For a university town, Cambridge sure is peaceful! It’s hard to believe that Pink Floyd played their first gigs here. You can easily visit all the universities within a day, however do check which ones are open to visitors as they change regularly throughout the school year. The best way to see the colleges is along River Cam via a punting tour. This will take you along what is known as the college ‘backs’. I believe the buildings were actually designed to be viewed this way, with the fronts of the college facing the river.

Many influential and respected people have studied in Cambridge, including over 80 Nobel Prize winners. One of the most memorable for me is AA Milne. Some of the first Winnie-the-Pooh books are at Trinity College where the original illustrations can be accessed in the library. Issac Newton was also busy studying at Trinity College, experimenting with universal gravitation while Stephen Hawking at Trinity Hall contributed to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity. It was also at Christ’s College (pictured) that Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection.

If you are going to take a punting tour go early in the morning before everyone gets there and crowds up the river. Also, there is the option to do it yourself but please don’t! You will only cause problems and hold up others along the river. Trust the pro’s, sit back, relax and enjoy the tour without worrying about running into others.