More of Cambridge University

After enjoying St John's so much, my next port of call was Magdalen. Which had the merit of being free to visitors, if they were persistent enough to get in as all the facade was covered with scaffolding. All the colleges appeared to be taking the opportunity for some frantic face-lifts.

Magdalen has the Pepys Library open to visitors. No photos unfortunately, for it contains lots of interesting volumes. And says a lot about Mr Pepys. Part of his Will forbade any more books being added to his library after his death.

Just one last College on the day trip, Queen's College.

Here one starts in Old Court, built in the 15th century and little-changed (well excepting the pile of machinery to the right which my photographs omit).

Then into the Old Hall, which is indeed old, but the 16th century panelling and paintings were supplemented by a lot of additional 19th century Arts and Crafts style decor, leaving a distinctly over-decorated feel.

Cloister Court dates back as far as 1460. Note the half-timbered buildings, not what one associates with grand colleges now.

Walnut Tree Court fittingly has a walnut tree in it, as well as the College Chapel. Another bit of 19th century gothic.

And eventually one comes out onto the Cam at the back.

One can go over the river here on the Wooden Bridge.

On the island on the other side is additional 20th century building. The Fisher Building below is a bit boring but not too offensive 1930s building. The stuff next to it from the 70s is highly offensive and being renovated in some way so not really photographable.

 So lets just look back across the river. That's better.

Finally, I have long wanted to visit the University's Museum of Classical Archaeology. This contains one of the biggest collections of plaster casts in the world, dating back from a time, late 19th century, when the done thing was to take plaster casts of great classical sculpture and allow people to study it without having to visit the great museums of Europe.

Its a great collection and well worth the visit - entrance is free. The challenge is to find it. ANd then to try and ignore the awful setting. Surely one ought to be able to find a better building than this to house the collection in. Its basically a cheap breeze block construction in amongst a lot of other faculty buildings - cheap nasty looking office space basically. Its far too cramped to see the casts properly, a situation exacerbated by the need of so many collections to look worthy, and trendy, and relevant. So squeezed in amongst the proper exhibits is an exhibition of modern Greek "art", or at best, naff crafts. Frankly there wasn't a single dismal scratching worth taking a picture of. But annoyingly they did get in the way of taking shots of the real art. It did however say something which I am sure it wasn't supposed to say - how far backwards Greece has gone in 2500 years.

But there is something appealing about this Victorian collection of overcrowded statuary.

 After all that culture, a pint and some proper food was called for. A visit to the Anchor was only proper on a day like this - beer was fine but just being sat beside the punt mooring on a sunny late afternoon was perfect.