A Perfect Day Trip: Exploring Cambridge and Ely by Train
This is Harry Potter land or at least it feels that way. There are a few colleges and universities in this city. Only visited for a day but I feel like I got a good sense of the old part of Cambridge.
I was staying with some family in Littleport and they gave me a ride to the train station in the morning. I took the train down to Cambridge. As an American traveling between different cities by train, I really enjoyed it. The trains in England are fairly fast and smooth. The Cambridge train station is not super huge but big enough and in a convenient location. I was able to walk into the old town of Cambridge within a 15 minute walk of the train station.
My first impressions were that it’s a super old town. I don’t know how many hundreds of years old but you can tell you are dealing with very old stuff just from the weathering of the cathedrals. There are different types of sundials on buildings like I’ve never seen before. The roads turn into cobblestone streets with no cars allowed. I just walked around for a few hours getting lost up and down the old streets.
The was a market going on in the town center. For reference, this was a Tuesday during September – so just a normal day during the week. There were plenty of food options in the market so i could have have lunch there, but I was looking for a proper English meal in an old pub.
I ended up having shepherds pie in an old pub called The Eagle Pub. This pub is probably over 200 hundred years old but it’s most famous for being the pub where scientists came up with the shape for DNA. They have plaques on the walls and are very proud of that fact. The food was delicious. I also had leek soup 😉
Then I wanted to walk around a bit more but in the direction of the train station. I took a walk through one of the parks and then back on the main road towards the train station. I then took the train up to Ely.
Ely is a cute little town. Considered a city because of the cathedral in the city of town. It is quite an impressive piece of architecture. First when I left the train station, I walked along the waterfront, which is quite lovely. People live in little boat houses along this small river. Then walked along the Queen’s Centennial Park on the way up towards the cathedral. Beautiful rolling hills with cows grazing are all around the cathedral.
I walked all around the outside of the cathedral but I did not feel like going inside. I like to appreciate things from the outside sometimes and really take it all in. I plan on going back to Ely at some point and I would love to check out the inside in the future. It’s roughly a mile from the cathedral and the train station, so I started my making my way back. The town itself is really nice and has lots of boutique shops.
Took the train back to Littleport and walked back to my cousin’s house from the station. It was a lovely day of exploring two English cities. I would love to come back and explore both of these cities more in the future 😉
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