Family in London, UK - Part 4

Note:  This is the fourth blog post of our family trip to London.  If you wish to see the previous post, just click here.

For our fifth day in the UK, I took the family north of London, to Cambridge.  I wanted them to see my office, while I'm in the UK.  I also wanted my wife to see the university and the surrounding town.  I love it in this city and I hoped she would love it too.

After touring the office - which I've already shown in previous posts, we headed for the center of Cambridge.  The actual University of Cambridge is made up of over a dozen separate colleges.  Each of these colleges is rather unique looking - some nicer than others.  Our first stop was King's College, a landmark set of buildings in the heart of Cambridge.  This is the main gate to the college:

Next to this are beautiful courtyards, with the famous King's College Chapel right next door:

The interior is beautiful, if not typical Gothic style.  The acoustics are astonishing, as evidenced by the many recordings of the King's College Singers.  I'm a big fan of choral music, so it was fun to go inside:

The stained glass was beautiful, as you would expect.  It took a long time to complete this chapel, so there are some mixtures of styles.  It all impresses:

Outside, you see some of the extraordinary courtyards that are associated with these colleges.  In this picture, you're looking at the back of the King's College central gate (pictured above)

After strolling through the quaint streets of Cambridge, I wanted to take the family on a little boat ride.  There is a river that runs behind many of these colleges - it's called the River Cam.  In fact, the city is actually derived from the bridge that crossed the River Cam - or Cambridge.  A tradition here is to ride lazily along this river, in shallow boats that would remind you of Venice.  It's called "punting".  The short cruise was so much fun.  We hired an expert boatman, who maneuvered us down the river using only a long, wooden pole.

The view from the river was gorgeous...and peaceful.  Some tourists try to control the boats themselves...but you can quickly tell who they are, as so few of them remain in control of their craft.

That's the back of the King's College Chapel.  Just to prove that I was there...

It was a real treat.  The weather was perfect and the time-of-day made it fun to see all of the historic buildings.

We walked a little more through the streets of Cambridge.  We found several candy stores (sweet shops)

...and after dinner, we treated ourselves to some ice cream.  Not just any ice cream, but a brand called Movenpick - which my oldest daughter introduced us to in Switzerland.  Delicious!

The next day, we took the kids outside of London to Hampton Court Palace.  This was the main palace for King Henry VIII.

Outside the palace, they had several "coaches" for kids to see what it was like to ride into the palace.  L seemed to be right at home in what she called a "princess coach":

 This is her "princess wave"

Again, the historic site had something really fun for children.  They were testing a mobile application that would allow kids and their parents to go on "missions" throughout the palace.  They were testing it while we were there, so they lent us an iPad and G-Man was able to control the whole thing.  It made for a wonderful experience, and allowed younger kids to have some fun while learning.

My new friend

Fountain Court

We decided to have lunch nearby, before going through the palace gardens.  I have what I believe, is the fanciest "shepherd's pie" I've ever seen.  Some would call it "deconstructed" ; )

Back to the palace - and specifically the gardens.  These are expansive, beautiful gardens...exactly what you would expect from King Henry VIII:

The amazing thing was to watch the kids take pictures of each other.  We handed an iPod to G-Man and he took his little sister around the gardens and posed her in front of several flower displays.  I guess he's watched his parents enough to know what to do.  Here's a video clip of what I saw:

Finally, we went through a large maze that was attached to the garden:

That evening, we took the kids back to central London, and I wanted them to experience one of the coolest toy stores on the planet.  It's called Hamley's and is a real treat for kids and parents:

L loves a show called "Peppa Pig", which is based in the UK.  she found an entire display of Peppa Pig products.  You can see that she is holding a small Peppa stuffed animal in her hands.  She wouldn't let go of it the rest of the day ; )

Hamley's has several Lego displays that rival anything we saw at Legoland.  Here's a shot of the kids with the Queen of England ; )

That's it for now!  Sadly, my wife and kids had to return to the U.S. the next morning.  However, I stayed in London for another week.  I missed them - my little partners-in-crime - and I'm so grateful that we had a chance to show them that they're part of a much bigger world.  Hopefully, they will remember a little of their experience, as they grow up ; )