KidsTour1

First came the happy meeting, in Heathrow. Alida, Brigitta, and Andres emerged from International Arrivals, and we all went to the car rental place where we had arranged for a small minivan which would seat the six of us. We picked up the car and headed off, around the M25 and then north, with our first stop at Mountfichet. Shortly after 1066, William the Conqueror gave Mountfichet to a friend of his. This friend built a motte-and-bailey castle. The castle fell into ruin and disappeared over the centuries. Recently, the small castle and surrounding village have been reconstructed, showing what it would have been like to live in 1066.

Andres immediately started taking pictures, while Brigitta ran around, seeing all the exhibits. There were animals running around under foot, as well as lots of modern-day children..

The chicken houses were thatched, like everything else. We saw the huts for the potter, the carpenter, the toolmaker, the blacksmith, the surgeon, the candle-maker, and lots of others. There was a kitchen, and a chapel, and a small home for a large family.

The "castle" was just a somewhat larger building, nothing like the castles of a few centuries later.

Inside, in the Great Hall, were figures seated at dinner.

After lunch in the little gift shop, we drove on to Cambridge. We relaxed for a little in our B&B, just across the Cam from Midsummer Common, and then walked in for a few hours of wandering around. We walked across Midsummer Common, then past the house where the family had lived in 1981, and then past the school where Penny had gone to fifth grade. We stopped in Parker's Pieces, where they were setting up for a fair, and had some snacks and drinks.

We walked to King's College, and were excited to find that Evensong had just begun. We crept in quietly, and sat in the area for late-comers. We were overwhelmed by the beauty, both visual and aural. This was the last week of the school year for services led by the college choir. It's an unbelievable experience, sitting, leaning back looking at the stone tracery in the ceiling while listening to the King's College Choir.

			We had dinner at an outdoor restaurant on the market square. We had a funny experience, because of sitting at the table nearest the road. A big truck couldn't make the turn around our corner. The manager climbed up on a chair and closed the umbrella over our table, and the truck just made it. But by then there was a big noisy traffic jam!

The next day started with a walk across Jesus Green (stopping at a playground), past Trinity College (we peeked in a side entrance), to the Trinity College punt rental.

Then followed a great hour of punting, Alida for the first half, and then Thann. We passed Clare College, and King's, enjoying the view of the chapel where we had been the evening before.

In the afternoon we had a different sort of activity. Kentwell Hall is an Elizabethan manor house not far from Cambridge. Each year there is a re-creation there for several weeks, of life in Tudor England. We spent several hours there, thoroughly steeped in Tudor living. There were hundreds of "Tudor" residents, dressed properly, speaking properly, engaged in Tudor activities. In front of the building there was a maze in the pavement, which we enjoyed finding our way around.

After watching archery practice, and spending our "groats" on some gingerbread cookies, we drove back to Cambridge in time for Evensong, again, at King's College. Again, it was awesomely beautiful. The service ended with the hymn Jerusalem, enormously moving for all of us in the congregation.