The walk goes through Cambridge City Centre, where we shall marvel at austere churches of the Anglo-Saxons, breathtaking Tudor Gothic, the enlightened classicism of Christopher Wren, magical stained-glass windows of Henry VIII, and fabulous wood and stone carvings. We’ll talk about numerous pranks of mischievous Cambridge students, about great discoveries, mediaeval collisions, religious turmoil, and the struggle for the throne. We’ll see the oldest secular building in the city hidden away from the crowds, learn how an Oxford college nearly came to Cambridge, walk through a mediaeval red-light district which still bears some telltale signs, find out where bears used to “study”, how many Newtons there were in Cambridge, and why archaeologists found burnt lamb bones in King’s College Chapel.
Along the way, we’ll discuss how the worldview and life itself have changed over the centuries, and what Cambridge is like today, both the university and the city.