Why visit Cambridge in 2018?

Who better to tell us than Cambridge resident and Blue Badge Guide Rosie Zanders.

“Cambridge is awesome on so many levels! World renowned for its learning, libraries, architecture and culture, Cambridge is also at the cutting edge of scientific research and is rapidly becoming a major hub for the IT and biotech industries. This makes for a very vibrant, cosmopolitan community, reflected in the numerous new restaurants and bars which regularly appear on the Cambridge scene. On a Blue Badge guided tour of Cambridge, most people enjoy the wonderful architecture, discussing the University’s famous residents and discovering punting but they’ll also benefit from the additional insights that only a blue badge guide can offer.”

• Kettles Yard: Having re-opened on 10^th February 2018 after 2 ½ years of restoration, Kettles Yard is THE place to visit in Cambridge in 2018. Part modern art gallery, part quirky house restored by Tate curator Jim Ede, everyone who visits comes home inspired to add some of the Kettles Yard effect to their own homes – think shabby chic, skilfully positioned pebbles and artwork and a restorative feeling of calm and contemplation. The newly refurbished gallery highlights the work of the late Khadija Saye, who tragically lost her life in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

 

• May Week: Actually held in June (just don’t ask – we like quirky traditions here!), this is the week when students celebrate the end of their exams and look forward to a long summer holiday or perhaps their next chapter as they start out on a new life outside the cloistered courts of Cambridge.  Ball tickets, with champagne flowing and wonderfully glamorous outfits and big-name bands, are near-impossible to obtain if you are not actually studying here, but anyone can hire a punt to get a close-up view of Trinity College fireworks from the river; orchestrated to music, with ball-goers lined up by the riverside, this will be an experience not easily forgotten. And of course you can take your own champagne on board to celebrate in style.

 

• Museum of Zoology: This museum has also been closed for several years for restoration and locals and visitors alike are eagerly anticipating its re-opening in March this year. Welcomed into the Museum by a 70 foot whale skeleton, donated to the University in 1865, many more wonders await curious visitors, from specimens collected by Charles Darwin on his Beagle journey to the vast skeleton of a pre-historic giant sloth, as tall as a modern-day elephant (not a creature you would like to bump into on a dark night).

 

• King’s College Chapel: A perennial favourite with visitors to Cambridge and a must-see on everyone’s itinerary. The beautifully intricate ceiling is the largest fan vault in the world, the pinnacle of late Gothic perpendicular architecture. If you come in term-time, you can attend one of the daily services in Chapel with the world-famous choir, then buy one of their CDs from the nearby Visitor Centre as a permanent reminder.

Take a guided tour of Cambridge.