (everyone pushing, standing on chairs to get a view, etc.) and a pep rally (with incessant cheers from different delegations of pilgrims in different parts of the hall). After an opening recitation of Psalm 145 (the Pope has been basing his recent audience talks on reflections on the Psalms), Pope Benedict XVI entered the hall. People were pushing, shoving, standing on chairs, reaching their babies out to him, etc. So there was no way we could get a glimpse of him except on the "Pope-itron" monitor. Then he gave a sermon based on Psalm 145. The fascinating part was that everything that was said was translated into 5 different languages. For example, his sermon was first given in Latin. Then a French-speaking cardinal introduced the French-speaking delegations (of which there were many). The Pope then spoke to them in French. After that, an American cardinal did the same, and the pope spoke to them in English. The other languages, in order, were German, Spanish, Polish, and finally, Italian.

The Audience Hall, pictured here, is used in bad weather and during the winter months. It holds about 7000 people. The 'overflow' pilgrims were accommodated by more "Pope-itrons" in St. Peter's Basillica. We saw them setting up in the Basillica: it looked like there were enough chairs for another 5000 or so people. Can you imagine? The Pope does this EVERY Wednesday!



Here we are, waiting, and not knowing quite what to expect at this Papal Audience.








We were fortunate to be in Row 11. Even so, the Holy Father was way up on the stage, so close-up pictures were not possible.













Here is Pope Benedict XVI on the big screen in the Audience Hall.
















After the Papal Audience ended at about noon, we high-tailed it out of there as quick as we could so we could spend some time in the Vatican Museums before they closed their doors (at 1:45pm!?!). We had to walk around the perimeter of Vatican City to get to the entrance to the Museums. This is a picture of the wall surrounding the Vatican City State.



There was no way we were going to see all the best parts of the Vatican Museums, so we contented ourselves with enjoying the Stanze di Rafaello (Halls of Rafael) and the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) and whatever else we could along the way. Here is one of Danny's favorite paintings of any sort: The School of Athens. These two paintings are actually ONE painting encompassing an entire wall.

In the Constantine Room the four walls bear paintings of Constantine's vision of the Cross in the sky as he marched against Maxentius, his baptism, and of his coronation. The entire room was painted, ceiling to floor!

We left the Vatican Museum and hopped on the metro to San Giovanni in Laterano station. From there we took bus #218 south along the Via Appia Antica to the area outside the walls of the city where the catacombs were; we walked about 2km up the hill to get to S. Sebastiano. The tour took us down into the second level of catacombs below ground (there are 3 levels) and through about a quarter mile of tunnels. It was amazing to see these burial grounds. Several inscriptions were still visible, as well a very well preserved Roman mausoleum that had not been discovered until 1929. Therefore, the colors on the paintings on the ceiling and walls are all still vivid.

Here is the Church of San Sebastiano. The catacombs are beneath the church. Unfortunately, no pictures were permitted: Deb had to make do with buying postcards depicting the different parts of the catacomb.









This figure, portraying St. Sebastian's death, is in an altar in the church.









Bernini sculpted a bust of Jesus that sits in San Sebastiano Church.












Returning to Roma Centro on the bus, the beautiful Basillica of San Giovanni in Laterano was our next stop. This is the cathedral church for Rome (and not St. Peter's, surprisingly).




The Choir (that portion of the church behind the main altar) contained only the Chair of Peter. Above the chair is a beautiful dome.


























Here is the nave of the Basillica. Most impressive are the collossal statues of the Twelve Apostles that line the sides of the nave.










These are pictures of the beautiful cloister.





The basilica looks beautiful at dusk, with the crescent moon shining above it.
















Across the street from the Lateran basilica is the Church of the Scala Santa (Holy Steps). Legend has it that these steps were brought to Rome from Pilate's palace in Jerusalem; this is a stair that Jesus would have walked on the day he was condemned to die. In this photo you can see several pilgrims climbing the steps on their knees. Supposedly, there are still traces of blood on several of the stairs. But they are protected by a wood covering so I'm not sure the stains are visible.




This beautiful mosaic rests in an exterior cupola just outside the Scala Santa church.







Another day well spent, and an unforgetable birthday for Deb. Once again, we were sightseeing for about 12 hours and saw everything we had planned. We had dinner at a place called Professionisti, right down the road from the hotel, and had fresh-baked pastries as a birthday treat! Finally, it was back to the hotel: tomorrow was to be another early day of travel.