Over and Back Again

Once again - the joys of Term Break were upon us... This time, rather than hitting the open road of the Autobahn, Eurotunnel or other methods of continental travel, Jesse and Kim decided to explore the beauty of the English Countryside - starting from West to East. In late April we loaded up our ever-faithful Hyundi Getz (ours is silver) and headed to The West, striking out to the famous coastal countryside and stationing ourselves in the quaint artistic community of St. Ives (and as close to the US as we've managed to get in the past two years!). Our base - a fantastic little (and we can't emphasize how little) self-catering apartment smack dab in the middle of the ancient fishing village of St. Ives: Tiny and quirky (we don't know if these photos actually do justice to exactly HOW SMALL the apartment was!) - The Wreck provided a fantastic base for exploring the fishing village, coastal landscape and Surfing Haven of St. Ives: Mind you - this was April... and to us the weather was freezing, wet and grey... but that did stop the hard-core surfing community that flocked to St. Ives: Although some of the locals were better "kitted out" for the crappy weather than we were: Despite the cold, driving rain and generally miserable (a.k.a "English") weather conditions, we did manage to find places that made us feel right at home: (Unfortunately Kim didn't have her sweatshirt, given to her by her mom as a present many years ago, to wear when we actually visited the Three Ferrets pub. We're pretty sure our ferrets - all 4 of them- we're snuggled up inside the sweatshirt wondering why the hell they were stuck in their room whilst we were away!). We didn't worry too much about that, as we had our own problems with some of the locals: Unfortunately a few complications back home (i.e. - Shandy eating one of our elastic hairbands), forced us to return a bit prematurely... so we didn't get to hit all of the sights on our list such as the Eden Project or Penzance. But the Cornish coast is surprisingly easy to get to, so we'll be sure to go back! But the Cotswolds isn't all that shabby this time of year with some great hiking footpaths leading right out of our back yard. Spring is a vision of blooming beauty - and hayfever (oh god do we miss our Clartin-D! Note to parents - we're running a bit low on the stuff. Care packages would be greatly appreciated...): A-choo! Clearly there isn't much else to do in our neighborhood: Ok... so enough of the flowers (Barassica rapa, or Oilseed Rape. Also known as Wisconsin Fast Plants to those who've been lucky enough to work with them on a bio term project or two). An unfortunate name for a lovely crop that could provide hours of bad... very bad... puns, which we've tastefully decided to omit from our blog) Moving on... a few weeks later we were blessed with yet another term break (and some SUNNY weather!!!) and in true Baggins spirit we headed to The East, striking out for the other side of the island which included a lovely stop in the academic splendor of historic Cambridge:

(St. James College, University of Cambridge)

The view from our hotel along the River Cam: And the famous Cambridge pass time - Punting. Although we're not sure this is exactly the way it's supposed to go... there seemed to be lots of drunken university students celebrating the completion of finals with bottles of champagne (or Jack Daniels) which clearly inhibited their punting abilities: Of course, Cambridge was home to many, many famous scientists - Kim was particularly giddy to see the Museum of Zoology with its extensive collection of dead and squishy things:

Shout out to all you Bio-9ers who ever survived a Raccio class (or a Noble Proctor Biogeography course). The ultimate mascot of Limiting Factors --- The Whale Billed Stork! (Apols - the author is having a biogeek moment...)

But wait -- it gets even better!!! Actual finches collected by You-Know-Who on the infamous Voyage of the Beagle: And his Beetles!!!!

Not willing to settle for the second-hand experience, we had to visit the grounds where Darwin himself studied and expanded his coleoptera collection:

Established in as the first National Park in England, Wicken Fen was a beautiful haven for all types of wildlife:

(ok - so not a beetle, but still a lovely arthropod, no?)

And when it was time to refuel, a visit to the famous Eagle Inn, where Watson and Crick argued their formative ideas on the structure of DNA over a pint or two, and earlier, where US Air Force troops signed their names into the ceiling with lighters, lipstick or all other means before heading off to fight in WWII:
Not to monopolize the science-geek front, we also sought out other venues that our musical-geeks in our reading audience would better appreciate:

Now converted into a Bed and Breakfast, we spent a lovely evening in the the home and birthplace of the famous composer Benjamin Britten, which was located in Lowestoft, the Easternmost village in the England:

Of course, even the best plans eventually go to the birds:


In this case it was visiting the fantastic RSPB preserve Minsmere - complete with plenty of fluffy chicks (above) and sand martins (below): Wild Konik Ponies: And the otherwise fabulous beachscape of the North Sea: All in all a lovely time over and about the island. Now we're back again and looking forward to our next adventures...