Day Thirteen:

Today was our day trip to Groton (in "East Anglia") and Cambridge. Groton was the home of John Winthrop, one of the most important people in America's history. This is the church where he worshiped not far from his home. His parents are buried in church's graveyard and there is now a stained glass window in memorium of him.

I don't know if you can read the inscription on the window. It says, "In memory of John Wintrhop, Lord of the Manor of Groton. First Governor of Massachusetts adn Founder of Boston in New England."

Being the American History freak that I am, I found all this really interesting. We sat down in the pews and Professor Holland gave a lecture on Winthrop's importance, specifically, we analyzed his essay/speach "A Model of Christian Charity." For a man who wasn't a pastor, but a lawyer, this document is rather incredible. Dr. Holland really emphasized that Winthrop and our Puritan ancestors made America's founding both possible (through their institutions of democracy, welfare, education, etc) and necessary (because of their rigid strictness and the problems that inevitably followed).

Picture of Winthrop in the church.

Outside the beautiful church.

Grave of Winthrop's parents and grandparents.

The second part of our day trip took us to Cambridge University. It was a lot more fun than I expected. First of all, the buildings are incredible. There are cathedrals all over and (like everywhere else in England) the buildings are all OLD. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in, study in, eat in, and worship in buildings that had been used for the same purpose when people like Darwin, Bacon, Cromwell, Rutherford, Wordsworth, etc were there!

The first thing we did at Cambridge is go "punting" down the river. It was so much fun. We punted ourselves (not me... I got the leisurely ride inside the boat) but we struggled to figure out how to row the boat effectively. We were the slowest boat with the most zig-zag pathway. I think we created a moving obstacle course for the rest of the boats!

After punting we wandered around for a while. We especially looked at King's College and Trinity College, two of the most recognized colleges here.

This is Rachel and I in front of King's College. Apparently parts of Harry Potter were filmed here but I'll have to watch it again to see if I recognize where and when.

Adrianne and I in front of the central courtyard of King's College. Notice my new Cambridge sweatshirt. The sun may fool you, but it's been really cold the past few days and stupid me didn't bring anything warm, so that was my excuse.

This is in front of Trinity College. I wish it wasn't so zoomed in so you could see the building behind, but I guess whoever took it was going for the flowers over the bricks. Can you tell how perfectly picturesque it is though?

David, Me, and Jackie in front of the "forbidden gates" at Trinity College, or so we called them because you had to pay an admission fee to see the incredible courtyard as a visitor. Bummer.

This is a poorly-taken picture of St. Mary's Cathedral next to King's College where Eurasmus worshiped. He was fundamental in bringing the Bible back to a truer form, revivng the ancient Greek translation. This allowed for Tyndale to translate the Bible into English and just became a "hot-bed" for the reformation.

After exploring, we got to go to Evensong at the Cathedral of King's College. Basically it is a really famous church service. The building was incredible, designed by Christopher Wren. The detailing inside is phenominal. The best (and probably most famous) part of Even song was the choir - little-boy sopranos and older-boy basses. I love choral music and the atmosphere it creates inside a spacious, echoing cathedral. I can't imagine actually worshipping there, but I really appreciate the beauty of the music and the architecture.