San Sebastián ~ Cambridge ~ London ~ Paris
Beach Ballet
Sunday morning and it was back to the beach.
We weren’t the only ones.
Every unaccompanied donkey in town was making his or her way to the sand that morning…
This was (as everyone who’s anyone would know), outdoors day for all the ballet schools in San Sebastián, and where better for a bit of fresh air plié than out on the boardwalk with a few hundred of your friends?
Bit of splashing in the still quite frigid water, then into the serious business of sandcastle making. Everyone getting in on the act:
But for some serious sand art, check out this guy.
Not only was he a dab hand with a piece of driftwood, but he also came up with a great little application of gamification. Note the spiderweb-like target he’s made for people up on the boardwalk to throw coins down to him.
Missed the bull’s eye? Keep throwing!
Aquariums & Blunderbusses
Then it was off to the aquarium-come-naval-museum for some fish spotting.
On the way along the boardwalk, Aisling delighted by the two puppeteers who were doing a pretty awesome job of banging out Beetles hits, with near-perfect synchronisation.
Love, love me do!
The aquarium is out on a spit of land at the north eastern end of the beach and housed in an old fortified outpost which overlooks the bay. Charles admiring the stone walls and some old canons that were out the front.
Looking over the railing into the bay shows that while some countries use marble to decorate buildings, in other places like San Sebastián it’s in such great supply we dump huge blocks of it in the sea to make wave breaks.
In the aquarium, lots about the history of the area and the coastline, including its historical whaling activity.
Kids had to be careful as there were pirates aplenty, with blunderbusses at the ready
Then on to the fish gazing. For a moment we thought we were back at home in Darling Harbour with sharks circling overhead…
A fun visit, and welcome break from the surprisingly hot spring sun.
Aisling even spotted a unicorn (aka narwal) horn…
Hmm, what to do for lunch in a seaside town when you’ve just been admiring all the sea life??
What to do, what to do?
Heading to Cambridge
All good things come to an end, and it’s now time to leave San Sebastián behind and head to Old Blighty.
A last breakfast in the hotel’s underground breakfast bunker, then back in the car for the drive back to Bilbao and our flight to Stanstead.
At the airport, no giraffe-and-full-size-traveller-mannequin dentist displays to distract us this time around, but no matter.
Airport shops a clear reminder you’re in the centre of the jamon universe!
Slice of ham, anyone? Or perhaps a whole leg? To go? No problem! Just bung it in the overhead locker and you’re ready for takeoff 🙂
Made it to Stanstead via Easyjet’s patented 14-stage boarding process.
Kids delighted to ride the driverless airport train to the terminal, and then bolted for the UK rail train to Cambridge that was about to leave. Just made it and settled in to watch the green countryside go by.
Trinity, front & back
Made it to Cambridge and fired straight out to Trinity College, Simon’s alma mater.
The college owes its considerable resources and land to Henry VIII who founded it in 1546. He had confiscated much of the land from the Catholic church and then given it to Trinity late in his life.
He still stands proudly above the Great Gate.
Trinity’s Great Court and Neville’s Court are always beautiful sights, and like passing back in time a few hundred years just by stepping through the little door in the great gate.
The Great Court was the setting of the foot race that inspired the one in chariots of fire, and the rooms surrounding it have housed students from Newton to Byron.
Trinity members have been awarded 32 Nobel prizes, and Trinity would rank 5th in the list of Nobels were it a country. It exudes a sense of scholarly calm as if the rest of the world outside the city limits might very well not exist. And 900 years at the top of its game is not a bad track record for the University of Cambridge as a whole.
We had a look around the beautiful old dining hall, with many memories for Simon of the impressive “feasts” held there in years gone by. Niamh and Charles channeling their inner Henry VIII…
One of the more exclusive societies at Trinity is the Mallard Society, which you join by moving the mock mallard duck that is up in the rafters.
No mean feat – ensuring a rather restrictive membership.
Hard to spot it on this occasion, but Niamh’s eagle eyes were up to the task, centre left.
Exploring Cambridge
Plenty of exploring to be done around the town, meanwhile, as we wandered the streets, sharing the footpaths with some meandering ducks.
We caught up with old friends from Simon’s lab in the dept of engineering, Andrew & Carmen Gee, Mark Gales and Kate Knill and also Steve Young, Simon’s PhD supervisor in Cambridge days.
