Cambridge is a wonderful place to explore, full of beautiful architecture, peaceful gardens and characterful streets. Full too of students and bicycles as well as people from all over the world who come to work and to visit. It has a compact lively city centre with great shops and places to eat and drink. The river snakes through the city and there you can take a walk, watch the famous college rowing, or try out punting past the colleges and under the many bridges.
Beyond the city are the interesting villages and sights of East Anglia, and the many attractions of London are not far away.
If you are travelling to Cambridge with an ICTP delegate we want to ensure that you get as much out of the experience as they do . So we are planning an exciting programme of tours and events for you.
An introductory tour of Cambridge
Monday 18th Sept 11.30 – 15.30 including lunch and optional English cream tea.
We will have a leisurely walking tour of the centre of Cambridge, through the colleges of the university stopping for lunch.
Our private tour guide will show us the famous colleges. We will visit Trinity College and hear about physicists Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the poet Lord Byron, philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell Then on to Kings College and its inspiring Chapel, Cambridge’s most iconic building , which you can see featured on the ICTP2017 logo. Finally we will visit the Parker library of Corpus Christi College and be allowed to see some of the earliest printed books and manuscripts in the world, including the sixth-century Latin Gospels of St Augustine and a number of the oldest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.
A trip to two lovely attractions just outside Cambridge
Tuesday 19th Sept 09.30 -1700
In the morning we will visit Wimpole Hall which is a grand mansion with formal gardens and a large park characteristic of English Country houses. You can choose to explore the interior of the Hall, stroll through the pleasure grounds to the classic walled kitchen garden, full of fruit vegetables and herbaceous borders, or visit the farm with its rare breeds of animals. For the more energetic there is a longer walk through the landscaped grounds to a folly on the hill.
We will take a short coach ride across the Fens to lunch in the ancient city of Ely. The Isle of Ely used only to be accessible by boat until the area was drained in the 17th century. It is on a small hill and there the magnificent Normal cathedral known as “the Ship of the Fens” is visible for miles around.
Our lunch is at the Almonry restaurant which is situated in the grounds of the magnificent Ely Cathedral. After a buffet lunch we have booked an expert guide to take us round the cathedral , with its unique Octagon Tower. We will also be able to see some of the ecclesiastical treasures not normally on public view.
We return to Cambridge in good time to get ready for the conference dinner.
A day in London
Wednesday 20th Sept 0800- 1730
Only an hour or so from Cambridge the sights of London await. On our coach we will have a guide giving an introduction to the sights and history of London and the British Monarchy.
We will arrive at Buckingham Palace to watch the traditional and colourful spectacle of the Changing of the Guard . After a packed lunch eaten picnic style in St James Park (if the British weather allows !) , we then have a Tour of the Buckingham Palace State Rooms, the Royal Collection of art and treaures and the palace gardens.
Finally a Highlights of London coach tour including Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament , the Tower of London, St Pauls and the City, and the Olympic Park.
We will be back in time for the concert at 1830 in Kings College chapel.
The Suffolk Wool Towns and Constable Country
Thursday 21st Sept 0930-1630
Until the 17th century the East of England was famous for the weaving, dying and spinning of wool, which brought great riches to successful land owners and merchants. You can see the legacy of this wealth in now quiet, picturesque towns and villages. Arguably the loveliest of these is Lavenham, famous not only for its history but also its foodie delights. We will have an expert guide to bring to life the history and tour the medieval buildings. And lunch will be in the Swan Hotel.
In the afternoon we will explore “Constable Country” and visit an exhibition featuring John Constable, one of the most popular British painters. He is principally known for his Landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home, of which he said:
“Still I should paint my own places best; painting is with me but another word for feeling, and I associate "my careless boyhood" with all that lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful”