Last game of the footy season. Dad went to watch Grimsby Town play Braintree (and win, I might add). That meant a whole day to myself and without anything important to do, I asked Dad to drop me off in Cambridge on the way so I could spend the day exploring.
Cambridge is a lovely little city - big parks, a pretty town centre and packed full of museums courtesy of Cambridge University. I began the day (or rather, afternoon, by the time I got there) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the arts and antiquities museum. First stop this wonderful piece from the palaces at Nimrud.
Especially interesting given the pounding that Nimrud has taken from the twats calling themselves ISIS. I doubt there's a whole lot left of the palace this particular chap came from.
The Fitzwilliam, unlike some of the big museums in London, is pretty easy to navigate, although I'd recommend picking up a floor plan on your way in. There's a couple of little galleries stuck out of the way that I would have missed without it. The first of these is the Rothschild Gallery, with its collection of beautiful medieval and Renaissance art. Among my favourite pieces were this piece of Anglo-Saxon metalwork. I love this style.
Also, this amazing book of music - it's huge so that all the members of a choir could read from it at once.
The second of the Fitzwilliam's little hidden galleries is the Sasakawa Fan Gallery. I've been meaning to visit the Fan Museum in Greenwich for a while, just because it seems like such a strange thing to have a museum of, so this gallery will have to do for now. Some really beautiful old fans from the Far East, plus some rather more flouncy ones from later European courts and high society.
I'm torn on my favourite items though. I fell rather in love with the Korean pottery gallery, having not seen this style in any museum I've visited before. The colour is beautiful and the little pots shaped like squashes are lovely.
The tomboy-ish part of my brain though loved the miniature Royal Armouries they've got going on near the cafe. Who doesn't love a good sword?
The aforementioned cafe does some good lunch options, although a bit expensive. That said, I wasn't going to turn down a falafel scotch egg. Two of my favourite things combined. Yum. From the Fitzwilliam, I headed back towards the town centre to check out the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.
There's a wonderful selection of local artefacts on the ground floor, plus a small display of Inuit items, including this beautiful little bear's head carving.
The upper two floors follow a more traditional museum pattern - big cases with relatively little information about the objects within. There's an amazing totem pole, although I neglected to take note of where it came from. Oops. There's also some great displays about the people of the South Pacific, at which point I went on my now traditional hunt for something made of pounamu. This is the super tough jade found on New Zealand's South Island that's used to make both jewellery and weapons that are a match for iron. I succeeded. I present to you a beautiful pounamu club.
Bit more substantial than my little pounamu manaia pendant!
The museum closed at 4:30pm, so I had a while to kill before Dad came back to get me. Took myself off for a wander around the city. Kings College.
St Botolph's Church. Lovely building and its churchyard looked so quiet and tranquil.
That led me into one of the city's winding back streets with these beautiful old buildings, presumably part of the University.
And then I spent a while sitting on a bench near Darwin College, watching the world go by. A lovely day. I need to go back - there's a whole bunch of other museums still to check out.
Been to Cambridge? Got a favourite museum? Do share!
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