Great to see everyone flourishing.
Then off for more fun out on the backs. Flowers in full bloom, it was a beautiful setting as always.
Time some punting on the Cam!
About 20 years since Simon last took the helm of a punt, but the family gamely put themselves in his hands :-).
“Are you activating your glutes, Daddy?” was Aisling’s question. And it was a good one…
We made our way up to the weir, past Trinity Hall, King’s and Queen’s colleges and under the mathematical bridge, then floated back down with the current past Trinity to John’s and the bridge of sighs.
A great time had by all, Simon recounting tales of afternoons sitting on the backs in front of muddy patches in the Cam, watching tourists react to getting their punt poles stuck in the mire. The Italians and Spanish invariably the most entertaining. We managed to survive incident free 🙂
Back to the hotel for a quick rest, then off to our second highlight of the day, evensong at King’s College Chapel.
Along with the Sainte Chapel in Paris, King’s College Chapel has to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. An amazing privilege to attend evensong there, and take in the architecture while listening to one of the world’s best choirs.
Sublime way to end to the day.
London Town
Took the train to Kings Cross.
We arrived on a very ordinary platform, but not far around the corner Charles delighted to spot platform 9 3/4…
Out into the streets of London!
Red double decker buses on the right and pink macarons on the left. What could say London meets Paris better??
Into Hamley’s for an explore, including a private audience with her majesty 🙂
Then a big surprise for the kids – off to the Lion King! Fantastic show that we all really enjoyed.
Hakuna matte!
After the show caught up with Niamh’s relatives, the Hickeys.
Great catch up followed up by a lovely dinner with Julie and her family.
Greenwich Nautical Museum
Next day we were up and out to explore.
On Jerry’s advice we fired out on the light rail to the cable car across the Thames, then slowly made our way back on the river buses.
Kids in high spirits heading out on the train.
Onto the cable car and up over the river 🙂
Then onto the boats we went!
First stop Greenwich and the naval museum.
Kids having a great time arming themselves for battle….
Then it was off next door to explore the Cutty Sark, beautifully preserved in its own museum.
Charles and Aisling bending in with the other figure heads from tall ships down the ages…
Then being regaled by a very convincing reenactment of the ship’s creation and voyages as described by the original commissioner and owner, John Willis:
Kids as always delighted to volunteer themselves for parts in the reenactment, and John soon had them parading up and down.
Then it was up onto the decks to imagine ourselves plying the wool trade to New South Wales. Fantastically presented museum and history lesson, we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Off to the tower!
Next port of call for the river boat was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
Jumped off for an obligatory walk around, though found it like all of London to be extremely packed with tourists (like us)!
A very busy day, capped off with a quick dinner for rapidly failing kids and a long sleep for all.
Science museum
New day and new energy! And speaking of energy, we were off to the wonderful museum of science.
London does museums as well as anywhere, and the museum of science is no exception.
Charles enjoying the space exhibits and both kids firing delightedly into the planetarium for some 3D action…
Weird and wonderful sights and sounds all around…
We spent most of our time in the excellent Wonderlab where as usual the kids were desperate to volunteer for everything going.
In this case the electrical show, with Aisling and her new friend completing a circuit, and Charles using pedal power to light up the room…
Magic ropes, slime and spinning paper rocket-ships. What more could you possibly ask for in an afternoon’s entertainment?
A shatteringly good experience all round.
Back to Paris
A short walk through the park brought us back to the hotel ready for our trip back to Paris.
We had a quick glance into Buckingham Palace to make sure the Beefeaters were keeping on their toes, and tested the quality of the local tree branches…
A sunny end to a brief and enjoyable jaunt in London.
Then onto the Eurostar and back to Paris after what had felt like more than 2 weeks on the road with everything we had packed in.
Two tired kids in the car back to our apartment who were very happy to be reunited with their own beds.
We made it back to Paris just in time to catch some more old friends just before they headed back to the US.
Scott and Susan from Solitude had been in town for a few days while we were away and it was great to catch up over some wine, cheese and charcuterie before they headed out.
Lovely relaxed evening after all our travels.
Everyone looking forward to a nice quiet Sunday before back to school and more normal routines on Monday 🙂